lucid Live CD boots to login screen

[Erick Brunzell]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

I've tried the Lucid Live CD daily build on both 12/23 and 12/24 to try and follow up on an Alpha 1 Live CD Xorg bug and both boot to a login screen that I'm unable to boot into.

I've tried just waiting for a very long time, choosing to login as ubuntu with no password, ubuntu with ubuntu as a password, combinations of demo and root, etc. Nothing seems to work.

I've checked md5sums. Perhaps related or not it's also not possible to check disc integrity:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/500198

What I see during boot is:

stdin: error 0
/init: line7: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found
/init: line7: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found
Shadow passwords are now on

[Tom Pino (metalsmith-rangeweb)]

All I get is a looping gdm login screen. 64bit with ATI video card.

[Russell Green (r.green)]

This is a bug in the user account, X segfaults when trying to start the default ubuntu user.Killing gdm and X, creating a new user and then logging in using startx will solve the problem.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

The steps here work for me:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8548884&postcount=9

Just ctrl+alt+f1, then create a new user account & password w/root privileges:

sudo useradd -d /home/username -m username
sudo passwd username
sudo adduser username admin

Then ctrl+alt+f8.

Many thanks to ASriazh @ Ubuntu forums.

[sparker256 (bgood)]

As of todays daily build 122509 I have this problem. I have used what Erick Brunzell posted and did get to the desktop but in low res. I am a Nvidia user.

Bill

[Christof Löwe (christof-loewe)]

Same here. Ubuntu Desktop Daily Build 12/27/09.

[gibbylinks (gibbylinks)]

I have to use "nomodeset" in grub command but get login prompt, can't do ctrl+alt+f8 as greeted with black screen with a few green stripes.

Trying to run using dailylive ISO (28/12/09) from USB stick on Dell 1501 Inspiron laptop witth 2gb RAM. Image put on USB stick using DELL recovery software. Get same if I use UNETBOOTIN or Ubuntu Startup Creator

[sparker256 (bgood)]

As of 12/31/09 daily build using my USB thumb drive this bug is still with us.

Bill

[Joe Burgess (joemburgess)]

I also get a lot of the /dev/srx issues as well, does anyone know if there is progress on this bug?

[sparker256 (bgood)]

Should this bug be changed from New to Confirmed since it is still with us and not new anymore?

Bill

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

"Should this bug be changed from New to Confirmed since it is still with us and not new anymore?"

I'd think so, but it seems improper for me to "confirm" my own bug ;^)

[Juan Jose Pablos (cheche)]

there was a suggestion that the problem reside on the xorg.conf config file.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8581010&postcount=27

[sparker256 (bgood)]

You would think if it was a bad xorg.conf it would have been fixed by now. With at least 11 people affected and this being after the holidays not sure what is going on.

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

The problem is not a bad xorg.conf

The problem is that /etc/gdm/custom.conf has been misformated. "\n" symbols should be removed from that file, and replaced with new lines.

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

the problem is in gdm package.

/etc/gdm/custom.conf file is corrupt. Fixing /etc/gdm/custom.conf file, fixes this bug.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

The problem may well lie in /etc/gdm/custom.conf but how can that be edited during the boot procedure?

BTW I just completed a fresh install and this is my /etc/gdm/custom.conf:

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=false
AutomaticLogin=lance
TimedLoginEnable=false
TimedLogin=lance
TimedLoginDelay=3

Until a fix is released I prefer this remain in ubiquity!

If a Live CD just fails that is a ubiquity problem IMHO.

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

in the gdm screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1,
then type:
sudo nano /etc/gdm/custom.conf

and remove the unnecessary '\n' symbols.

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

this bug has been fixed in 20100105 daily live CD.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Not possible to test.

I first downloaded the iso and tried burning with Brasero in Karmic. It failed but that's not surprising because Karmic's Brasero always burns coasters.

I then tried burning it with Brasero in Jaunty and success! But the check disc integrity test still fails to run. I don't mean failed results, the test just won't run! I joined another bug regarding that.

But now when I try to run the Live CD I just end up with a pretty bluish blank screen that sits there forever.

My fear is that when Alpha 2 iso testing begins in about one week it's all going to come back "fail"!

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Just as a matter of verification the md5sum is c7d326aac74ebb6fcb574a375ce7c9b6

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Well silly me! The first thing I thought of this AM was trying this again in Safe Graphics mode.

Your fix works just fine. I'll ask at the forums for someone else to please confirm that this is fixed.

Many thanks, sorry I didn't think to try Safe Graphics mode last night.

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

this bug has been reintroduced again in today's LiveCD

the fix is still the same:

in the gdm screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1,
then type:
sudo nano /etc/gdm/custom.conf

and remove the unnecessary '\n' symbols.

[Terry Jones (terryjones28056)]

Bug still present in 1-9-10 and 1-10-10 daily cd's

[Սահակ (petrosyan)]

bug has been fixed in 20100111 daily cd.

[C. Brayton (cbrayton-boizebueditorial)]

"Just ctrl+alt+f1, then create a new user account & password w/root privileges." That worked on the LiveCD but when I installed a later image on a stick I started getting "cannot lock /etc/passwd ..." Grr. I will try editing the .conf file, thank you.