ioctl EVIOCGNAME failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device on 10.04

[Ákos Maróy]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

when booting up 10.04, the login screen would start to appear, but it does not. instead, I get the following error:

(EE) ioctl EVIOCGNAME failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
(II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
(EE) PreInit returned NULL for ""SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad""
(II) config/udev: Adding input device "Macintosh mouse button emulation" (/dev/input/event3)

and then unworking options on how to fix my X configuration

logging in on the text console and starting X by startx works fine

[Ákos Maróy (akos-maroy)]

intersetingly, I get more and more similar messages, as I use different pointers, like an external USB mouse. after having plugged in the mouse, I get a similar ioctl error message related to the mouse as well - even if its not actually plugged in.

interestingly, this issue is only coming up when gdm is being started. I can start X by issuing startx from the command line just fine...

[Ákos Maróy (akos-maroy)]

I wonder why you changed this to virtualbox-ose - virtualbox is not even installed on the system, and this happens an a raw hardware boot, not in a virtualbox VM...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks for trying to help improve Ubuntu.

Those error messages are typical and not the cause of the login screen failing to appear.
Aside from that, this bug report does not contain enough information to analyze the issue of X failing to start. Please see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X for help on diagnosing problems and reporting X bugs.

[Ákos Maróy (akos-maroy)]

well, I was surprised as well, but this is what happens, as I described: gdm fails to start, while startx will start X fine, with the same errors in the X log file. when gdm fails to start, it displays a window complaining about these errors.

I looked at the wiki page you sent, but did not find more details on what other information to report.

what other information do you need? can you be more specific?