gnome crashes upon relogin

[Doughy]

Whenever I try to relogin to an existing session in gnome, I get a blank screen. CTL+ALT+BKSP does not fix the problem, but the screen flickers and changes hue as if it took the command. It's like the system is still functional, but I can't see anything.

I am using an Intel 965 motherboard for graphics.

[hardyn (arlenn)]

This was present for me in edgy with fglrx video driver.
log in was fine, session was fine, changing users was fine, changing back would result in a black screen and seemingly hung X-session.
This was not present with the radeon driver.

as the symptoms are identical (expained a little better on the ubuntuforums.org website by the bug reporter http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2513800#post2513800)
it looks like it might be video driver related, and whatever caused this issue with the fglrx driver, may now be present in the intel driver.

i was using an ATI 9800 pro with fglrx driver, edgy.

[Zero7 (vishuka)]

I have the same / similar problem on my 965G (Gigabyte GA-G965-DS3) MB. I cannot "Switch User". I get a blnk screen and there is only way to come out is hard reboot the system.

[Doughy (doughywilson)]

I just found another way to cause this problem.

CTL+ALT+F1 switches to another virtual terminal. When I attempt to return to the virtual terminal running the X server (normally CTL+ALT+F7), the graphics crash in the same way as attempting to log back in after doing a "switch user."

[Heiko Scheit (h-scheit)]

I can confirm this behavior.

I use a Dell Optiplex 745 with a 965Q graphics (with the i810 driver).
Switching to the console works, but switching back to the X server results in a messed up display.
Under edgy the display would sometime blink and flicker with strange things appearing when moving the mouse.
Under feisty the display just shows a strange color.

[Heiko Scheit (h-scheit)]

See also https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/109712.

[Doughy (doughywilson)]

I finally resolved the crashing when switching users. In order to solve the problem, I had to set up my 915resolution by moving my desired resolution to the first MODE. Don't ask me why this is necessary, it seems to be some kind of problem with 915 resolution. Read step 5 in the first post of this forum thread for info on what I am talking about: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2113867

After I made this change, I was able to get high resolution on my intel integrated graphics, and the crash upon re-login is now fixed.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've not seen this with any of my test boxes (comprising -nv, -ati, and -intel). My guess is that this is more likely to be an xorg issue than a gnome issue. It sounds like a driver/hardware issue, except that people are seeing it with a variety of drivers.

Can people experiencing this problem please a) check if the behavior occurs on Gutsy using one of the Tribe ISO images, b) attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (or Xorg.0.log.old), c) attach your /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and d) test to see if happens both for ctrl-alt-backspace and ctrl-alt-F1 switching or only for one or the other.

Bryce

[Nathan R. Hale (nathan-hale)]

On log out or switch user, my screen often goes blank, with my monitor displaying an error message as if it's being fed wrong resolution info. Boot up is fine, happens only on log out and switch user.

I can confirm that this happens to me with an Nvidia GeForce 6200 A-LE, with the nv or nvidia driver, regardless of desktop effects.

[Nathan R. Hale (nathan-hale)]

Installing the package xserver-xgl solves the problem for me, but causes GNOME panel applets to throw errors and then freezes my system.

[Nathan R. Hale (nathan-hale)]

Seems like using xdm instead of gdm provides a less usable workaround, right now.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

No replies to the question Bryce asked, closing.

Nathan: your issue is not related. Check the bugs and file a new one if not found.