Xubuntu doesn't finish boot-process until Return-Button is pushed.

[Markus V.]

Good evening,
since about a week Xubuntu doesn't finish the boot process, until I push the Return-Button. When I select Xubuntu 12.04 in Grub, after some time the Xubuntu-Logo appears with a bar moving from left to right and back. I can only exit this state by pushing Return (Space seems to work also), then the normal surface for logging in appears.
I think that this behaviour started after installing some games from the Ubuntu-Software-Center. Here are some syslogs:
-----------
May 28 08:43:32 klangbiotop NetworkManager 931: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
May 28 08:43:33 klangbiotop ntpdate 1140 : step time server 91.189.94.4 offset -0.635392 sec
May 28 08:45:30 klangbiotop cron 1175 : (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
May 28 08:45:30 klangbiotop acpid: starting up with proc fs
----------
May 28 08:45:30 klangbiotop anacron 1193 : Will run job 'cron.daily' in 5 min.
May 28 08:45:30 klangbiotop anacron 1193 : Jobs will be executed sequentially
May 28 08:46:14 klangbiotop dbus 911 : [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit' (using servicehelper)
May 28 08:46:14 klangbiotop acpid: client connected from 1294[0:0]
-----------
Jun 1 19:22:24 klangbiotop NetworkManager[898]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Jun 1 19:22:37 klangbiotop ntpdate[1105]: step time server 91.189.94.4 offset -5.170230 sec
Jun 1 19:24:08 klangbiotop cron[1139]: (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
Jun 1 19:24:08 klangbiotop anacron[1163]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2012-06-01
---------
Jun 1 19:40:28 klangbiotop NetworkManager[1065]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) complete.
Jun 1 19:40:28 klangbiotop dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Jun 1 19:40:28 klangbiotop dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Jun 1 19:40:37 klangbiotop kernel: [ 25.144006] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Jun 1 19:40:41 klangbiotop ntpdate[1200]: adjust time server 131.188.3.221 offset 0.027561 sec
Jun 1 19:40:41 klangbiotop ntpd[1227]: ntpd 4.2.6p3@1.2290 Tue Mar 6 15:36:36 UTC 2012 (1)
----------
Jun 1 22:18:01 klangbiotop NetworkManager[939]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) started...
Jun 1 22:18:01 klangbiotop NetworkManager[939]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Jun 1 22:20:03 klangbiotop anacron[1258]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2012-06-01
Jun 1 22:20:03 klangbiotop acpid: starting up with proc fs
---------
You can see the time-gaps when I waited for Xubuntu to switch to the log-on-window. Onetime I waited for more than half an hour (I can send more logs if necessary). I tried to fix this issue with Boot-Repair, but without success. I'm not really sure if Cron is the problem...
Have a nice evening,
Markus

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: cron 3.0pl1-120ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.39-generic 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jun 1 22:47:37 2012
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: cron
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Aaron Cossey (aaron-cossey)]

This should probably be raised against xubuntu-desktop rather than cron.
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
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[Markus V. (marvogt)]

I'm not shure what provokes this bug. You can see that very often cron or anacron is mentioned when the error happens, so I decided to post it here. If this decision turns out to be wrong, this entry should be shifted somewhere else.

[Markus V. (marvogt)]

After de- and reinstalling cron, I'm pretty sure it's not a cron-bug. I'll try to shift it to xubuntu-desktop, as suggested.

[Markus V. (marvogt)]

I also tried to reinstall the networkmanager, because it is often mentioned in the log-files before this bug occurs, but without success.

Because I have to press Return to get to the Log-in-window, I reinstalled rsyslog, but this misbehaviour didn't vanish.

I have the strong feeling, that I damaged some packages while experimenting with wine, what caused a system-crash.

[Markus V. (marvogt)]

Heyho,

I have some good news: The problem was caused by Plymouth. I simply deinstalled it & everything works fine!!!

Have a nice sunday,
Markus

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

> I have some good news: The problem was caused by Plymouth. I
> simply deinstalled it & everything works fine!!!

Ok, first of all you cannot "simply" deinstall plymouth; this is a core package and the dependencies deliberately prevent its removal from the system. If you have actually removed plymouth, what you have left is no longer an Ubuntu system, so the fact that it boots for you then is immaterial to solving this bug.

Second, there is no reason that plymouth itself would be waiting for a keypress before bringing up the login screen, and no one is reporting this issue with other flavors of Ubuntu (indeed, AFAICS no one else is reporting it at all). So I don't believe this is a plymouth bug. It may be a bug in some Xubuntu-specific component, or it may be a bug in something that you've installed locally which is somehow stalling the console waiting for input.

Reassigning to xubuntu-meta.

[Markus V. (marvogt)]

I deinstalled Plymouth by using a special PPA which uses 'mountall' without dependencies to Plymouth. So it is an Ubuntu-System without Plymouth. In the German Ubuntu-Wiki is an instruction about how to do this, because it seems to be a typical misbehavior and there are many people who want to see the boot-log. ;o)

http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Plymouth