Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

lgolebio · 2009-10-19 09:08:35

CONFIRMED ! (Two days, no crash)
After commenting line in /etc/inittab problem disappeard.

insanemal · 2009-10-19 09:11:10

graysky wrote:

loafer wrote:
I have never modified "/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi". I have commented out the line in innitab as suggested by insanemal. Now to wait and see.
The inittab line won't help with this stability issue. I believe it will prevent your gnome from spawning on tty2.

lgolebio wrote:

Funny thing, even if I comment the line in /etc/inittab....
#c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
...after reboot gnome still runs in tty2. WTF ?

Actually It ensures that GDM spawns on TTY2 as it will always be the first available, and it prevents the getty from kicking GDM off.
The Issue appears to be one of a timing issue.
I still haven't narrowed it down as it doesn't happen on all my machines. But on the ones it does.. what happens is, the GDM spawns before the the Getty's spawn.

The GDM detects the current available/free TTY's. Because it is starting before the rest of the getty's that should of spawned for run level 3, it grabs the frist available which is TTY2.

Sometimes you get logs telling you that the getty for TTY2 is having issues spawning.. sometimes you don't.. That is why the rc.local trick also works...

What's odd is my laptop.. (the machine im on now) used to have this issue... I used the custom.conf trick to fix it. Since the update.. I haven't had the issue.. So I simply presumed it was still working.

So it's all really weird. But one of the three solutions I posted will fix it for you.. for the least damage and the best results.. the rc.sysinit is probably the way to go. the rc.local method is probably also not a bad way to go now that I think about it.. I don't like it because it knocks out the rc.conf but.. it means not screwing up your rc.sysinit..

Hmmm it's much of a muchness...

Edits:Just spelling because of my oversensitive synaptics pad causing my cursor to jump around like a jackrabbit.

Last edited by insanemal (2009-10-19 09:15:00)

qzchenwl · 2009-10-19 09:54:59

crocowhile wrote:

Same game here: sometimes, hitting the key "2" in a fast sequence after some other key makes X restart.

support

thoughtcrime · 2009-10-20 12:27:23

I also experience this bug (but in my case it only happens shortly after i boot my machine and [auto]login the first time into gdm - I shut down the pc often though).

insanemal · 2009-10-21 03:08:19

thoughtcrime: Then you are having the same issue. Put one of the fixes in place.

vinoman2 · 2009-10-21 11:21:52

insanemal wrote:

Its the same old Wrong TTY Issue.
The old fix does work
To quote the beginners guide..
Then edit your /etc/gdm/custom.conf and in the [servers] section add:
0=Standard vt7
I know because I'm using it.
BUT
If that doesn't work
edit your /etc/inittab
and comment out the line that looks like this :
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
OR (yeah I got 3 options baby, tho I hate the last one the most.)
Remove GDM from your /etc/rc.conf
and add it to your /etc/rc.local
ONE of these will help.

My cutom.conf looks like this:

# GDM configuration storage

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[security]

[debug]

Do I just add [servers] at the bottom and then add 0=Standard vt7 ?

insanemal · 2009-10-21 11:35:39

vinoman2: from what I can tell.. The custom.conf method doesnt work any more... but yeah.. I think thats what I did.
But your better off trying the inittab or rc.local methods.

vinoman2 · 2009-10-21 11:36:04

just did an upgrade (-Syu) and saw new gnome programs updated... maybe that will help fix the problem with Gnome 2.28

theDOC · 2009-10-21 12:06:41

Here is my working solution to make GDM start on tty7:
Edit /etc/inittab like this

## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:

...

# Example lines for starting a login manager
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon

and remove GDM from rc.conf

thoughtcrime · 2009-10-21 14:06:41

I just noticed that gdm indeed starts on tty2 the first time, then it crashes and then it works on tty7. Also I have the English keyboard layout on tty2, while I do have the German one (which I want, because I use a German keyboard) on tty7.

Just doing the following:

edit your /etc/inittab
and comment out the line that looks like this :
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
OR (yeah I got 3 options baby, tho I hate the last one the most.)

...will probably give me the wrong keyboard layout and this solution seems ugly anyway, since I like my default X to be at tty7.

insanemal wrote:

Its the same old Wrong TTY Issue.
The old fix does work
To quote the beginners guide..
wrote:
Then edit your /etc/gdm/custom.conf and in the [servers] section add:
0=Standard vt7
I know because I'm using it.

This would be the only really acceptable fix, but sadly it does not work. I just tried it :-\

insanemal wrote:

Remove GDM from your /etc/rc.conf
and add it to your /etc/rc.local
ONE of these will help.

I guess I'll use this as temporary workaround. It is also some kind of ugly, but at least it will work for me.

Why does the custom.conf not work anymore? Is this an upstream issue? Anyone did a bugreport?

PS: I do not have the testing repo enabled and the package version of my copy of gdm is: 2.28.1-1

insanemal · 2009-10-21 22:18:48

The Custom.conf doesnt work any more because they removed support for it from GDM.
I really dont know why. They could of left it alone. It was quite useful.

Polygon · 2009-10-22 05:00:21

anyone know if this has been fixed with the gnome 2.28 updayes that were pushed sometime yesterday?

EDIT: Nope, still happening.

this kind of crap really makes me mad. Here i am, trying to use linux as a 'stable' alternative to windows and randomly my session just crashes back to the login screen. *grumble*

Last edited by Polygon (2009-10-22 05:07:50)

graysky · 2009-10-22 08:02:57

Polygon wrote:

this kind of crap really makes me mad. Here i am, trying to use linux as a 'stable' alternative to windows and randomly my session just crashes back to the login screen. *grumble*

It can be frustrating, downgrade until it's fixed:

graysky wrote:

Well, one can downgrade back to the older gdm package and everything seems to work! (Credit to overlord_manny in this thread - see post #51).
Get it from the following repo:
(x64_86) - http://www.schlunix.org/archlinux/extra … pkg.tar.gz
(i686) - http://www.schlunix.org/archlinux/extra … pkg.tar.gz
# pacman -U gdm-2.20.10-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
You can now use gdmsetup to configure it as before.
Also, add the following to /etc/pacman.conf to ignore it until it gets fixed
IgnorePkg   = gdm

insanemal · 2009-10-22 11:27:34

Just out of curiosity
What Video drivers are we all running..
When I had the most issues I was running an Intel Card (different laptop)

I didn't take any chances with this laptop. I added the 0= line to my custom.conf
But now that it doesnt do anything.. and its still working tells me something else is making it work.
I think Driver has a huge effect. This one is ATI catalyst driver.
I believe that if I was running the OS ati driver.. It might play up.
The OS drivers seem to start up faster than the Closed source ones...

Anyway.. Its an idea.. so POST YOUR CARD please

thoughtcrime · 2009-10-22 12:13:13

I use a nvidia card. Oh and by the way - your "start gdm in rc.local instead of with rc.conf" fix turns out not to work. I just booted my pc and gnome appeared @tty2. I killed Xorg via terminal and after that it respawned on tty7, as it should.

EDIT: maybe we should make a feature request to enable the custom.conf again?

Last edited by thoughtcrime (2009-10-22 12:14:37)

loafer · 2009-10-22 13:07:36

I use nvidia (8600 GM) and the proprietry driver.

I have still not had a crash since editing inittab as described in the posts above.

vinoman2 · 2009-10-22 13:35:11

After 1 1/2 days after running the latest updates, I haven't had another crash. When logging out I see tty1 listed.

So far, so good.

Last edited by vinoman2 (2009-10-22 13:37:20)

graysky · 2009-10-22 19:48:04

@vinoman2 - really? I saw gdm-2.28-1 is out, but I downgraded... maybe it's time to uncomment IgnorePkg = gdm now, eh?

thoughtcrime · 2009-10-22 20:12:29

graysky: It may work for you, but for me it does not. Give it a shot

graysky · 2009-10-22 20:20:26

thoughtcrime wrote:

graysky: It may work for you, but for me it does not. Give it a shot

That sucks... I went ahead and upgraded. We'll see

Xyhthyx · 2009-10-23 21:44:31

Update: I made GDM the *very last* daemon loaded in /etc/rc.conf and I stopped having the issue.

vinoman2 · 2009-10-23 21:53:39

I haven't had a problem for a couple days. What is the command to see what version of Gnome I have? If I go to System About Gnome it shows 2.28.0 . Would that change when I update to the next version?

Last edited by vinoman2 (2009-10-23 21:55:20)

thoughtcrime · 2009-10-23 22:00:01

vinoman2 wrote:

I haven't had a problem for a couple days. What is the command to see what version of Gnome I have? If I go to System About Gnome it shows 2.28.0 . Would that change when I update to the next version?

pacman -Qi gdm

Xyhthyx wrote:

Update: I made GDM the *very last* daemon loaded in /etc/rc.conf and I stopped having the issue.

I might think about that as I have all daemons starting at the same time by now...

vinoman2 · 2009-10-23 22:17:57

thanks, I have gnome 2.28.1-1. so it looks like this version has possibly fixed the problem? Haven't had any troulbe since I did the upgrade yesterday.

insanemal · 2009-10-25 12:39:38

On my Intel vid laptop.. I had GDM last and it didn't help..
On this laptop. GDM is last.. but it is ati.. and i dont have the issue...
Hmm the reason the rc.local isnt helping is still cus it is a timing issue...
So your pc is just booting too fast..

Arch Linux

#51 2009-10-19 09:08:35

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#52 2009-10-19 09:11:10

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#53 2009-10-19 09:54:59

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#54 2009-10-20 12:27:23

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#55 2009-10-21 03:08:19

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#56 2009-10-21 11:21:52

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#57 2009-10-21 11:35:39

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#58 2009-10-21 11:36:04

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#59 2009-10-21 12:06:41

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#60 2009-10-21 14:06:41

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#61 2009-10-21 22:18:48

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#62 2009-10-22 05:00:21

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#63 2009-10-22 08:02:57

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#64 2009-10-22 11:27:34

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#65 2009-10-22 12:13:13

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#66 2009-10-22 13:07:36

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#67 2009-10-22 13:35:11

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#68 2009-10-22 19:48:04

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#69 2009-10-22 20:12:29

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#70 2009-10-22 20:20:26

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#71 2009-10-23 21:44:31

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#72 2009-10-23 21:53:39

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#73 2009-10-23 22:00:01

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#74 2009-10-23 22:17:57

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#75 2009-10-25 12:39:38

Re: Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

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