Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

graysky · 2009-10-14 20:18:34

I was just replying to a post when my LCD went black and I was back at the GDM login screen. I'd like to look at a log file that might give a clue what happened but am confused by the contents of /var/log/gdm. Can someone suggest a log file to start with?

# pwd
/var/log/gdm

# ls -l
total 264
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1810 2009-10-14 16:11 :0-greeter.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1803 2009-10-14 15:34 :0-greeter.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1803 2009-10-14 15:28 :0-greeter.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1552 2009-10-13 21:18 :0-greeter.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1801 2009-10-13 20:43 :0-greeter.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    93 2009-10-14 16:11 :0-slave.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   173 2009-10-14 16:11 :0-slave.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    92 2009-10-14 15:28 :0-slave.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   115 2009-10-13 21:18 :0-slave.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   167 2009-10-13 21:18 :0-slave.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10602 2009-10-14 16:11 :0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10849 2009-10-14 16:11 :0.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10849 2009-10-14 15:32 :0.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10849 2009-10-13 21:18 :0.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12909 2009-10-13 21:18 :0.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm      0 2009-10-14 15:33 :1-greeter.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1803 2009-10-13 21:07 :1-greeter.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   2731 2009-10-12 18:59 :1-greeter.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   2700 2009-10-12 16:35 :1-greeter.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1593 2009-10-12 16:18 :1-greeter.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     0 2009-10-14 15:33 :1-slave.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   173 2009-10-13 21:11 :1-slave.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   167 2009-10-12 19:00 :1-slave.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   115 2009-10-12 16:35 :1-slave.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     0 2009-10-12 16:18 :1-slave.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     0 2009-10-14 15:33 :1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10849 2009-10-13 21:11 :1.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11878 2009-10-12 19:00 :1.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10848 2009-10-12 16:35 :1.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10848 2009-10-12 16:18 :1.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   2763 2009-10-13 21:18 :2-greeter.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 gdm  gdm   1803 2009-10-12 16:08 :2-greeter.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   115 2009-10-13 21:18 :2-slave.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   167 2009-10-12 16:09 :2-slave.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11066 2009-10-13 21:18 :2.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11065 2009-10-12 16:09 :2.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1486 2009-10-11 18:24 :20.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1486 2009-10-11 09:13 :20.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1486 2009-10-10 16:28 :20.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1485 2009-10-10 06:10 :20.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1485 2009-10-08 18:28 :20.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1486 2009-10-03 08:03 :21.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1485 2009-09-29 19:09 :21.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1485 2009-09-29 19:07 :21.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1485 2009-09-26 09:09 :21.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1548 2009-09-17 20:07 :21.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1548 2009-09-17 20:17 :22.log

EDIT: Link to flyspray task: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/17025
Please browse to bug report and vote on it if this affects you!

Last edited by graysky (2009-11-05 20:28:36)

loafer · 2009-10-14 20:48:17

I just had the same experience when unlocking the screen after the screensaver kicked in. Typed in my password, hit enter and crash.

Polygon · 2009-10-15 14:16:07

yep, same here. This gnome update has been extraordinarily buggy, I wish i didn't upgrade to it.

graysky · 2009-10-15 19:32:37

There appear to be at least three of us experiencing this problem. Others are surely too. I spend some time googling for this but found nothing.

owain · 2009-10-15 19:47:05

graysky wrote:

There appear to be at least three of us experiencing this problem. Others are surely too.

Yep. Several crashes over the past two days, with nothing I've been able to pin down in logs to help.

ammon · 2009-10-15 20:09:52

This did not happened me.

Garret · 2009-10-15 21:50:50

I have the same problem.

Polygon · 2009-10-15 23:13:13

I have no idea if this is revelant, but I found this in /var/log/gdm/:0-greeter.log

Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/10bc9f378d83dcc6a5125564821550226400000042190005.ms: Failed to open file '/var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/10bc9f378d83dcc6a5125564821550226400000042190005.ms': No such file or directory
** (process:4286): DEBUG: Greeter session pid=4286 display=:0.0 xauthority=/var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-ANH4vf/database
gdm-simple-greeter[4286]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_param_spec_flags: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_FLAGS (flags_type)' failed
gdm-simple-greeter[4286]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_object_class_install_property: assertion `G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
gdm-simple-greeter[4286]: WARNING: Unable to read from file /etc/arch-release
gdm-simple-greeter[4286]: Pango-WARNING: Invalid UTF-8 string passed to pango_layout_set_text()
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: CurrentTime used to choose focus window; focus window may not be correct.
Window manager warning: Got a request to focus the no_focus_window with a timestamp of 0.  This shouldn't happen!

o1911 · 2009-10-15 23:19:38

I can confirm this too. X was working fine before "uprading" to 2.28.

Sigh...

owain · 2009-10-15 23:21:55

Something similar for me:

Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/108eaf959619bc06b6125564627735789900000096020003.ms: Failed to open file '/var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/108eaf959619bc06b6125564627735789900000096020003.ms': No such file or directory
** (process:9681): DEBUG: Greeter session pid=9681 display=:0.0 xauthority=/var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-rEVjse/database
gdm-simple-greeter[9681]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_param_spec_flags: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_FLAGS (flags_type)' failed
gdm-simple-greeter[9681]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_object_class_install_property: assertion `G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
gdm-simple-greeter[9681]: WARNING: Unable to read from file /etc/arch-release
gdm-simple-greeter[9681]: Pango-WARNING: Invalid UTF-8 string passed to pango_layout_set_text()
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200021 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200021 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200021 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x1200021 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: CurrentTime used to choose focus window; focus window may not be correct.
Window manager warning: Got a request to focus the no_focus_window with a timestamp of 0.  This shouldn't happen!

jpalan · 2009-10-16 12:21:03

Same thing here, twice now when I have woken up or come back from work and tried to unlock the screen, I've found myself from the gdm login screen. Hasn't happened in the middle of the use, though.

tafsen · 2009-10-16 14:31:31

I also have the same problem with 2.28

Looks like there's also a new hdd tool with 2.28. It says my hdd is failing. Anyone else got this message?

cookiemonstr · 2009-10-16 14:39:29

tafsen wrote:

I also have the same problem with 2.28
Looks like there's also a new hdd tool with 2.28. It says my hdd is failing. Anyone else got this message?

So far I've had it X crash twice while using Firefox since the upgrade.

Also, I already knew one of my hard disks was failing long before the upgrade.

Mazur · 2009-10-16 15:05:20

Same problem here, another one is this that sometimes windows are not maximizing properly. Metacity is a shit. I am thinking about moving to Xfce.

bastardo · 2009-10-16 16:44:56

Are your GDMs also spawning on TTY2 again?
Check and if so, this might be the bug again: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/15881

jpalan · 2009-10-16 17:49:28

tafsen wrote:

I also have the same problem with 2.28
Looks like there's also a new hdd tool with 2.28. It says my hdd is failing. Anyone else got this message?

Eh... It also said that my hdd is failing. Which didn't seem too odd since it was slow to respond on boot after I run an upgrade which installed both gnome 2.28 and 2.6.31 kernel. And the hdd tool found bad sectors from it, although the quick self-test that should have lasted less than ten minutes never seemed to finish.

And I already bought a new hdd so I could save my files before the old one really kicks the bucket... Don't tell me I just spent 94€ for no reason.

loafer · 2009-10-16 18:09:24

My GDM is on tty2. The previous workaround is not working.

o1911 · 2009-10-17 02:53:21

I've disabled the GDM daemon and load up GNOME with my .xinitrc file - no crashes. Also, it spawns into TTY 7.
Handbrake (gtk from aur) doesn't work any more
"Internal error. Could not parse UI description"

insanemal · 2009-10-17 04:08:17

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.

Last edited by insanemal (2009-10-17 04:10:04)

loafer · 2009-10-17 08:20:17

Unfortunately [servers] has been removed as a configuration option in custom.conf and will not be recognised by the new gdm.

http://library.gnome.org/admin/gdm/2.28 … emonconfig

I will try the inittab method and see if that prevents the crashes..

Last edited by loafer (2009-10-17 08:22:58)

graysky · 2009-10-17 10:22:56

Friendly reminder to all: please keep posts in this thread limited to the topic, "Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen"! This will help keep the signal-to-noise ratio up for people. If you're experiencing another problem, please search, then open a new thread.

@jpalan and tafsen - use smartmontools to diagnose your hdds (wiki article).

graysky · 2009-10-17 10:26:54

Question for people who are experiencing this problem: how many of you modified our /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi with the following to allow ctrl+alt+backspace to restart X?

<merge key="input.xkb.options" type="string">terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp</merge>

reference to modification

I did have it and removed the line two days ago and (knock on wood) haven't noticed this problem since removing the line and restarting hal. Can others please comment?

1) Are you experiencing the occasional crash of X back to gdm?
2) If so, do you have this modification present in your /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi present?

Last edited by graysky (2009-10-17 10:27:43)

graysky · 2009-10-17 10:35:34

graysky wrote:

I did have it and removed the line two days ago and (knock on wood) haven't noticed this problem since removing the line and restarting hal. Can others please comment?

F*ck! Not even 10 minutes after I posted this, my gdm crashed! Disregard

loafer · 2009-10-17 11:35:20

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.

schneida · 2009-10-17 11:42:56

I can confirm this on my laptop, really annoying because you have no chance to backup unsaved documents. Never occured to me on earlier versions of Gnome.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-14 20:18:34

Gnome 2.28 occasionally crashes back to gdm login screen!

#2 2009-10-14 20:48:17

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

#3 2009-10-15 14:16:07

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

#4 2009-10-15 19:32:37

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

#5 2009-10-15 19:47:05

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

#6 2009-10-15 20:09:52

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

#7 2009-10-15 21:50:50

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

#8 2009-10-15 23:13:13

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

#9 2009-10-15 23:19:38

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

#10 2009-10-15 23:21:55

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

#11 2009-10-16 12:21:03

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

#12 2009-10-16 14:31:31

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

#13 2009-10-16 14:39:29

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

#14 2009-10-16 15:05:20

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

#15 2009-10-16 16:44:56

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

#16 2009-10-16 17:49:28

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

#17 2009-10-16 18:09:24

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

#18 2009-10-17 02:53:21

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#19 2009-10-17 04:08:17

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#20 2009-10-17 08:20:17

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

#21 2009-10-17 10:22:56

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#22 2009-10-17 10:26:54

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

#23 2009-10-17 10:35:34

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

#24 2009-10-17 11:35:20

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

#25 2009-10-17 11:42:56

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

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