Arch Linux

niharsarangi

Member

From: Madison, WI

Registered: 2012-08-26

Posts: 29

Website

Unable to start GDM

After the GDM 3.20 update, GDM has stopped working for me. The next update to GDM didn't fix the issue. I looked at the other posts but mine doesn't seem to match with them.
GNOME runs perfectly fine. I am currently using lightdm as my login manager and it seems to work fine.

I am using NVIDIA drivers. I can't use nouveau because I need to run CUDA applications. And, I think NVIDIA drivers is part of the issue in my case.

The problem I am facing is somewhat odd. Whenever I start gdm.service using systemctl, a cursor appears for some time and then I see a black screen for a very long time. And nothing happens.

I looked at the journalctl logs for gdm user and it doesn't show any error. Just the normal, indicating display manager starting at time t, started at time t' and stopped at t'' (after I switch terminals and stop the service before waiting for 5 minutes approximately).

Is there some way to make GDM work for me? (I can't use lock screen with lightdm, and it doesn't look good on my hidpi screen.)

WFV

Member

From: ☭USSA⛧⭒⭒⭒⭒

Registered: 2013-04-23

Posts: 288

Re: Unable to start GDM

Maybe try this in /etc/gdm/custom.conf?

# GDM configuration storage

[daemon]
# Uncoment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
WaylandEnable=false

## This section (before [security] was copied in from the previous
## version of custom.conf 5/16/2016 W.Vincenti
# Uncomment the next two lines for auto-logon
# AutomaticLoginEnable=True
# AutomaticLogin=bill

[security]

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[debug]
# Uncomment the line below to turn on debugging
#Enable=true

I had problem with that a few -Syu's back and abandoned gdm for lxdm

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∞ hard times make the strong, the strong make good times, good times make the weak, the weak make hard times ∞

niharsarangi

Member

From: Madison, WI

Registered: 2012-08-26

Posts: 29

Website

Re: Unable to start GDM

I have the Wayland disabled.

WaylandEnable=false

This line is already uncommented.

Is there anything else I can try to get gdm working?

WFV

Member

From: ☭USSA⛧⭒⭒⭒⭒

Registered: 2013-04-23

Posts: 288

Re: Unable to start GDM

Sorry, I gave up on gdm a while back. I recall having to switch tty's to reset it - probably others know more about working with gdm. There's an older post with some good information in it for troubleshooting (a lot of it at that time was way over my head,,, and still is).
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=195866&p=4

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∞ hard times make the strong, the strong make good times, good times make the weak, the weak make hard times ∞