[SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

custo · 2017-10-06 09:08:09

On systemctl start gdm I just get a blank screen with a cursor.

/var/log/gdm is empty but I found the following in the journal:

Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan sudo[1635]:   niklas : TTY=tty6 ; PWD=/home/niklas ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl start gdm
-- Subject: Unit gdm.service has begun start-up
-- Unit gdm.service has begun starting up.
-- Subject: Unit gdm.service has finished start-up
-- Unit gdm.service has finished starting up.
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of gdm.
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd-logind[335]: New session c3 of user gdm.
-- Subject: A new session c3 has been created for user gdm
-- A new session with the ID c3 has been created for the user gdm.
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd[1]: Started Session c3 of user gdm.
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd[1647]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user gdm by (uid=0)
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd[1648]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session closed for user gdm
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan gdm-launch-environment][1642]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): Failed to create session: Start job for unit user@120.service failed with 'failed'
Oct 05 14:40:12 roshan systemd[1]: Removed slice User Slice of gdm.

Setting WaylandEnable=false in the custom.conf doesn't seem to make any difference.

Any idea how to debug this?

See also this noob thread in which people helped me figure out why my computer won't start.

Last edited by custo (2017-10-12 13:20:40)

seth · 2017-10-06 11:02:33

Does this reveal more?

systemctl status user@120.service

custo · 2017-10-06 11:26:00

I get this:

[niklas@roshan ~]$ systemctl status user@120.service       
● user@120.service - User Manager for UID 120
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static; vendor preset:
   Active: inactive (dead)
lines 1-3/3 (END)

seth · 2017-10-06 12:23:47

"no" - along your gnome-keyring issues, maybe some PAM fuck-up?

Check the packages that provide PAM modules

pacman -Qo /usr/lib/security/* | cut -d" " -f2- | sort -u

Then "pacman -Qkk <package>" them so see whether one's corrupted.

custo · 2017-10-06 12:27:44

Actually, regarding the key ring, I briefly forgot that yesterday I did this. Is it bad? It must be related.

On a side note, using the xinitrc skeleton actually didn't solve the issue that pulseaudio doesn't start automatically. I now have to pulseaudio -D after every reboot and sometimes even that seems buggy.

I want GDM back.

custo · 2017-10-06 17:31:24

Btw:

backup file: gdm: /etc/gdm/custom.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: gdm: /etc/gdm/custom.conf (Size mismatch)
gdm: 499 total files, 0 altered files

What do these mismatches mean? Just that I altered the config file?

Last edited by custo (2017-10-06 17:31:51)

seth · 2017-10-06 18:17:02

Yup. There's probably a .pacnew?

diff -pru /etc/gdm/custom.conf.pacnew /etc/gdm/custom.conf

Edit: did you try to undo the pam changes? (I've no experience with gnome-keyring)

Last edited by seth (2017-10-06 18:30:58)

custo · 2017-10-09 14:52:54

@ seth (sorry for late reply)

No:

$ ls /etc/gdm
custom.conf  Init  PostLogin  PostSession  PreSession  Xsession

I'll play with the keyring and see if I can revert the changes. It's not too much of a deal. My main concern is how to get GDM to run again, but it seems we're out of ideas?

seth · 2017-10-09 21:09:22

Grasping a straw: "cat /etc/environment"

custo · 2017-10-12 09:57:04

[niklas@roshan ~]$ cat /etc/environment 
#
# This file is parsed by pam_env module
#
# Syntax: simple "KEY=VAL" pairs on separate lines
#
JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk

seth · 2017-10-12 10:31:23

BINGO!
See the stray quote?

This came up before and breaks systemd's new "I'm now also pam_env" feature ...

custo · 2017-10-12 13:20:17

OMG!!!

No, I didn't even spot it when I copied this. Unbelievable. I actually edited this before the problem occurred but I didn't remember and probably wouldn't have linked it anyway.

Amazing! Thanks so much, seth, I'm so grateful! I'm almost glad we didn't spot this immediately for I learned a lot of new stuff about how to debug this kind of problem the next time.

Last edited by custo (2017-10-12 13:21:23)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-06 09:08:09

[SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#2 2017-10-06 11:02:33

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#3 2017-10-06 11:26:00

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#4 2017-10-06 12:23:47

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#5 2017-10-06 12:27:44

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#6 2017-10-06 17:31:24

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#7 2017-10-06 18:17:02

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#8 2017-10-09 14:52:54

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#9 2017-10-09 21:09:22

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#10 2017-10-12 09:57:04

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#11 2017-10-12 10:31:23

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

#12 2017-10-12 13:20:17

Re: [SOLVED] GDM won't start any more

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