Arch Linux

domemvs

Member

Registered: 2019-11-04

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] gdm takes a very long time to load

I upgraded my X220 today from 4GB to 8GB of RAM and replaced the HDD with a SSD. Alongway I decided to do a fresh Arch Install with gnome.

I installed the gnome and gnome-extra groups, which also contain gdm. I then enabled and started gdm and it was a fine and pretty fast start of gnome and gdm. I configured my gnome and at some point did a restart. I noticed that in 50% of the time gdm didn't start at all with some errors in the journal. I did a lot of research, enabled early kms, disabled wayland, downgraded my systemd from 243 to 242 etc.

It now seems to work (or maybe I was just lucky) but gdm loads awfully slow. It sometimes takes up to 30 secs and I know this isn't normal. LightDM for example literally needs one second, so it's basically instant. It was faster with the HDD, so something must be wrong.

Here is my latest journalctl -b output: https://pastebin.com/ydaagG45
Here is a small part of a boot log before I disabled wayland/enabled early kms:

Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome gnome-shell[518]: Failed to create backend: Could not get session ID: User 120 has no sessions
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-shell-wayland.service: Failed with result 'protocol'.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Failed to start GNOME Shell on Wayland.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Dependency failed for GNOME Shell on Wayland.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Dependency failed for GNOME Wayland Session.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Dependency failed for GNOME Wayland Session (session: gnome-login).
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-session-wayland@gnome-login.target: Job gnome-session-wayland@gnome-login.target/start failed with result 'dependency'.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-session-wayland.target: Job gnome-session-wayland.target/start failed with result 'dependency'.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-session-wayland.target: Triggering OnFailure= dependencies.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-shell-wayland.target: Job gnome-shell-wayland.target/start failed with result 'dependency'.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-shell-wayland.service: Triggering OnFailure= dependencies.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Requested transaction contradicts existing jobs: Transaction for gnome-shell-disable-extensions.service/start is destructive (g>
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-shell-wayland.service: Failed to enqueue OnFailure= job, ignoring: Transaction for gnome-shell-disable-extensions.service>
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: gnome-session-stable.timer: Succeeded.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Stopped GNOME Session is not yet stable (running for <2 minutes).
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Stopped target GNOME Session Manager is ready.
Nov 04 23:11:13 lenovodome systemd[460]: Stopping GNOME Session Manager (session: gnome-login)...

I intesively searched this forum and google but I couldn't find a solution. Any help appreciated

Last edited by domemvs (2019-11-05 08:36:11)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,712

Re: [SOLVED] gdm takes a very long time to load

Install and enable haveged, this is likely you being starved for entropy during early boot. This works on HDDs without that as HDD activity and head jitter can contribute entropy, an SSD does not.

Also please use [ code ] rather than [ quote ] tags for posting output.

Last edited by V1del (2019-11-04 23:50:28)

domemvs

Member

Registered: 2019-11-04

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] gdm takes a very long time to load

That was it! Thank you very much. I even disabled early kms and enabled wayland and it works like a charm. Is this info somewhere in the "official" installation guide or the post install instructions/recommendations? I honestly did a lot of research before seeking help here and I couldn't find this anywhere.

Again, thanks. And I edited the initial post.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,712

Re: [SOLVED] gdm takes a very long time to load

It's not, but it probably should be to be frank, as you've seen whether one get's noticably "hit" by this can depend a lot on hardware, as well as kernel versions (the issue existed in some shape or form since 4.16 iirc) it has been further accentuated by the 5.3 kernel as that contains some optimizations that lead to faster boot, but as  a consequence lower entropy which applications potentially block on (and it also depends on the applications, normal to console boot is often not affected, because by the time entropy becomes relevant your login credential input will have provided some).

If this is [SOLVED] for you, please mark it as such by editing the subject line in your first post:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ow_to_post

Last edited by V1del (2019-11-05 00:47:25)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,200

Re: [SOLVED] gdm takes a very long time to load

The issue may improve with 5.4 provided https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke … 47ec689e55 is not reverted