Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

virusso80 · 2010-01-19 10:06:06

Hi all,
i don't know why, but after last (also kernel) update, my old laptop with gnome, doesn't start anymore. In boot phase, while loading everything like usually, when it tries to load uvdev...

Waiting for udev events to be processed

it suddenly "changes resolution"(?), using very small fonts. It seems to load everything in the right way, but when I'm waiting for gdm screen...some strange message on gnome appears (but i'm not able to read it...too fast...i only saw "...group..."), then the prompt login appears for just a second and then only the prompt is shown on the top left of the black screen.

Anything is possible to do, but turning it off. System is crashed.

I thought there was a problem with fstab (one of the files i edited after upgrading) but nothing...i restored the old fstab but nothing changed.

moreover, while loading modules i was gettinga strange warning:

mounting local filesystems [BUSY] [mntent]: warning: no final new line at the end of /etc/mtab

After adding a new line to this file, this message doesn't appear anymore, but the system still doesn't start.

I don't know where to find that message and what could have been happened.

I tried with a ubuntu live distribution, but i noticed that /var/log/error.log and other files (messages.log etc) contain many unreadable characters. Maybe char-encoding is not right...i really don't know!

Any help is very appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Last edited by virusso80 (2010-01-21 10:52:06)

virusso80 · 2010-01-19 17:46:57

Hi guys, i see...nobody has a clear suggestion to provide me

however, i tried to connect adding first 1 and then 3 to the kernel command in grub! in the first case it works, in the sense that i can login as root (single user mode). in mode 3, crashes like usually. can i do something in single user mode? i would like to try to isolate the issue, to understand if it's gnome related or not.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by virusso80 (2010-01-19 17:48:24)

virusso80 · 2010-01-19 19:47:47

i guess i understood the problem. I succeeded in take a picture to the screen while the wird message was appearing and it was related to the GDM group, saying that it's not able to find it. i tried to re-install gdm, but after installation it said that /var/run/gdm has not the same permission and same message for /var/log/gdm.

I tried to uninstall and reinstall...but unistallation didn't succeeded. I guess there's some strange problem that come up with new versions. I think it would be faster to re-install everything than trying to fix it.

However, thanks

loafer · 2010-01-19 21:09:35

There should be a gdm group (at least there is on my gnome setup). It's absence should not be a reason to reinstall the entire system. The gdm group on my laptop has a GID of 1002 and the gdm user as a UID of 120. Maybe if you create them it will work? Or try a full removal "pacman -Rcs" and then reinstall see if that hepls.

edit: I think loads of people have had the permissions error, it's not likely to be the problem.

Last edited by loafer (2010-01-19 21:13:11)

MercuryShadow · 2010-01-20 05:01:26

I was booting into runlevel 3 before and starting X manually until a recent update caused my X session to freeze with a black screen before the window manager had even loaded. However, it turned out that my wife was bugging me about having to login and run startx to get to her desktop, so I took it as an opportunity to install and start using gdm. Since doing this, X loads normally. Keep in mind that I did not install gdm when I originally installed Arch. So, perhaps there is something to loafer's suggestion about completely removing and reinstalling gdm.

virusso80 · 2010-01-21 09:15:07

ok guys, thanks for your support. I know i should investigate better, but i re-installed all the system, same configuration: gnome and gdm! gdm starts from inittab. Again..it doesn't work! now no message is displayed! only the not-blinking cursor on the top-left of the screen! laptop is quite old...acer travelmate 290lmi, but until one month ago it was working perfectly! very strange! i'm gonna have a try with slim. maybe is a gdm problem.

Where can i see diagnostic messages? all files in /var/log are without useful information

Thanks in advance

virusso80 · 2010-01-21 10:51:01

I tried to start X using xterm (modifying .xinitrc file) but same problem and then...X -config /root/xorg.conf.new gives the same not-blinking cursor problem. I think it's a X server problem.

the Xorg.0.log file doesn't cotain any message.

I think i solved creating the xorg file using hwd -x. i tried before with xterm and then gnome: it was working.

Reading from the wiki, i realized that the main differnece is that hwd disables the hotplugging. maybe it is no more compatible? strange!

I tried again the xorg created using Xorg -configure...and again it crashed.

What does it mean?

Thanks and sorry for all these posts...i thought it would have been useful for others.

I think this post should be moved somewhere else.

Last edited by virusso80 (2010-01-21 11:06:05)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-19 10:06:06

Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#2 2010-01-19 17:46:57

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#3 2010-01-19 19:47:47

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#4 2010-01-19 21:09:35

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#5 2010-01-20 05:01:26

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#6 2010-01-21 09:15:07

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

#7 2010-01-21 10:51:01

Re: Xorg (maybe hotplugging) [gnome (maybe gdm)] doesn't start anymore

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