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kev717

Member

Registered: 2011-06-08

Posts: 67

Website

GDM starting two sessions on login

Recently I've noticed my processor being under a slightly heavier load than usual.  I opened up top and found that under GDM there were two gnome-sessions running, one of which was using xwayland.  If launched using lxdm, this second gnome-session does not exist.  Does anyone know why GDM might be launching a second session in parallel with the one I'm using?

I am using the gnome desktop.

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kev717

Last edited by kev717 (2015-04-29 18:48:29)

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If I code something, it's probably at https://github.com/kellcodes

Do **NOT** expect a response from me.

Kajzer

Member

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 11

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Same problem here.

SimFox3

Member

From: San Jose, Ca

Registered: 2014-01-04

Posts: 42

Website

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Can you guys also confirm that the gnome-session (when logged in) no longer runs on Virtual Terminal 1 (VT1)? My gnome-session is started on VT2. If I switch to VT1 (Ctrl+Alt+F1), then I get back to the GDM login screen.

Do you guys experience the same issue?

Last edited by SimFox3 (2015-05-09 17:50:12)

mwillems

Member

Registered: 2014-08-09

Posts: 91

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

I'm experiencing the same issue: I see two gnome-session instances one on tty2 one on tty1.  If I try to switch back to tty1 I get a hard lock (but I'm running it in a VM in virtualbox). I've been trying to run this issue down for a few days with no success. 

Whatever is causing GDM to spawn two gnome-sessions seems to break hardware acceleration in Virtualbox.  Rolling back to 3.14 fixes it.  Disabling wayland in 3.16 doesn't seem to fix it. Starting GDM 3.16 with wayland disabled in the /etc/gmd/custom.conf still launches two gnome-sessions, and still breaks hardware acceleration.

No such issues launching gnome in the same environment with lightdm or lxdm.

If anyone figures out how to eliminate this, I'd love to hear about it.

Last edited by mwillems (2015-05-09 17:58:32)

SimFox3

Member

From: San Jose, Ca

Registered: 2014-01-04

Posts: 42

Website

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

@MWillems intermittently I get a hardlock when switching to VT1 as well---not in a VM.

zenlord

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From: Belgium

Registered: 2006-05-24

Posts: 1,223

Website

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

If you guys mean that upon login, the gnome-session opens in TTY2 and gdm stays in TTY1, then I'm experiencing the same problem. I did not experience any hardlocks when switching between both TTYs.

I am experiencing slowness in gnome, which may be triggered by this behaviour.

Arch64 fully updated / GDM / Gnome / X11 / Nvidia-34xx.

atrotet

Member

From: Reunion island

Registered: 2010-12-28

Posts: 26

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Very interresting. After reading this and checking, I also have gdm on tty2. Not sure if performances are improved using another DM as I only have gdm atm, but I will sure find out soon.
Sounds to me all of us are in the same boat and it is a 'feature' rather than a bug...

leandrodb

Member

Registered: 2015-05-13

Posts: 1

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

No, this is a bug! I have the same issue on more than one machine

mwillems

Member

Registered: 2014-08-09

Posts: 91

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

If it's a "feature" it's a feature that breaks hardware acceleration in virtualbox, which is definitely a regression from GDM 3.14.

russ0r

Member

Registered: 2008-03-29

Posts: 26

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

I've had this since 3.16 too. I thought it was a feature.

If it's a bug it might explain a few other problems I'm having with GNOME, heavy CPU/GPU load being one of them.

kev717

Member

Registered: 2011-06-08

Posts: 67

Website

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Yes, it appears as though gnome opens a session on a new virtual terminal.  This may be intentional to increase the speed of "switching" users, logging in, and starting wayland sessions (however this is purely speculative).  If it is intentional, it's certainly a problem on systems with lower-than-average memory.

---

If I code something, it's probably at https://github.com/kellcodes

Do **NOT** expect a response from me.

spinachlancaster

Member

Registered: 2015-05-15

Posts: 1

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Here is the relevant GDM bug. This is pretty silly behavior, indeed.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=747339

bric3

Member

Registered: 2015-09-22

Posts: 8

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Still not fixed. When I wake up my laptop, I can see for a second what was on my session before the login screen show up

Cabbage_c

Member

Registered: 2016-06-24

Posts: 8

Re: GDM starting two sessions on login

Emm...Very interesting.
I accidentally find this behavior today. Maybe this could become a great feature. But at least they should provide a choice. Not every device has enough ram to realize the feature.