[SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

Ahad12 · 2020-12-14 02:01:07

When logging in through GDM, gnome seems to launch, however, the UI is a complete mess (see this image). I'm not sure what's causing this since my desktop was working just fine yesterday, and I haven't updated my computer since.

Looking through my dmesg and journalctl -xb -p err, I'm finding crashes in gnome-shell (out of memory error) and crashes in gnome-keyring.

Things I have tried:
- Reinstalling all packages, both with and without --overwrite=*
- Launching gnome with Xorg instead of wayland - same problem

Graphics info:

[ahad@ahad-pc ~]$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] (rev e7)

I also have early KMS start working for amdgpu, in case this has any relevance.

My system works just fine on both windows and the MATE desktop (which I am using currently), so I'm pretty confident that this is a gnome issue. Any suggesstions would be highly appreciated.

Last edited by Ahad12 (2020-12-16 07:01:41)

kinru · 2020-12-14 03:55:56

Hello,
Disclaimer, I am not an expert...
However can I see in your journal

Dec 13 19:22:00 ahad-pc kernel: Out of memory: Killed process 955 (gnome-shell) total-vm:29267636kB, anon-rss:9130600kB, file-rss:0kB, shmem-rss:40kB, UID:1000 pgtables:30576kB oom_score_adj:0

I don't really know what is causing the OOM killer to come into usage. Maybe you can Ctrl + Alt + F2 to a TTY see if there is abnormalities like actual high memory usage. I would use htop for that purpose. It is possible that you do not have any swap and it's causing a problem (but I doubt it).

Also X logs could potentially help (available inside /var/log). Do you have any configurations relevant to video in /etc/modprobe.d?
Does the GDM login screen show perfectly on both monitors? I would also try logging in with only one (probably the horizontal) monitor plugged into the graphics card.

P.S. Maybe it is possible to login in a separate tty, kill GNOME, and start GNOME with command and maybe push output to a file.

Ahad12 · 2020-12-14 05:06:43

Thank you for your response!

GDM actually runs perfectly fine - this is how I start MATE, which also works as expected. You can see GDM on both monitors.

That said, I tried taking GDM out of the equation.

When starting gnome with

XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland dbus-run-session gnome-session

The gnome interface was still unusable like in the picture in the original post. However the desktop did not crash. I couldn't run htop, because I couldn't access any terminal. Here was the output:

 dbus-daemon[22497]: [session uid=1000 pid=22497] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.systemd1' requested by ':1.10' (uid=1000 pid=22544 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-sharing ")
dbus-daemon[22497]: [session uid=1000 pid=22497] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.Daemon' requested by ':1.13' (uid=1000 pid=22551 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-sound ")
dbus-daemon[22497]: [session uid=1000 pid=22497] Activated service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1' failed: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1
Failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon: Could not connect: Connection refused (g-io-error-quark, 39)
\00\00 (over and over again...)
(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.449: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.449: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.449: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.451: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-calendar-factory:20509): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 22:35:25.451: Error releasing name org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Calendar8: The connection is closed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.451: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.451: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.451: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

(evolution-source-registry:20422): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 22:35:25.448: g_task_return_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed

When doing the same but with x11 as the XDG backend:

dbus-daemon[790]: [session uid=1000 pid=790] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.Daemon' requested by ':1.16' (uid=1000 pid=850 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-housekeeping ")
dbus-daemon[790]: [session uid=1000 pid=790] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.systemd1' requested by ':1.15' (uid=1000 pid=844 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-sharing ")

There was also a dbus refused to connect error, but you can't see it in this output.

I also tried running with one monitor only, and these issues persisted. I couldn't find any Xorg logs either.

kinru · 2020-12-14 16:03:16

Hello
Before starting GNOME from the commandline, can you get the output of echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR $UID?
Are you sure there is no xorg logs? They should be in /var/log and be named something like Xorg.0.log. I think wayland logs go to journal but I'm not sure.
So after starting it is not possible to enter a separate TTY? If it is in fact possible please grab the systemctl status output.
I found this new section in the wiki gkr-pam: gnome-keyring-daemon didn't start properly (and this associated bug https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/68961) which by your dmesg could be relevant.
On that note, are the dmesg and journalctl provided from root privileged commands?

Last edited by kinru (2020-12-14 16:07:06)

seth · 2020-12-14 22:11:58

GDM stores the Xorg log in the system journal - please post the output of "sudo journalctl -b" (don't filter for "err" because it's most likely not an "error" in this sense and never use the silly "-x" parameter because it only clutters the output with useless nonsense)
Did you try to select "gnome on xorg" explicitly?

Ahad12 · 2020-12-15 04:38:51

Here is the output of 'echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR $UID

/run/user/1000 1000

After starting gnome with 'XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland dbus-run-session gnome-session`, here's the output:

dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.Daemon' requested by ':1.0' (uid=1000 pid=2058 comm="flatpak --installations ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.Daemon'
fusermount3: failed to access mountpoint /run/user/1000/gvfs: Permission denied
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.a11y.Bus' requested by ':1.8' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.Bus'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.Shell.CalendarServer' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Sources5' requested by ':1.11' (uid=1000 pid=2172 comm="/usr/lib/gnome-shell-calendar-server ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.UDisks2VolumeMonitor' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.UDisks2VolumeMonitor'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.GoaVolumeMonitor' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.OnlineAccounts' requested by ':1.14' (uid=1000 pid=2194 comm="/usr/lib/gvfs-goa-volume-monitor ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='ca.desrt.dconf' requested by ':1.12' (uid=1000 pid=2179 comm="/usr/lib/evolution-source-registry ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'ca.desrt.dconf'
goa-daemon-Message: 22:12:07.948: goa-daemon version 3.38.0 starting
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.Identity' requested by ':1.16' (uid=1000 pid=2198 comm="/usr/lib/goa-daemon ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.OnlineAccounts'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Identity'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.GoaVolumeMonitor'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.AfcVolumeMonitor' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gtk.vfs.Metadata' requested by ':1.12' (uid=1000 pid=2179 comm="/usr/lib/evolution-source-registry ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.AfcVolumeMonitor'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gtk.vfs.Metadata'

(evolution-source-registry:2179): e-backend-WARNING **: 22:12:07.976: Failed to move '/home/ahad/.cache/evolution/mail/e713ec123ead33dd6d52a5108732b3a52a573c1e': Error moving file /home/ahad/.cache/evolution/mail/e713ec123ead33dd6d52a5108732b3a52a573c1e: File exists
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Sources5'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.Shell.Notifications' requested by ':1.7' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2139]: Activating service name='org.a11y.atspi.Registry' requested by ':1.0' (uid=1000 pid=2093 comm="/usr/bin/gnome-shell ")
dbus-daemon[2139]: Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.atspi.Registry'
SpiRegistry daemon is running with well-known name - org.a11y.atspi.Registry
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.secrets' requested by ':1.16' (uid=1000 pid=2198 comm="/usr/lib/goa-daemon ")
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Shell.Notifications'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Calendar8' requested by ':1.11' (uid=1000 pid=2172 comm="/usr/lib/gnome-shell-calendar-server ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Shell.CalendarServer'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.systemd1' requested by ':1.31' (uid=1000 pid=2320 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-sharing ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activated service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1' failed: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Calendar8'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.AddressBook10' requested by ':1.34' (uid=1000 pid=2317 comm="/usr/lib/evolution-calendar-factory ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Activating service name='org.gnome.Shell.Screencast' requested by ':1.27' (uid=1000 pid=2256 comm="/usr/lib/gsd-media-keys ")
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.AddressBook10'
dbus-daemon[2046]: [session uid=1000 pid=2046] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.Shell.Screencast'

(evolution-calendar-factory:2317): libedbus-private-WARNING **: 22:12:19.082: Error setting property 'ConnectionStatus' on interface org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Source: The connection is closed (g-io-error-quark, 18)
A connection to the bus can't be made
gnome-shell-calendar-server[2172]: Lost (or failed to acquire) the name org.gnome.Shell.CalendarServer - exiting

(evolution-addressbook-factory:2406): libedbus-private-WARNING **: 22:12:19.149: Error setting property 'ConnectionStatus' on interface org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Source: The connection is closed (g-io-error-quark, 18)

This command sucessfully launched gnome, however the interface was still messed up as in the photo in the main post.

Click this link to get to systemctl status after attempting to launch wayland from a tty.

When lauching gnome with XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11 with the same command as above, I got a slightly cleaner, although still deeply corrupted interface. Click this link to get to systemctl status after doing this.

Here is my journalctl -b and dmesg - I made sure to do both as root this time after doing all of the above.

@seth I tried both Gnome regular and Gnome with Xorg. When using the latter (wayland), gnome crashed when moving the cursor to the top left - I think this was because mutter/clutter tried to draw outside the screen. The former (x11) did not crash, however in all cases the UI is broken as in the photo in the original post. In this post, I tried taking GDM out of the equation completely and tried starting gnome from a tty.

I did not yet try downgrading libcap-ng yet, though I will try it soon and let y'all know how it goes.

Ahad12 · 2020-12-15 06:40:17

Update: I downgraded to libcap-ng 0.8.1-1, and it did not solve the problem.

seth · 2020-12-15 07:49:05

Dec 14 22:12:08 ahad-pc gnome-shell[2093]: Region to merge was empty!  Either you have a some pathological STRUT list or there's a bug somewhere!
…
Dec 14 22:12:11 ahad-pc gnome-shell[2093]: ../mutter/clutter/clutter/clutter-actor.c:9589: Actor 'Gjs_ui_workspaceThumbnail_WorkspaceThumbnail' tried to allocate a size of -1.00 x -1.00
Dec 14 22:12:11 ahad-pc org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2093]: Window manager warning: struts occupy an unusually large percentage of the screen; available remaining width = 62 < 100Window manager warning: struts occupy an unusually large percentage of the screen; available remaining height = 17 < 100Window manager warning: struts occupy an unusually large percentage of the screen; available remaining width = 31 < 100Window manager warning: struts occupy an unusually large percentage of the screen; available remaining height = 17 < 100
…
Dec 14 22:12:11 ahad-pc gnome-shell[2093]: ../mutter/clutter/clutter/clutter-actor.c:9589: Actor 'Gjs_ui_workspaceThumbnail_WorkspaceThumbnail' tried to allocate a size of -1.00 x -1.00
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: pool-gnome-shel invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x100cca(GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE), order=0, oom_score_adj=0
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: CPU: 6 PID: 2719 Comm: pool-gnome-shel Not tainted 5.4.83-1-lts #1
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: Hardware name: ASUS All Series/Z97M-PLUS, BIOS 2802 05/19/2015
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: Call Trace:
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  dump_stack+0x64/0x88
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  dump_header+0x4a/0x1df
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  oom_kill_process.cold+0xb/0x10
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  out_of_memory+0x197/0x450
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  __alloc_pages_slowpath+0xc66/0xd70
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x2d5/0x310
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  pagecache_get_page+0x13f/0x360
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  filemap_fault+0x66a/0x8d0
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  __do_fault+0x38/0x120
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  __handle_mm_fault+0xffc/0x15c0
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  handle_mm_fault+0xc0/0x1e0
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  do_user_addr_fault+0x1c6/0x440
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel:  page_fault+0x34/0x40
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: RIP: 0033:0x7f0e6b8ad999
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: Code: Bad RIP value.
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: RSP: 002b:00007f0e71d09460 EFLAGS: 00010286
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: RAX: 00007f0aa7013410 RBX: 00000000000000ff RCX: 000000000000004f
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: RDX: 0000000000003e80 RSI: 0000000000000f2c RDI: 000000000000004f
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: RBP: 00000000000000ff R08: 0000000000000f2d R09: 00007f0d1edcf410
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: R10: 000000000000004f R11: 0000000000000010 R12: 0000000000003e80
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: R13: 00007f0e71d09478 R14: 00000000000000ff R15: 000000000000fa00
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: Mem-Info:
Dec 14 22:12:18 ahad-pc kernel: active_anon:3713717 inactive_anon:1920 isolated_anon:0
                                 active_file:679 inactive_file:791 isolated_file:0
                                 unevictable:12 dirty:348 writeback:0 unstable:0
                                 slab_reclaimable:9738 slab_unreclaimable:27090
                                 mapped:734 shmem:2152 pagetables:11293 bounce:0
                                 free:33217 free_pcp:0 free_cma:0

Looks like some garbage panel configuration, possibly because of the rotated screen, and gnome being gnome…
Try to move away ~/.config/gnome-session/ and ~/.local/share/gnome‑shell/

kinru · 2020-12-15 15:02:16

Any gnome extensions?
If so try to run

gsettings set org.gnome.shell disable-user-extensions true

prior to starting gnome. It is my understanding that this will not mess up the selections of enabled/disabled extensions, and you can run

gsettings set org.gnome.shell disable-user-extensions false

to restore the original settings, but YMMV.

Ahad12 · 2020-12-16 05:38:05

Unfortunately, moving the config files away did not work. Neither did disabling the extensions . I'll try to debug gnome (with gdb), and I'll let y'all know if I find anything.

Ahad12 · 2020-12-16 07:01:24

Ok, so it appears I have solved this issue by resetting all of the gsettings keys to their original value by this command:

gsettings list-schemas | xargs -n 1 gsettings reset-recursively

Unfortunately with this command, I couldn't figure out exactly what messed up my gnome install. I thought it was HiDPi, but I just re-enabled it and it works just fine . I'll mark this as solved anyway since my gnome install works as expected though.

Command source:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/393772/ … ult-values

Arch Linux

#1 2020-12-14 02:01:07

[SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#2 2020-12-14 03:55:56

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#3 2020-12-14 05:06:43

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#4 2020-12-14 16:03:16

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#5 2020-12-14 22:11:58

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#6 2020-12-15 04:38:51

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#7 2020-12-15 06:40:17

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#8 2020-12-15 07:49:05

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#9 2020-12-15 15:02:16

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#10 2020-12-16 05:38:05

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

#11 2020-12-16 07:01:24

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome desktop completely broken on login - eventually crashes

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