Arch Linux

djipey

Member

Registered: 2011-07-30

Posts: 158

[solved] GDM seems broken, Cinnamon session doesn't start

Hi,

My computer has been on for 5 days and I have been regularly installing updates. *Something* happened in the last 5 days and broke the login. It looks like GDM isn't able to start my Cinnamon session.

Current behaviour: I start my computer, it boots, and I land on a white screen saying: "Oh no, something wrong has happened. Contact your system administrator blablabla". I can start a TTY session and I can run any command. If I run `startx`, my cinnamon session starts properly.

.xinitrc (if I'm not mistaken, this file is only used when I run startx, it shouldn't be used if GDM works properly, correct?):

QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME='gtk2'
exec cinnamon-session

The GDM service is started and enabled.

Here are the journalctl logs of the GDM service from my previous session, when everything was working fine:

-- Boot feac2f358a9a46e3b0c47ad7b41258fc --
Sep 14 13:04:44 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Starting GNOME Display Manager...
Sep 14 13:04:44 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Started GNOME Display Manager.
Sep 14 13:04:44 djipey-desk gdm-launch-environment][699]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): New sd-bus connection (system-bus-pam-systemd-699) opened.
Sep 14 13:04:51 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: pam_systemd_home(gdm-password:auth): New sd-bus connection (system-bus-pam-systemd-home-1702) opened.
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: gkr-pam: stashed password to try later in open session
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user djipey(uid=1000) by djipey(uid=0)
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: pam_systemd(gdm-password:session): New sd-bus connection (system-bus-pam-systemd-1702) opened.
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm-password][1702]: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring
Sep 14 13:04:56 djipey-desk gdm[652]: Gdm: on_display_added: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Sep 14 13:05:08 djipey-desk gdm[652]: Gdm: Child process -719 was already dead.
Sep 14 13:05:08 djipey-desk gdm[652]: Gdm: on_display_removed: assertion 'GDM_IS_REMOTE_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Sep 19 19:50:35 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Stopping GNOME Display Manager...
Sep 19 19:50:35 djipey-desk systemd[1]: gdm.service: Deactivated successfully.
Sep 19 19:50:35 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Stopped GNOME Display Manager.
-- Boot 685ff297e13e4e39a95f2703e0382a36 --

These are the logs for a broken session:

Sep 19 19:50:59 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Starting GNOME Display Manager...
Sep 19 19:50:59 djipey-desk systemd[1]: Started GNOME Display Manager.
Sep 19 19:50:59 djipey-desk gdm-launch-environment][722]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): New sd-bus connection (system-bus-pam-systemd-722) opened.
Sep 19 19:51:01 djipey-desk gdm[677]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Sep 19 19:51:01 djipey-desk gdm[677]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Sep 19 19:51:01 djipey-desk gdm-launch-environment][897]: pam_systemd(gdm-launch-environment:session): New sd-bus connection (system-bus-pam-systemd-897) opened.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling a few packages (gdm, cinnamon, gnome, etc) but I admit these were shots in the dark, I don't know exactly what's going on. Would you have any idea please?

Last edited by djipey (2024-09-20 08:07:47)

pvizc

Member

Registered: 2018-04-09

Posts: 5

Re: [solved] GDM seems broken, Cinnamon session doesn't start

This is a known bug in gnome 47. A fix is in the way but in the mean time, you can downgrade gnome-shell and mutter to 46.5

See: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2197094

Last edited by pvizc (2024-09-20 07:37:57)

djipey

Member

Registered: 2011-07-30

Posts: 158

Re: [solved] GDM seems broken, Cinnamon session doesn't start

Bang on, thanks so much