karmic: gdm should not start in single user (recovery) mode

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
 * What do you mean that gdm starts in recovery mode anyway now?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

I am hitting the same problem. This reproduces 100% of the time. Additionally, it takes me to the system configuration screen. It has somehawe reset the hostname of my laptop, too, and asks me to create a new user apart from asking about keyboard layout, time zone, & language.

Known bug, pitti was adding the necessary check for the single-user mode options

Fixed in bzr.

This bug was fixed in the package gdm - 2.27.90-0ubuntu7

---------------
gdm (2.27.90-0ubuntu7) karmic; urgency=low

  [ Ken VanDine ]
  * debian/patches/10_xsplash.patch:
    - Use --daemon instead of using the "&" (LP: #430834)
  * debian/control:
    - Conflict with xsplash (<< 0.8), we don't depend on xsplash but if
      /usr/bin/xsplash exists we need it to support the --daemon option

  [ Martin Pitt ]
  * debian/gdm.upstart: Drop gdm-cdd.conf handling, gdm does not support it
    any more.
  * debian/gdm.upstart: Do not start in single-user modes or when "text" is
    given as a kernel command line option. This restores previous behaviour.
    (LP: #431176)
  * Add debian/onboard.desktop: gdm "onboard" configuration for the
    accessibility dialog, thanks to Francesco Fumanti!
  * debian/rules: Install onboard.desktop, remove gok.desktop from upstream
    install. We do not ship gok any more. (LP: #423831, #130368)

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:22:46 +0200

If I understand the fix correctly, this is a bad idea.

It used to be, until recently (karmic bleeding edge), that I could boot the recovery option,
do my stuff in single-user mode, and proceed to a graphical boot.
But now, not only GDM doesn't run by itself, running it manually appears to have no effect!
I'm forced to reboot in normal mode to get GDM.

/etc/init/gdm.conf is the wrong place to do this decision.
It causes a manual "start gdm" to silently fail!

The correct way to not start gdm automatically would be to boot into a different runlevel.
IIRC on debian runlevels 2 and 3 (?) don't include GDM.

And it's not clear that single-user "recovery" mode is a 1:1 indication that a text-only mode is desired.
- If generally useful, it could be a (third?) option in the boot menu.
- If sometimes useful after recovery, the "Resume normal boot" menu option could be split into
   2 options: "Resume normal graphical boot" vs. "Resume boot to text-only login."
- If the motivating desire is convenience of recovery work with full-fledged login,
  maybe the recovery menu should be enhanced to offer many consoles, job control etc.
  (I got used to automatically start single-user work with several "openvt" commands.)

Beni Cherniavsky [2009-10-08 11:42 -0000]:
> It used to be, until recently (karmic bleeding edge), that I could boot the recovery option,
> do my stuff in single-user mode, and proceed to a graphical boot.
> But now, not only GDM doesn't run by itself, running it manually appears to have no effect!
> I'm forced to reboot in normal mode to get GDM.

"telinit 2" to change the runlevel doesn't work?

> And it's not clear that single-user "recovery" mode is a 1:1
> indication that a text-only mode is desired.

It traditionally behaved that way, and changes to this are way outside
of the scope of this bug report IMHO.

Martin
--
Martin Pitt | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com) | Debian Developer (www.debian.org)