gdm sometimes fails to switch to VT7 after new upstart merge

Bug #434361 reported by Maxim Levitsky
128
This bug affects 25 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
usplash (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Colin Watson

Bug Description

This is fully updated ubuntu 9.10

gdm sometimes doesn't start.
Then I log into console, then I see that it is running, but hung somewhere.

I then type
sudo stop gdm
sudo start gdm

And then it works.

This began with transition to upstart scripts
I suspect some race condition

tags: added: ubuntu-boot
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Scott, any idea if that's an upstart or gdm issue and how to debug those?

Changed in gdm (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Scott James Remnant (scott)
importance: Undecided → Medium
tags: removed: ubuntu-boot
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Robbie, why did you remove the ubuntu-boot tag there? The issue seems a upstart boot race one...

Revision history for this message
Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott) wrote : Re: [Bug 434361] Re: gdm sometimes fails to start after new upstart merge

On Tue, 2009-09-22 at 11:27 +0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:

> Scott, any idea if that's an upstart or gdm issue and how to debug
> those?
>
I don't know how to debug gdm.

First would be to find out why gdm doesn't start, e.g. gdm's logs or X's
logs, and thus find out what it's missing.

Scott
--
Scott James Remnant
<email address hidden>

Revision history for this message
Robbie Williamson (robbiew) wrote :

On 09/22/2009 01:31 PM, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Robbie, why did you remove the ubuntu-boot tag there? The issue seems a
> upstart boot race one...
>
We're using that tag to track must-fix Beta boot peformance/experience bugs
right now, and while I consider this important...I don't consider must-fix.
Will add the tag back after Beta.

Revision history for this message
Maxim Levitsky (maximlevitsky) wrote : Re: gdm sometimes fails to start after new upstart merge

Yea....
Everytime my system boots, I am peresented with console, then I have to log in, and restart gdm from there....
Tommorow I try to see how I could help with that.

Meanwhile this is 90% reproducible

Revision history for this message
Maxim Levitsky (maximlevitsky) wrote :

I have very interesting results.

I found out that in fact, gdm doesn't 'fail to start' in fact it starts just fine.
What happens is that somebody switches console to VT1.
Then if I switch back to VT7, gdm starts its work, and in few seconds I see login windows.

Revision history for this message
Harry (harry33) wrote :

My Karmic Ubuntu 64-bit system seems to be affected by this one too.
For me this happens on every boot. It started on 22 September after the updates.
Before that I could always enter xsplash.
Now my Karmic never enters xsplash. Instead after the grub I always get usplash, with a new look as from today.
I do not have cryptsetup installed. I have tested this with Karmics nv-driver and also with NVidias 185 and 190 drivers.
My videocard is GTX285.
Now, after usplash the screen stays black. If I hit any key, I can then see tty1 and login the prompt.
From there I can get to xsplash (and gdm and x) by logging in and typing "sudo restart gdm"
or by changing to tty7 (ctrl+alt+F7), when the xsplash and gdm and finally x start automatically.
But yes something goes wrong when booting and the system is set to tty1.

Harry (harry33)
Changed in gdm (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Harry (harry33) wrote :

Today I reinstalled all my latest kernel packages (2.6.31-10).
I did this just to make sure it wasn't broken somehow.
You see, everytime x started, I did get a crash report informing of a serious kernel issue and suggesting a restart.
After that my Karmic started to behave like it should:
booting: grub (hidden menu) -> xsplash -> gdm -> xsplash -> x
shutting down: usplash - power down.
So my issue is fixed now.

Harry (harry33)
Changed in gdm (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → New
Revision history for this message
Robbie Williamson (robbiew) wrote :

@Maxim: Are you still experiencing this bug with the latest updates installed?

Changed in gdm (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Mike Basinger (mike.basinger) wrote :

Re-installing kernel packages fixed it for me also.

Revision history for this message
Mike Basinger (mike.basinger) wrote :

Wonder if it is a issue with dkms, since people on the forums who had this problem were all using NVidia video drivers.

Revision history for this message
Mike Basinger (mike.basinger) wrote :

Problem is back after second reboot.

Revision history for this message
Maxim Levitsky (maximlevitsky) wrote :

Here I can't reproduce it anymore.

I know for sure that this bug is usplash related.
I found that workaround few days ago, I just boot the system without 'splash' argument, and all works just fine.
Now usplash is loaded from initrd, so maybe a kernel update fixed that.

Revision history for this message
Harry (harry33) wrote :

Mike, I do have a NVidia video card, but please note that I did also try booting without restricted NVidia drivers, using only the community nv-driver and the problem did not go away. So I do not think it is a dkms issue.
But reinstalling all kernel packages did fix it for me. Also the warnings about having serious kernel issue disappeared.
Obviously my problem had something to do with the kernel.
Have you tested the new 2.6.31.11 kernel?

Revision history for this message
Tuomas Aavikko (taavikko) wrote :

This also affects KDM,

Boot process will stand in VT1 unless manually starting "sudo kdm start"

Revision history for this message
Tuomas Aavikko (taavikko) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Tuomas Aavikko (taavikko) wrote :
Revision history for this message
totzo (tim) wrote :

still a problem in 2.6.31.11 kernel. I'm using nvidia restricted drivers.

Revision history for this message
Tuomas Aavikko (taavikko) wrote :

My problem seems to be related to: #437067

Revision history for this message
martinpm24 (martin-tecnodoc) wrote :

i'm using nvidia restricted too, the same problem, i have to do ctrl-alt-f7 to start.

Revision history for this message
Jose Bernardo (bernardo-bandos) wrote :

Intel poulsbo drivers. Unfortunately, also only "sudo kdm start" works.
Any recomended upstart commands just crap out - "sudo service kdm start" or "start kdm", even though recommended by "sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start" don't work.

Martin Pitt (pitti)
summary: - gdm sometimes fails to start after new upstart merge
+ gdm sometimes fails to switch to VT7 after new upstart merge
Revision history for this message
Daniel Holbach (dholbach) wrote :

To me this happens with the 'nv' driver on amd64 and gdm.

Revision history for this message
der_vegi (m-may) wrote :

I have a similar problem to the one Harry has (comment #7): When I boot up Karmic (Alpha 6 and daily-live 2009-09-28), everything goes fine, but instead of gdm showing up, I get a black screen. When I hit any key, I see tty1. Not logging in, just pressing Control+Alt+F7 starts gdm and I can normally login without a problem. My graphics card is an Ati RS482 [Radeon Xpress 200M], no proprietary driver.
Any more information, I can provide?

Revision history for this message
Harry (harry33) wrote :

There is a dublicate to this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180/+bug/436578

Hi der_vegi,
have you tried to reinstall all the kernel packages (2.6.31-11).
For me that fixed the problem completely.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

This does appear to be best fixed in usplash - specifically, by converting usplash to Upstart jobs. I'm working on this.

affects: gdm (Ubuntu) → usplash (Ubuntu)
Changed in usplash (Ubuntu):
assignee: Scott James Remnant (scott) → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package usplash - 0.5.39

---------------
usplash (0.5.39) karmic; urgency=low

  * Convert usplash to Upstart jobs, so that we handle VT switching on
    startup/shutdown properly again (LP: #434361). This makes use of a new
    'starting-dm' event emitted by display manager jobs, so declare Breaks
    on gdm and kdm versions that don't do this.
  * Add -t option to set the initial timeout without having to wait for the
    fifo to appear. (Upstart jobs don't tend to talk to usplash at the
    moment, so we need a longer timeout to start with in the initramfs,
    until we get as far as running init scripts.)
  * Add --ignore-sigterm option as a temporary hack to make it easier to use
    Upstart's built-in process-killing code.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:26:00 +0100

Changed in usplash (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
tankdriver (stoneraider-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

usplash - 0.5.39 works for me.
Thank you all!

Revision history for this message
NaNo (olivier-n) wrote :

usplash - 0.5.39 fixed the problem for me too.
Thanks !

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