Comment 2 for bug 9902

Message-Id: <email address hidden>
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 11:39:17 +0000
From: Nigel Stephens <email address hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <email address hidden>
Subject: gdm: gdm repeatedly exits - gnome problem?

Package: gdm
Version: 2.6.0.4-1
Severity: grave

This started happening only after I did a update/upgrade cycle with
synaptic two days ago. My previous upgrade had probably been a week or
two before.

The problem is that gdm starts, the X server displays its default
initial "checkerboard" root window, the cursor changes to a revolving
wheel, and the gdm exits or crashes. This repeats 6 times until the
error is reported via a text screen and I can then run /etc/init.d/gdm
stop.

If I run the X server manually I can get a basic X server and xterm to come
up (no window manager). So the basic X server is OK.

If I run "startx" which I think should bring up a gnome desktop
session, then this hangs and/or eventually exits after bring up the
default X server initial root screen a couple of time.

So I think that this is probably an underlying gnome problem, rather
than a bug in gdm, but I don't know how to diagnose this. Perhaps you
can suggest how to get some more useful logs, or insight into the
problem.

Thanks

Nigel Stephens

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.6-1-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages gdm depends on:
ii adduser 3.59 Add and remove users and groups
ii debconf 1.4.36 Debian configuration management sy
ii dpkg 1.10.23 Package maintenance system for Deb
ii gksu 1.2.2-1 graphical frontend to su
ii gnome-session 2.6.2-6 The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii gnome-terminal [x-termina 2.6.1-6 The GNOME 2 terminal emulator appl
ii libart-2.0-2 2.3.16-6 Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii libatk1.0-0 1.6.1-5 The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii libattr1 2.4.18-1 Extended attribute shared library
ii libaudiofile0 0.2.6-4 Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii libbonobo2-0 2.6.2-7 Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii libbonoboui2-0 2.6.1-1 The Bonobo UI library
ii libbz2-1.0 1.0.2-1 A high-quality block-sorting file
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-18 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libcroco3 0.6.0-2 a generic Cascading Style Sheet (C
ii libesd-alsa0 [libesd0] 0.2.35-2 Enlightened Sound Daemon (ALSA) -
ii libgconf2-4 2.6.4-2 GNOME configuration database syste
ii libgcrypt11 1.2.0-6 LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii libglade2-0 1:2.4.0-1 Library to load .glade files at ru
ii libglib2.0-0 2.4.7-1 The GLib library of C routines
ii libgnome-keyring0 0.2.1-3 GNOME keyring services library
ii libgnome2-0 2.6.1.2-2 The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii libgnomecanvas2-0 2.6.1.1-2 A powerful object-oriented display
ii libgnomeui-0 2.6.1.1cvs-1 The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii libgnomevfs2-0 2.6.2-2 The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii libgnutls11 1.0.16-9 GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii libgpg-error0 1.0-1 library for common error values an
ii libgsf-1 1.10.1-1 Structured File Library - runtime
ii libgtk2.0-0 2.4.13-1 The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii libice6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libjpeg62 6b-9 The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
ii liborbit2 1:2.10.2-1.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii libpam-modules 0.76-22 Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii libpam-runtime 0.76-22 Runtime support for the PAM librar
ii libpam0g 0.76-22 Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii libpango1.0-0 1.4.1-4 Layout and rendering of internatio
ii libpopt0 1.7-5 lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii librsvg2-2 2.8.1-1 SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii libselinux1 1.16-2 SELinux shared libraries
ii libsm6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 X Window System Session Management
ii libtasn1-2 0.2.10-4 Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii libwrap0 7.6.dbs-6 Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii libx11-6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 X Window System protocol client li
ii libxext6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii libxml2 2.6.11-5 GNOME XML library
ii metacity [x-window-manage 1:2.8.1-4 A lightweight GTK2 based Window Ma
ii xbase-clients 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 miscellaneous X clients
ii xlibs 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 X Window System client libraries m
ii xterm [x-terminal-emulato 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 X terminal emulator
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.2-1 compression library - runtime

-- debconf information:
  gdm/daemon_name: /usr/bin/gdm
  shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm