gdm hangs before login

Thank you for your bug. What session do you choice on the login screen? Could you attach your /var/log/messages /var/log/syslog /var/log/Xorg.0.log after getting the hang? Do you get the splash screen? Is "ping 127.0.0.1" working correctly?

I'm not sure what you mean by "what session do you choice"; in GRUB I go with the newest kernel version (currently 2.6.17-11-386), gdm doesn't get as far as the login screen, and at the command line I just enter my username and password.

I get the first Ubuntu loading screen, with the progress bar, and then go to a blank light-brown page, which is where it hangs.

ping 127.0.0.1 seems to work exactly as normal.

I've attached my /var/log/messages

/var/log/syslog

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

the session can be choosed in the gdm menu. Any reason you still use 2.6.17 and not 2.6.20 on feisty? There is nothing interesting in the logs the bug is not confirmed on other installation though so it's likely to be due to some locale change. Does it happen with an another user on the same installation?

I'm not getting as far as the gdm menu, it's hanging just before that.

I was using 2.6.20 before, with the same bug happening, but I stepped back to an earlier kernel in case that would fix the problem. It didn't.

The same problem happens for any user, because it hangs *before* login.

marking unconfirmed then, I don't get that bug. Maybe somebody else having the issue can work on it

HI,

   My friend's laptop has the same problem. We installed Ubuntu 6.10 from CD, and immediately
   upgraded to Feisty. After the upgrade, when we rebooted the laptop, it booted but we just
   get the 'busy' mouse cursor and a blank screen. presumably gdm hangs.

   However as OP has seen, C-A-F1 etc. works and killall gdm && startx works fine.

   seems to be a bug with GDM.

   the laptop specs are:
   Dell inspiron 1501,
   AMD Turion64 Processor,
   ATI video card.

-vikas

Do you still get the bug?

I'm seeing something similar, I think, in gutsy. After recent xorg updates, I can't login with any user via either GDM or KDM, except the two failsafe options. I enter the user/pass, and get just the busy cursor. If I login to the failsafe terminal, I can run kdestart or whatever and that works. In my .xsession-errors file, I see a lot of references as follows:

[debug log]
max lines = 1000
Checking for nVidia: present.
Starting Xgl with options: -accel xv:fbo -accel glx:pbuffer -nolisten tcp -fullscreen -br +xinerama
*** stack smashing detected ***: Xgl terminated
xmodmap: unable to open display ':1'
xsetroot: unable to open display ':1'
xset: unable to open display ":1"
xset: unable to open display ":1"
xsetroot: unable to open display ':1'
startkde: Starting up...
ksplash: cannot connect to X server :1
xprop: unable to open display ':1'
usage: xprop [-options ...] [[format [dformat]] atom] ...

GDM logs don't show anything unusual, nor does the messages file. It should also be noted that I do not have desktop effects enabled. Nor am I using compiz/beryl.

looks like you are using Xgl though, does it happen when using the normal xorg?

I wasn't using XGL. Simply having it installed was enough to keep me from being able to login. I've dong a dpkg --purge xserver-xgl, and can now log in as expected. I was also logging in to display 0, not 1.

This bug seems to have been hijacked by an unrelated Xgl bug. The initial reporter wasn't using Xgl, and didn't get as far as the GDM login screen.

Bouncing this bug back to gdm.

@Rob - if you can still reproduce, could you please open a new bug against xserver-xgl attaching the output of "DISPLAY=:0 glxinfo", please?

could you try if that's still happening on gutsy?

After the last few xorg updates, it's stopped. I'll open a new bug under xgl if it comes back.

A friend of mine was recently bit by this bug too. They also upgraded to 7.04 from 6.10. After the upgrade, the system would simply hang at the busy cursor while loading GDM. To correct the problem on their machine I purged gdm and ubuntu-desktop (since it depends on gdm) and reinstalled them. After reinstalling these two packages everything appears to be working fine.

I have been struggling with this problem for a week and have setup a multi boot so I can fight the problem while booting into the system under 7.04. I will be willing to follow anyone's suggestions.

I have found 2 strange things in my attempts.
The login hangs before any text or text boxes appear.
I do not have networking although it worked on the live cd.
This is repeatable under xubuntu 7.10 and ubuntu 7.10

I have nvidia 8600 multi screen setup
core 2 duo
2 gigs ram
2 hds

I'm experiencing this same bug, but on Hardy heron Beta (8.04) started to experience this issues with packages updated during 04/03/08

I have the same problem on Hardy Heron Beta after updating the packages on 4/3/08.

Reinstalling the packages (dpkg --purge and then install again) as suggested in previous comments helped!

What information would be needed to help isolate this bug? I'd be willing to setup some virtual machines in an effort to replicate this bug and capture the desired information. Just let me know what information you'd like.

does anybody still get the issue in hardy or intrepid?

I am having the same bug in Intrepid. Quite annoying indeed. I imagine it has something (perhaps?) to do with my Nvidia card. I was able to install it with no problem on my old Dell Laptop.

My current problem is on my HP Pavilion with an Nvidia graphics card. If I use the Ubuntu or Kubuntu CDs, instead of getting to the login screen the screen just goes black. I installed Kubuntu with the alternate CD but it froze on KDM.

Interestingly enough, I installed Ubuntu Studio last night and that worked fine. I wanted to get KDE on it, so I installed Kubuntu and set GDM to be default. After I restarted the computer, it froze at GDM. It seems to be a bug with GDM or KDM.

Kind of hard to fix things when you can't even log in (I am not too great with console).

I got the same problem last night when I upgraded from Hardy to Intrepid. My initial suspicion is that it's related to my having installed kde4 last week, and the packages now being removed during the upgrade. Maybe gdm thinks kde4 is still installed but can't find something it needs? I'd appreciate some hints on how to proceed, as I can get a command line but networking is not running and I can't (yet) figure out how to use dhclient with my wireless network. It will be difficult to upload any log files until I can get the networking to run.

I did some testing and found that my wireless card was creating the problem. I took it out and have not had a problem since.

Did you replace your wireless card with a cable? I suspect, though I don't really know, that my wireless networking only starts after I log in, because it has to get the authentication information stored in my wallet. If I had a cable I suppose the networking could start earlier in the boot process. The wireless worked fine for the upgrade to Hardy, and for months before that, so I'm reluctant to suspect it. Running a cable all the way across my house is not really an option :-).

I am using a cable now. I have been having problems with wireless for about a year though. I always install Kubuntu. It used to be that when Kubuntu would connect to wireless, it would freeze. I would would install Ubuntu first and connect through network manager then install Kubuntu after that. With the latest release though it does not work in either. You may wish to check some of your other hardware if you don't think it is your wireless.

It seems German speakers have this problem too:

http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/problem-mit-login-screen/#post-1681218

Herr GorillaBiscuit gives some instructions... I'll try them this evening and let you know if it gets better.

GorillaBiscuit's idea didn't help. I tried wychwood's workaround of removing /etc/init.d/gdm so I could get to a text interface login. That worked, so I ran startx. That displayed my usual wallpaper, but no panel started and there were no icons displayed. Then the screen froze with the wait cursor displayed just as in the original bug. Does this sound like the problem occurring without gdm?

I just installed kdm as well, and ran it, and it failed in the same way. I guess it's an X bug? I still can't get wireless networking going, but wired is fine. Someone please give me some hint on what I can do to help diagnose this!

On my machine, it definitely looks like a problem with NVidia Drivers.
I installed 8.04. The moment I said yes to restricted drivers, it stopped booting. If I remove restricted drivers, then it boots fine with default 800x600 resolution. It's repeatable.

I also tried using nvidia-glx-new, as suggested in a forum, but that doesn't help either.

does anybody still get the issue in jaunty and could summarize how to trigger the bug?

As far as I can remember, it was problem with nvidia drivers. 7.10 used to
work fine, but upgrading to 8.04 messed up the entire install.

Sorry, I got fed up and removed ubuntu. Will try again with 9.04 when I get
time.
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On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 7:51 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> does anybody still get the issue in jaunty and could summarize how to
> trigger the bug?
>
> --
> gdm hangs before login
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/113067
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “gdm” source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gdm
>
> I upgraded to Feisty from a clean Edgy install on an HP Compaq nx9030
> laptop, and when I boot up it now goes through the first stages fine, but
> hangs before login, shortly after the background appears, with a timer wheel
> cursor displaying. Switching to another terminal allows me to log in and
> perform standard command line operations, although not to start X since that
> is already running.
>
> Deleting the /etc/init.d/gdm script caused the system to go straight to the
> command line prompt, and starting X manually from there works fine with full
> desktop functionality (bar features such as user switching which are
> presumably gdm dependent). Copying the gdm script over from another machine
> running Edgy (in case that was the source of the problem) produced the same
> hang as with the original script. Uninstalling and reinstalling the gdm and
> xserver-xorg packages, running dpkg-reconfigure and dpkg --configure -a, and
> switching to an earlier kernel all had no effect.
>

closing the bug it's a collection of issue most being drivers one, if you still have an issue in jaunty open a new bug

i have this issue now. running ubuntu 9.10. i can run "startx" and the system works better-than-great. but if i use "gdm", it will "hang" with the only recourse a hard-boot. if you want to see any logs or configs or whatever, let me know.

I have this issue on JJ as well, running in a VMWare session. I have Erik's same issue, wherin immediately upon the login screen appearing, the OS will completely hang. Startx works fine. I get the same issue if I run gdm via command line. On 2 occasions it has just simply worked (one normal boot and one command-line typed gdm), but then it stops working the next reboot.

I suspect it has something to do with audio. Question... John.... does your audio work when you do the "startx" version of running the O/S ? Mine does not.

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? If so, please feel free to mark this bug as new. Thanks!

Hi, It's a very old problem. I have upgraded the same machine to latest
version of Ubuntu, and I don't see following errors.
Thanks for all your support.

Regards,
Manish Singh

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On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 3:31 PM, rusivi1 <email address hidden> wrote:

> We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't
> heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested
> information? If so, please feel free to mark this bug as new. Thanks!
>
> --
> gdm hangs before login
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/113067
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “gdm” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gdm
>
> I upgraded to Feisty from a clean Edgy install on an HP Compaq nx9030
> laptop, and when I boot up it now goes through the first stages fine, but
> hangs before login, shortly after the background appears, with a timer wheel
> cursor displaying. Switching to another terminal allows me to log in and
> perform standard command line operations, although not to start X since that
> is already running.
>
> Deleting the /etc/init.d/gdm script caused the system to go straight to the
> command line prompt, and starting X manually from there works fine with full
> desktop functionality (bar features such as user switching which are
> presumably gdm dependent). Copying the gdm script over from another machine
> running Edgy (in case that was the source of the problem) produced the same
> hang as with the original script. Uninstalling and reinstalling the gdm and
> xserver-xorg packages, running dpkg-reconfigure and dpkg --configure -a, and
> switching to an earlier kernel all had no effect.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/113067/+subscribe
>