Ubuntu
gdm package

Default gnome session keeps crashing on login

Bug #53862 reported by numerodix
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gdm (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Medium
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-session

I installed dapper last week and for some reason my session keeps crashing. When I log in, I get a message saying my session could not be started and I just see one gnome-terminal on the screen.

$ cat .xsession-errors
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "alex"
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Executing /usr/bin/gnome-session failed, will try to run x-terminal-emulator

$ cat /var/log/messages
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): starting (version 2.14.0), pid 4716 user 'alex'
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/alex/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/debian.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 3
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 4
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-471: starting (version 2.14.0), pid 4718 user 'alex'
Jul 23 23:13:37 frasier gconfd (alex-471: Failed to get lock for daemon, exiting: Failed to lock '/tmp/gconfd-alex/lock/ior': probably another process has the lock, or your operating system has NFS file locking misconfigured (Resource temporarily unavailable)
Jul 23 23:14:01 frasier gconfd (alex-4716): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/alex/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0

I get these messages on every login, I've tried to google them without turning up anything and I don't know what they mean. As far as I'm concerned gconf is black magic anyway.

The funny thing is that when I get that one gnome-terminal and I type "gnome-session", I get my desktop just the way it is, no errors appear.

If I log into "gnome failsafe", that works, but I can't make that my default session, so I need to fix this somehow.

My problem seems to be similar (but not identical) to this one: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185905

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Thanks for your bug report. Could you please try to obtain a
backtrace by following the instructions on
       http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash.
This will greatly aid us in tracking down your problem.

Changed in gnome-session:
status: Unconfirmed → Needs Info
Revision history for this message
numerodix (numerodix) wrote :

I'd love to, but I don't know how. As far as I can tell, gnome-session is started in
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/55gnome-session_gnomerc
which looks like this:

# If we are running the GNOME session, source ~/.gnomerc

BASESTARTUP=`basename "$STARTUP" | cut -d\ -f1`
if [ "$BASESTARTUP" = gnome-session -o \
        \( "$BASESTARTUP" = x-session-manager -a \
        `readlink /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager` = \
                /usr/bin/gnome-session \) ]; then
  GNOMERC=$HOME/.gnomerc
  if [ -r "$GNOMERC" ]; then
    . "$GNOMERC"
  fi
fi

Also, just after I try to log into my session in gdm, it reports that gnome-session crashed, so that's not enough time for me to attach gdb to it.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Can you try sudo apt-get remove --purge gnome-session. than sudo apt-get install gnome-session. Also try this with gdm.

Revision history for this message
numerodix (numerodix) wrote :

That seems to have had no effect at all.

Revision history for this message
numerodix (numerodix) wrote :

Ok, I cracked it. I was getting nowhere and so I decided to reinstall and then iteratively check if and where it would break. It turns out too innocent looking lines in /etc/profile are what made gnome-session run for the hills. I run gentoo on my laptop, I copied that file right over and it broke the login sequence. Without further ado, here they are:

alias ls='ls --color -F'
alias .='cd ..'

The first one I've seen listed as a bug around here, so I commented that one out, but it didn't solve it by itself. Eventually I found out the second one also breaks it.

The question is why it breaks it and whether it should break it. I certainly miss those two, among my most used, aliases. :(

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

my default /etc/profile has nothing like that in it. if this is something you added to profile it isnt concidered a bug.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

closing this bug due to a change the reporter made in his /etc/profile file.

Changed in gnome-session:
status: Needs Info → Rejected
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

The issue has been tracked to gdm and is a parsing issue of a ls command due to the alias usage, that's bug #48876. I'll fix it for dapper-updates and edgy next week

Changed in gnome-session:
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Untriaged → Medium
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