gdm: where art thou?

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

GDM just refuses to work.
KDM works fine, but GDM just doesn't work.
What happens is that I start GDM, the X server starts and immediately exits.

I enabled debug in the conf file and here's the relevant output.
(I've also tried stepping through the code, but couldn't really figure out where the problem was. I also tried strace and that didn't help either.)

Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_main: Here we go...
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_start_first_unborn_local: Starting :0
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_display_manage: Managing :0
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Resetting counts for loop of death detection
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_display_manage: Forked slave: 9188
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_slave_start: Starting slave process for :0
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_slave_start: Loop Thingie
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending VT_NUM == -1 for slave 9188
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending VT_NUM 9188 -1
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Handling message: 'VT_NUM 9188 -1'
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Got VT_NUM == -1
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_usr2_handler: :0 got USR2 signal
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_start: :0
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_auth_secure_display: Setting up access for :0
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_auth_secure_display: Setting up socket access
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_auth_secure_display: Setting up network access
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_auth_secure_display: Setting up access for :0 - 5 entries
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending COOKIE == <secret> for slave 9188
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending COOKIE 9188 3e8694666518acd4e3878c6f5a9e868f
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Handling message: 'COOKIE 9188 3e...'
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Got COOKIE == <secret>
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_usr2_handler: :0 got USR2 signal
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_spawn: Forked server on pid 9189
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_start: Before mainloop waiting for server
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_spawn: '/usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth'
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_server_usr1_handler: Got SIGUSR1, server running
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_start: After mainloop waiting for server
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_server_start: Completed :0!
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending XPID == 9189 for slave 9188
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Sending XPID 9188 9189
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Handling message: 'XPID 9188 9189'
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] Got XPID == 9189
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_usr2_handler: :0 got USR2 signal
Aug 14 15:55:33 [gdm] gdm_slave_run: Opening display :0
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Sending START_NEXT_LOCAL
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Handling message: 'START_NEXT_LOCAL'
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_slave_greeter: Running greeter on :0
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_slave_greeter: Greeter on pid 9194
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Sending GREETPID == 9194 for slave 9188
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Sending GREETPID 9188 9194
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_child_handler
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Handling message: 'GREETPID 9188 9194'
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Got GREETPID == 9194
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_usr2_handler: :0 got USR2 signal
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] id: 32
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] starting greeter: /usr/bin/gdmgreeter
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_child_handler
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_child_handler: 9194 died
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_slave_child_handler: 9194 returned 1
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_server_stop: Server for :0 going down!
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_server_stop: Killing server pid 9189
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] (child 9188) gdm_server_stop: Server pid 9189 dead
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] mainloop_sig_callback: Got signal 17
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_cleanup_children: child 9188 returned 2
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_child_action: Slave process returned 2
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_display_manage: Managing :0
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] Will sleep 6 seconds before next X server restart attempt
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_display_manage: Forked slave: 9195
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] main: Exited main loop
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_slave_start: Starting slave process for :0
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_slave_start: Loop Thingie
Aug 14 15:55:35 [gdm] gdm_slave_run: Sleeping 6 seconds before server start
Aug 14 15:55:37 [gdm] mainloop_sig_callback: Got signal 2
Aug 14 15:55:37 [gdm] mainloop_sig_callback: Got TERM/INT. Going down!
Aug 14 15:55:37 [gdm] final_cleanup
Aug 14 15:55:37 [gdm] gdm_display_unmanage: Stopping :0 (slave pid: 9195)

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

P.S. I personally just login on the console and just use xinit to start the X server, but I'm trying to get gdm working so that I can let other people login in an easier manner.

mglauche · Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2002 8:21 pm Post subject:

from the log it looks so as something is wrong with your X11 setup (server :0 is dying, not good !) Can you look into your Xfree log if there's something interesting there ?

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

dave_euser · n00b Joined: 07 Jul 2002 Posts: 42

By any chance, have you updated Freetype, Pango and GDM recently? After I emerged the latest versions, something was wrong with freetype (I'm too busy to sort it out....seemed like a pretty in-depth problem), thus with pango, and then with gdm........nothing that needed to render fonts through gtk+2 worked......

Try starting X from a command line.....if it opens up the gnome splash screen, then hangs right away without displaying any fonts, chances are you've got the same problem I had. I had to ack out the latest versions of Freetype, Pango, and GDM to what I had previously.

Dave

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

dave_euser · n00b Joined: 07 Jul 2002 Posts: 42

what happens when you log in as root, and just run "gdm" from the CLI? Anything interesting?

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

IWBCMAN · Guru Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 474

I am not sure if my problem was the same(ie. I don't know how to turn on debug) but after I did an emerge --update world a couple of days ago my gdm died, but no not just gdm -everything which needed gtk+2- gdm bailed out telling me that it couldn't start the X server at display :0...I deleted gdm from rc-update and tried kdm. KDM load fine, but when I tried to get into gnome, everything was all screwed up, metacity was dead... I tried to find out where the problem was, I kept getting messages about setting configuration files not being found, a bare-bones gnome panel ran, but lacking pixmaps and all the normal gtk+2 stuff, I had no window manager and the kdm background was underlying everything.....I deinstalled(unmerged) by hand (kportagemaster) everything related to gnome I could find and did an emege gnome. well several hours later I found that none of my gnome apps worked...and I mean none....seg faults everywhere....so I did an emerge -e world gnome, that got interupted by a compile failure in ghostscript(w/ gcc3.2 only -march=02 -pipe succeeds in compiling ghostscript), I then spent hours trying to figure out how feed the output from the emerge -pe world gnome, starting from the point after ghostscript(which I compiled independently with other CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS), back into the emerge command without any notable susccess. I finally decided to simply do an emerge -e gnome, I did a pretend first and made sure that ghostcript did't show up. many, many hours later, and after remerging galeon, the emerge came to an end and I hesitantly typed into my konsole shell "gnome-terminal" -et voila, c'etait la, and worked wonderfully, I added xdm back to rc-update and rebooted, later I figure out that my XftConfig had been replaced, so after deleting the new and renaming the original all of my fonts started working again...unfortunately all of work which I had put into configure the gnome desktop in the last days was for naught, I deleted everything gnome related I could find to try to get gnome back up and running, including all of my preferences, menu entries, etc..........my problem is solved, now....

does anybody know why the gdm theme selector refuses to install valid new themes, -it bails out each time saying a GDMThemeGreeter.ini file is missing, yet in the gdm-themes which were installed in the default install there is no such file...I copied my theme-directory over to /usr/share/gdm/themes, I can see the new themes in the gdm theme selector but they are not being utilized(ie. I change the theme, but when I reboot it revetrts back to the original as if the new one isn there.....

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

kryptolus · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 15

Just had the same thing happen on my laptop.
GDM was working.
Installed a lot of stuff (including KDE) and after that GDM stopped working in the same exact manner.

vinz · Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2002 10:27 am Post subject:

i have problems with gdm too.
kdm works fine. startx works fine

here is how i start it:

$ gdm
gdm starts, i select gnome, log in, and it just restarts the X server (just like ctrl alt backspace) and im back at the gdm login screen.
now the wired thing: if i select kde 3 as session, kde starts fine. now, when i exit kde, and log in with gnome, it works fine too... same on my laptop and my box at work. i had the same problem when i used redhat 7.3 a while ago too.

with kdm, everything works normal