FS#20152 - [gdm] no user available to select for login

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Michael Frey (mfrey) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 19:25 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 19:00 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Jan de Groot (JGC)
Architecture x86_64
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 4
Private No

Details

Usually GDM offers a list with users which you can select for login but there after an system update there is no such list. Reinstalling gdm didn't help either. After booting you have to switch to a consolte and restart gdm to be able to login.

Additional info:
* Version: gdm 2.30.4-1
This task depends upon

Closed by  Jan de Groot (JGC)
Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 19:00 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  Added --since to both consolekit and gdm, now gdm should no longer timeout on very big consolekit history files.
Comment by Ionut Biru (wonder) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 19:34 GMT
how do you start gdm? rc.conf or inittab?
Comment by Michael Frey (mfrey) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 20:04 GMT
I'm starting gdm through rc.conf
Comment by Ionut Biru (wonder) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 20:07 GMT
try using inittab method
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 20:11 GMT
Do you have dbus in DAEMONS, and what is your version of consolekit? This bugreport looks like something that has been fixed ages ago in consolekit.
Comment by Michael Frey (mfrey) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 20:14 GMT
I've had a look on the /etc/inittab file and the line

x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon

was uncommented. I've added a hash symbol and did a reboot. It seems to fix the problem (two reboots and no gdm login issues). I will check it on my desktop machine which has the gdm login issues. Seems to be a pebkac (but I'm pretty sure that I've never uncommentd a line /etc/inittab).
Comment by Michael Frey (mfrey) - Monday, 12 July 2010, 20:26 GMT
I have dbus in my daemons list and my consolekit version ist 0.4.1-2
Comment by Michael Frey (mfrey) - Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 20:48 GMT
So, it's still not working. Ionut Biru suggested to start gdm via inittab, I will try that tomorrow.
Comment by Andreas Neiser (aneiser) - Sunday, 18 July 2010, 17:53 GMT
I experience the same problem, but not just an empty list but just a window with my hostname showing, clicking on it and pressing enter produces some random symbols. It only happens every 2-3 reboots, everytime it didn't work I reinstalled gdm. I'm starting gdm through inittab, dbus is started by hal in rc.conf before. Are there any logfiles I can examine/post in order to help investigating this problem?

Versions:
gdm 2.30.4-1
consolekit 0.4.1-2
Comment by Andreas Neiser (aneiser) - Thursday, 22 July 2010, 13:41 GMT
I've got a bit farer and have a small and ugly workaround (I explain it in more detail if someone with less knowledge wants to reproduce it). If no users at gdm are displayed, then do:

1) Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 --> Get to Login Screen
2) Login as root.
3) Execute "killall gdm-binary". Gdm restarts and shows the user list properly.

No reinstalling or restarting of the whole system is necessary. Maybe this helps the people here to find the bug.
Comment by soul916 (soul916) - Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 22:34 GMT
I've teh same problem, I use rc start gdm, I need switch to text console and restart gdm 1-3 times to get the user list.
Comment by dif (dif) - Thursday, 05 August 2010, 14:26 GMT
I have posted this message in the forum, Here is a temporary solution. Works every time. No need to restart gdm.
1) go to tty1 (CTRL+ALT+F1)
2) find out gdm-simple-greeter process number (ps -A | grep gdm)
3) kill gdm-simple-greeter (kill <process number>
4) switch back to tty7 (CTRL+ALT_F7)
And the user list is there as it should.
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Thursday, 05 August 2010, 14:47 GMT
It looks like the user list is there, but it's simply off-screen. Try pressing enter when the login screen doesn't show up, it should select your user. On my laptop I sometimes face this problem, pressing enter brings up the password prompt then.
Comment by Andreas Neiser (aneiser) - Thursday, 05 August 2010, 15:13 GMT
@Jan de Groot: No, I think this bug is different. Sometimes, my user is not selected and there's no password prompt (so I experience the same as you), but furthermore sometimes I cannot select any user since there are none listed. Maybe someone can find out what gdm-simple-greeter has to do with it...

Here is the forum thread dif is referring to: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=100329
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Friday, 06 August 2010, 08:20 GMT
Try deleting the logfile /var/log/ConsoleKit/history

Does that make the problem disappear?
Comment by soul916 (soul916) - Sunday, 08 August 2010, 00:24 GMT
kill gdm-simple-greeter works
Comment by Andreas Neiser (aneiser) - Sunday, 08 August 2010, 08:41 GMT
Okay, I did a rm /var/log/ConsoleKit/history, I will report if it happens again.
@soul916: But you have to kill gdm-simple-greeter every time when no users are displayed?! (so this is just a temporary workaround?)
Comment by Ionut Biru (wonder) - Sunday, 08 August 2010, 08:45 GMT
this issue is fixed in git master branch for gdm and consolekit. the sad thing is that they have way to much commits for this,especially gdm and backporting them kinda suck.

instead of i chose to include a logrotate configure for /var/log/ConsoleKit/history, weekly. so in a week after updating to consolekit 0.4.1-3 everything would work normally.
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Sunday, 08 August 2010, 08:46 GMT
Don't be too sure about that, as ConsoleKit uses the rotated logfiles also resulting in even more slowdowns. Without the --since parameter from git master, ConsoleKit will just process all files.
Comment by soul916 (soul916) - Sunday, 08 August 2010, 23:32 GMT
@Adreas Neiser: kill gdm-simple-greeter need every time like restart gdm

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