GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 722804
gdm fails to start X login screen
Last modified: 2014-02-08 16:12:15 UTC
When I run gdm (as root) from console, the screen goes blank and then aborts the attempt to set up the login screen. The errors I get are as follows: ---- <5>Failed to give slave programs access to the display. Trying to proceed. <5>Child process -11267 was already dead. <3>GLib-GObject: g_object_ref: assertion `object->ref_count > 0' failed <3>GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion `object->ref_count > 0' failed <5>GdmDisplay: display lasted 2.883216 seconds <5>Failed to give slave programs access to the display. Trying to proceed. <5>Child process -11293 was already dead. <3>GLib-GObject: g_object_ref: assertion `object->ref_count > 0' failed <3>GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion `object->ref_count > 0' failed <5>GdmDisplay: display lasted 1.265797 seconds : (repeated several times) ---- I can run the X server using startx using any window manager I want. Moreover, kdm works perfectly, so this is not an X problem. My packages are gdm-3.8.4-1.2.x86_64 and gnome-shell-3.8.4-3.1.x86_64 on opensuse 12.3
I think I found one problem. It seems that gdm could not find dbus-launch. Once I copied to where gdm was looking, I was then able to get to the login screen. That is half the problem solved. Now I still cannot get gdm to launch and session. It aborts and returns me to the tty console. I installed lightdm and it gets starts all my window managers without problems. So I guess the problem occurs when gdm-shell is handing over to the window managers.
I never figured out the root problem, but I think I found satisfactory workaround. Basically, gdm has a structural problem and given that other packages achieve the intended purpose, it is more efficient to abandon gdm. Here are two options: 1) kdm works perfectly with a nice interface and reliable performance 2) lightdm generally works. Its main deficiency is that it shows system users alongside normal users. This happens when accountsservice is installed, when causes lightdm to ignore some configuration files. In conclusion, install either kdm or lightdm in place of gdm. I don't suppose it is worth spending time fixing whatever issues plague gdm.