Re: Killing X, was Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Quoting David Wright (deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk): I think X made this change several years/Debian distributions ago. Just some clarification for off-list replies: http://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R7.0/doc/html/Xorg.1.html The special combinations of key presses recognized directly by Xorg are: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace Immediately kills the server -- no questions asked. This can be disabled with the DontZap xorg.conf(5x) file option. http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/Xorg.1.html The special combinations of key presses recognized directly by Xorg are: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace Immediately kills the server -- no questions asked. This is disabled by default. It can be enabled with the -retro command line flag or by setting the DontZap xorg.conf(5) file option to a FALSE value. It's 100% clear that Xorg made the change. It would be stupid of Debian to set a trap with CtrlAltBackspace for anyone who knew how X11R7.5 should behave by default. Cheers, David. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150210032546.ga14...@alum.home
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl - more details
On 2/8/15, Bob Proulx b...@proulx.com wrote: songbird wrote: Thomas H. George wrote: ... Following previous suggestions installed both xdm and kdm. If default-display-manager is set to xdm when xdm is started I get the Debian login window and can only login as root. The login is successful to the gnome desktop. Tried to switch users but could not. Exited. ok, so root works under xdm. Which means it is not an X problem and not a system level problem. Which means the problem is probably something related to the desktop in the user $HOME/.config and other files. If you create a fresh pristine new user anothertom or some such does it all work for that new user? If so then the problem is not system related but corruption of files in the $HOME. Coming in at the VERY tail end of this. My deepest apologies if this has already been said. I JUST went through something similarly different yesterday with Sid. Not sure the how or what of how my situation came to be, but in the middle of it I remembered there was a default example somewhere for profiles. That default is within /etc/skel. Those are .bashrc, .profile, and .bash_logout. I copied those over, and it still didn't work.. So I went back in as root and just sat there staring at various files under a new user's home directory that worked properly and my desired user's home directory that didn't. File permissions were different. The one not working still belonged to root. *smacking head* I changed that, and have been smokin' along as my desired user profile within Sid ever since. Might not fix what's going on for OP here, but figured it might work for someone with another similarly different problem when they stumble on this thread in the archives... Good luck! Cindy :) -- Cindy-Sue Causey Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * falls on face occasionally * -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/CAO1P-kATF8EcPxijiJ0k-kiRGosud8zVmdsK68HbQ65grZoo=q...@mail.gmail.com
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Mon, 09 Feb 2015, Bob Proulx wrote: Patrick Bartek wrote: Try this: Reboot. When you get the black screen, hit CTL-ALT-BKSPC simultaneously. This should shutdown the X-Server and drop you to a terminal. If it doesn't, post back here with the details. This should be a root terminal. Read the output on the screen as to what went wrong. Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. Right. I forgot. You're using Jessie. Another improvement. Why do these people need to fix things that aren't broken? They rationalize saying it's to prevent people from accidentally shutting down X (or whatever) and loosing data. I say: You can't fix stupid! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XorgCtrlAltBackspace Meanwhile it can be enabled again. I always enable it. Along with setting a Compose key. I will throw that in here as a freebie. That key-combo has been my lifeline. Got used to having to manually configuring X years ago when I used Fedora Core. The installer always read my video hardware wrong and configured X wrong. Useless Black screen. So, hit the ol' key-combo, drop to the boot terminal, fix it. Now, I just set up my systems to boot to a terminal: login, and run startx when I want a GUI -- usually just a window manager and a panel with menus. KISS. setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -option compose:menu -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp I'll add that to my Dirty Little Tricks bag. Thanks. B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150209093131.728e9...@debian7.boseck208.net
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Patrick Bartek wrote: Bob Proulx wrote: Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. Right. I forgot. You're using Jessie. Another improvement. That change was introduced in Debian in Squeeze 6. No changes for Jessie on that topic. Why do these people need to fix things that aren't broken? I would contribute to a bounty payment if someone solved that problem. Very unfortunately I doubt the problem is solvable because people are people. They rationalize saying it's to prevent people from accidentally shutting down X (or whatever) and loosing data. I say: You can't fix stupid! There is an old joke. The punch line is, I have heard of people falling out of love but never people falling out of stupid. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Thomas H. George wrote: I created the display problem. The HP box has only vga, no hdmi so I experimented with the settings and chose an incompatable one resulting in a black screen. I created a second user, tom2, and the display opened normally for tom2. That proves that the problem was limited to desktop configuration files saved in $HOME. To recover my initial work I ran rsync -r --stats /home/tom/ /home/tom2. All my data was recovered but on reboot the display wouldn't open for either tom or tom2. The rsync overwrote your new working desktop config with the old broken desktop config. Not wishing to create tom3 I tried installing xdm. There was some problem with that so restarted gdm3 with the following result. Since the problem was in the files in your $HOME changing stuff in the system is just going to confound the issue with additional noise. Very likely your system is fine. If you were to create a pristine user again I expect you would be able to start a full desktop again. Reinstall would certainly cure all my mistakes. Before doing that I found xdm works but only allows me to log in as root You shouldn't be trying to log in as root. Root is ultimately powerful and X has an unaudited amount of code. Bound to be bugs in there somewhere. and then brings up the gnome desktop with all the installed programs. I can live with this until I find out how to correct systemctl's problem with gdm3. I suspect it was always working but that it was something in your user desktop configuration that was the problem. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On 02/09/2015 02:05 AM, Bob Proulx wrote: Patrick Bartek wrote: Try this: Reboot. When you get the black screen, hit CTL-ALT-BKSPC simultaneously. This should shutdown the X-Server and drop you to a terminal. If it doesn't, post back here with the details. This should be a root terminal. Read the output on the screen as to what went wrong. Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XorgCtrlAltBackspace Meanwhile it can be enabled again. I always enable it. Along with setting a Compose key. I will throw that in here as a freebie. setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -option compose:menu -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp Ah! The classic Can't-leave-it-alone-until-I-fix-it masochist. They have a support group for that. We meet every Tuesday at 7. Use my name to get the fresh donuts. ;-) Love it! :-) There is also Install All The Things Anonymous. Not only am I a member, but I am the President. Does it take an entire can of coffee to fuel up a coffee urn? We hold our meetings right after the Can't-leave-it-alone-until-I-fix-it meeting. Lisi promises to bring Styrofoam cups. :) Ric -- My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say: There are two Great Sins in the world... ..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity. Only the former may be overcome. R.I.P. Dad. http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54d86d23.7090...@gmail.com
Re: Killing X, was Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
David, you just solved an unrelated problem I had where my keyboard settings inside XFCE weren't being respected. I wondered why... On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 1:20 PM, David Wright deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk wrote: Quoting Patrick Bartek (nemomm...@gmail.com): On Mon, 09 Feb 2015, Bob Proulx wrote: Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. Right. I forgot. You're using Jessie. Another improvement. Why do these people need to fix things that aren't broken? They rationalize saying it's to prevent people from accidentally shutting down X (or whatever) and loosing data. I say: You can't fix stupid! I think X made this change several years/Debian distributions ago. If you restore the facility in /etc/default/keyboard then upgrading seems to keep your change. You have had to add it yourself when installing afresh. eg /etc/default/keyboard --8 # Check /usr/share/doc/keyboard-configuration/README.Debian for # documentation on what to do after having modified this file. # The following variables describe your keyboard and can have the same # values as the XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions options # in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. #XKBMODEL=pc105 XKBMODEL=latitude XKBLAYOUT=gb XKBVARIANT= XKBOPTIONS=caps:none,compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp # If you don't want to use the XKB layout on the console, you can # specify an alternative keymap. Make sure it will be accessible # before /usr is mounted. # KMAP=/etc/console-setup/defkeymap.kmap.gz BACKSPACE=guess --8 Cheers, David. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150209182009.gc32...@alum.home -- Jessica K. Litwin jessicalitwin.com twitter: press5 aim: press5key skype: dr_jkl
Killing X, was Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Quoting Patrick Bartek (nemomm...@gmail.com): On Mon, 09 Feb 2015, Bob Proulx wrote: Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. Right. I forgot. You're using Jessie. Another improvement. Why do these people need to fix things that aren't broken? They rationalize saying it's to prevent people from accidentally shutting down X (or whatever) and loosing data. I say: You can't fix stupid! I think X made this change several years/Debian distributions ago. If you restore the facility in /etc/default/keyboard then upgrading seems to keep your change. You have had to add it yourself when installing afresh. eg /etc/default/keyboard --8 # Check /usr/share/doc/keyboard-configuration/README.Debian for # documentation on what to do after having modified this file. # The following variables describe your keyboard and can have the same # values as the XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbVariant and XkbOptions options # in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. #XKBMODEL=pc105 XKBMODEL=latitude XKBLAYOUT=gb XKBVARIANT= XKBOPTIONS=caps:none,compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp # If you don't want to use the XKB layout on the console, you can # specify an alternative keymap. Make sure it will be accessible # before /usr is mounted. # KMAP=/etc/console-setup/defkeymap.kmap.gz BACKSPACE=guess --8 Cheers, David. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150209182009.gc32...@alum.home
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Patrick Bartek wrote: That's odd. Works on my Wheezy 7 64-bit install. Always has. Used it numerous times during the initial X set-up/config/shakedown. I didn't manually enable it either. Of course, my system isn't stock. Perhaps you have it configured that way? $ grep XKBOPTIONS /etc/default/keyboard | grep --color terminate XKBOPTIONS=lv3:ralt_switch,compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp Started with a bare minimum, terminal only net install, then built up from there, piece by piece, but never installed a formal desktop just a window manager and LXPanel. That sounds perfectly fine. I wouldn't quote formal. I would quote it as heavy. :-) Maybe, the key-combo disabling is done as part of a/any desktop install. Don't install a desktop environment, combo not turned off. It probably also depends upon if you are using 'console-tools' or 'kbd'. If you have a long upgraded system you may be using console-tools as that was the previous default. Newly installed systems in Squeeze 6 have kbd. I am still using console-tools in Wheezy 7 as I had issues with kbd. In Jessie 8 this has been moved into the 'keyboard-configuration' package. It seems to be in the middle of a slow thrash. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Mon, 09 Feb 2015, Bob Proulx wrote: Patrick Bartek wrote: Bob Proulx wrote: Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. Right. I forgot. You're using Jessie. Another improvement. That change was introduced in Debian in Squeeze 6. No changes for Jessie on that topic. That's odd. Works on my Wheezy 7 64-bit install. Always has. Used it numerous times during the initial X set-up/config/shakedown. I didn't manually enable it either. Of course, my system isn't stock. Started with a bare minimum, terminal only net install, then built up from there, piece by piece, but never installed a formal desktop just a window manager and LXPanel. Maybe, the key-combo disabling is done as part of a/any desktop install. Don't install a desktop environment, combo not turned off. B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150209134812.7e898...@debian7.boseck208.net
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Mon, 09 Feb 2015, Bob Proulx wrote: Patrick Bartek wrote: That's odd. Works on my Wheezy 7 64-bit install. Always has. Used it numerous times during the initial X set-up/config/shakedown. I didn't manually enable it either. Of course, my system isn't stock. Perhaps you have it configured that way? I didn't do anything. Just let the installer pick the keyboard type, etc. during the initial install. (It picked correctly, by the way.) Here's /etc/default/keyboard: === 8 ++ # KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION FILE # Consult the keyboard(5) manual page. XKBMODEL=pc105 XKBLAYOUT=us XKBVARIANT= XKBOPTIONS= BACKSPACE=guess 8 == That's it. No local user keyboard configs that I can find. $ grep XKBOPTIONS /etc/default/keyboard | grep --color terminate XKBOPTIONS=lv3:ralt_switch,compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp Started with a bare minimum, terminal only net install, then built up from there, piece by piece, but never installed a formal desktop just a window manager and LXPanel. That sounds perfectly fine. I wouldn't quote formal. I would quote it as heavy. :-) I was just being polite. ;-) Maybe, the key-combo disabling is done as part of a/any desktop install. Don't install a desktop environment, combo not turned off. It probably also depends upon if you are using 'console-tools' or 'kbd'. If you have a long upgraded system you may be using console-tools as that was the previous default. Newly installed systems in Squeeze 6 have kbd. I am still using console-tools in Wheezy 7 as I had issues with kbd. In Jessie 8 this has been moved into the 'keyboard-configuration' package. It seems to be in the middle of a slow thrash. Never installed console-tools. And it isn't installed. However kbd is. Probably as a dependency. I didn't manually install it. However, all but three entries are commented out in /etc/kbd/config. None of which have anything to do with key combos. Still think the key disabling is a consequence of installing a desktop environment. The powers that be don't want you using it to shutdown X and quit the desktop (for whatever reasons). However, if you haven't installed any of the environments, the combo doesn't get disabled, even if you have installed X and a window manager. Just a theory. B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150209205022.4afb2...@debian7.boseck208.net
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Sat, 07 Feb 2015, Thomas H. George wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: What display problems? You don't say exactly. Also. What's the specs on your system? How old is it? Etc. gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? Yes. Reinstall, expert mode. So, you can see what the installer is choosing to install. Try just a terminal only install and see if that works. X could be the problem. B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208094421.6f345...@debian7.boseck208.net
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl - more details
Thomas H. George wrote: ... Following previous suggestions installed both xdm and kdm. If default-display-manager is set to xdm when xdm is started I get the Debian login window and can only login as root. The login is successful to the gnome desktop. Tried to switch users but could not. Exited. ok, so root works under xdm. If the default-display-manager is set to kdm when kdm is started I get the kdm login window. If I try to login with my user name my password is not recognized. If I try to login as root the login is not allowed. yes, most systems do not allow a direct login as root when set up initially. i don't recommend working around this either as it is a good idea to have only authenticated users changing to root after they sign in. If the default-display-manager is set to gdm3 I get the message gdm.service failed and the journal output as in the previous posting. if the gdm3 is not starting because your hardware is not good enough then that could be the overall problem. that xdm works says you have a functioning system of some kind. since you're trying things out... for a system that looks like previous Gnome give MATE a try as it will not need so much hardware support. another method to try is to boot as sysvinit (in the grub menu under the default boot there should be a line for this), but i think this is a hardware issue since xdm can run and so i think you'll not get gdm3 going there either, but you may get a more informative error message and perhaps something in the X session logs. songbird -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/8iikqb-dd4@id-306963.user.uni-berlin.de
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl
On Sat, Feb 07, 2015 at 04:37:23PM -0500, Thomas H. George wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? purged and reinstalled gdm3. Restarted gdm3 and again gdm.service failed. The output of journalctl -xn is Script started on Sun 08 Feb 2015 09:36:33 AM EST Zebra:~# joun[Krnal [Kctl -xn -- Logs begin at Sun 2015-02-08 09:12:45 EST, end at Sun 2015-02-08 09:31:13 EST. --[m Feb 08 09:31:12 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;39mgdm.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1[0m[m Feb 08 09:31:12 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;31mFailed to start GNOME Display Manager.[0m[m -- Subject: Unit gdm.service has failed[m -- Defined-By: systemd[m -- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel[m -- [m -- Unit gdm.service has failed.[m -- [m -- The result is failed.[m Feb 08 09:31:12 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;31mDependency failed for X11 Display Manager.[0m[m -- Subject: Unit x-display-manager.target has failed[m -- Defined-By: systemd[m -- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel[m -- [m -- Unit x-display-manager.target has failed.[m -- [m -- The result is dependency.[m Feb 08 09:31:12 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;39mUnit gdm.service entered failed state.[0m[m Feb 08 09:31:13 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;39mgdm.service start request repeated too quickly, refusing to start.[0m[m Feb 08 09:31:13 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;31mFailed to start GNOME Display Manager.[0m[m -- Subject: Unit gdm.service has failed[m -- Defined-By: systemd[m -- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel[m -- [m -- Unit gdm.service has failed.[m -- [m -- The result is failed.[m Feb 08 09:31:13 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;31mDependency failed for X11 Display Manager.[0m[m -- Subject: Unit x-display-manager.target has failed[m -- Defined-By: systemd[m -- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel[m -- [m -- Unit x-display-manager.target has failed.[m -- [m -- The result is dependency.[m Feb 08 09:31:13 Zebra systemd[1]: [1;39mUnit gdm.service entered failed state.[0m[m [KZebra:~# exit Script done on Sun 08 Feb 2015 09:37:33 AM EST -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207213723.ga24...@tomgeorge.info -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208145520.ga22...@tomgeorge.info
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl - more details
On Sun, Feb 08, 2015 at 09:55:20AM -0500, Thomas H. George wrote: On Sat, Feb 07, 2015 at 04:37:23PM -0500, Thomas H. George wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? purged and reinstalled gdm3. Restarted gdm3 and again gdm.service failed. The output of journalctl -xn is journal output omitted. See previous posting. Following previous suggestions installed both xdm and kdm. If default-display-manager is set to xdm when xdm is started I get the Debian login window and can only login as root. The login is successful to the gnome desktop. Tried to switch users but could not. Exited. If the default-display-manager is set to kdm when kdm is started I get the kdm login window. If I try to login with my user name my password is not recognized. If I try to login as root the login is not allowed. If the default-display-manager is set to gdm3 I get the message gdm.service failed and the journal output as in the previous posting. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207213723.ga24...@tomgeorge.info -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208145520.ga22...@tomgeorge.info -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208152220.ga22...@tomgeorge.info
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover - need help with systemctl - more details
songbird wrote: Thomas H. George wrote: ... Following previous suggestions installed both xdm and kdm. If default-display-manager is set to xdm when xdm is started I get the Debian login window and can only login as root. The login is successful to the gnome desktop. Tried to switch users but could not. Exited. ok, so root works under xdm. Which means it is not an X problem and not a system level problem. Which means the problem is probably something related to the desktop in the user $HOME/.config and other files. If you create a fresh pristine new user anothertom or some such does it all work for that new user? If so then the problem is not system related but corruption of files in the $HOME. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Sun, Feb 08, 2015 at 09:44:21AM -0800, Patrick Bartek wrote: On Sat, 07 Feb 2015, Thomas H. George wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: What display problems? You don't say exactly. Also. What's the specs on your system? How old is it? Etc. System is an HP Compaq dx2250 microtower about 8 years old I think. It was my daughter's microsoft home office computer which she replaced last year. I took out her sata drives, installed one of my own and installed jessie. Boot up and all the settings and programs I tried worked perfectly including gdm3 and the gnome desktop. I created the display problem. The HP box has only vga, no hdmi so I experimented with the settings and chose an incompatable one resulting in a black screen. I created a second user, tom2, and the display opened normally for tom2. To recover my initial work I ran rsync -r --stats /home/tom/ /home/tom2. All my data was recovered but on reboot the display wouldn't open for either tom or tom2. Not wishing to create tom3 I tried installing xdm. There was some problem with that so restarted gdm3 with the following result. gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? Yes. Reinstall, expert mode. So, you can see what the installer is choosing to install. Try just a terminal only install and see if that works. X could be the problem. Reinstall would certainly cure all my mistakes. Before doing that I found xdm works but only allows me to log in as root and then brings up the gnome desktop with all the installed programs. I can live with this until I find out how to correct systemctl's problem with gdm3. Tom B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208094421.6f345...@debian7.boseck208.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208204214.ga24...@tomgeorge.info
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On 02/07/2015 09:31 PM, Bob Proulx wrote: So now when people say gdm3 doesn't start I wonder if it really means that X isn't starting? Maybe. Bob, I just had that happen to me. It failed to start lightdm. so in text mode, as logged in root user, I re-installed lightdm : apt-get install --reinstall lightdm Then I got an error that there was a syntax error in /etc/X11/xorg.conf I copied a back up over it and rebooted. Worked, after grinding gears for a bit. I just had to wait longer than usual, but I heard the drive seeking so I just waited. Then my desktop came back. Whew! Maybe you could do the same and re-install gdm?? Ric -- My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say: There are two Great Sins in the world... ..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity. Only the former may be overcome. R.I.P. Dad. http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54d7e44c.5080...@gmail.com
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Ric Moore wrote: Bob, I just had that happen to me. It failed to start lightdm. so in text mode, as logged in root user, I re-installed lightdm : apt-get install --reinstall lightdm Why is everyone having troubles with X all of a sudden? Then I got an error that there was a syntax error in /etc/X11/xorg.conf What modified that file and gave it a syntax error? Did you edit it for some reason? I copied a back up over it and rebooted. Worked, after grinding gears for a bit. Yay for backups! :-) I just had to wait longer than usual, but I heard the drive seeking so I just waited. Then my desktop came back. Whew! Remember that there are two (at least) parts. One is the X server. That is started by lightdm, xdm, the *dm programs. After X starts up then the desktop starts. If there is an error in either then of course it doesn't work. Maybe you could do the same and re-install gdm?? Ric I think you must have confused me with another. I am not having any X problems. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Patrick Bartek wrote: Try this: Reboot. When you get the black screen, hit CTL-ALT-BKSPC simultaneously. This should shutdown the X-Server and drop you to a terminal. If it doesn't, post back here with the details. This should be a root terminal. Read the output on the screen as to what went wrong. Note that X now by default disables control-alt-backspace now. This is an Ubuntu page but it documents it. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XorgCtrlAltBackspace Meanwhile it can be enabled again. I always enable it. Along with setting a Compose key. I will throw that in here as a freebie. setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us -option compose:menu -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp Ah! The classic Can't-leave-it-alone-until-I-fix-it masochist. They have a support group for that. We meet every Tuesday at 7. Use my name to get the fresh donuts. ;-) Love it! :-) Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Sun, 08 Feb 2015, Thomas H. George wrote: On Sun, Feb 08, 2015 at 09:44:21AM -0800, Patrick Bartek wrote: On Sat, 07 Feb 2015, Thomas H. George wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: What display problems? You don't say exactly. Also. What's the specs on your system? How old is it? Etc. System is an HP Compaq dx2250 microtower about 8 years old I think. It was my daughter's microsoft home office computer which she replaced last year. I took out her sata drives, installed one of my own and installed jessie. Boot up and all the settings and programs I tried worked perfectly including gdm3 and the gnome desktop. I created the display problem. The HP box has only vga, no hdmi so I experimented with the settings and chose an incompatable one resulting Ah! The ol' problem between the keyboard and chair problem. The hardest kind to fix. ;-) in a black screen. I created a second user, tom2, and the display opened normally for tom2. To recover my initial work I ran rsync -r --stats /home/tom/ /home/tom2. All my data was recovered but on reboot the display wouldn't open for either tom or tom2. Try this: Reboot. When you get the black screen, hit CTL-ALT-BKSPC simultaneously. This should shutdown the X-Server and drop you to a terminal. If it doesn't, post back here with the details. This should be a root terminal. Read the output on the screen as to what went wrong. If you have access to the system from this terminal, see if there is an xorg.conf somewhere. Normally, it would be in /etc/X11/ There probably isn't one -- too old school. All that X info is now created at boot time every boot. If not, create one. 'man xorg.conf' for details. Create or select the default screen resolution you want in that file. Remember since your system video only supports VGA, only use VGA resolutions and timings. No New Age hdmi wide screen shit. You'll break the system as you've found out. If you want modern screen resoutions, etc., install a modern video card. And a monitor that handles it. The other way is to find the user's (Tom) local X config file and delete it, so when the system reboots, it will read the hardware and select the best resolution for the video card-monitor combo. I'm not familiar at all anymore with how GNOME is set up having left it years ago, and only use a window manager now. So, I have no idea where this file might be: /home/Tom/.config/gnome, maybe? Not wishing to create tom3 I tried installing xdm. There was some problem with that so restarted gdm3 with the following result. gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? Yes. Reinstall, expert mode. So, you can see what the installer is choosing to install. Try just a terminal only install and see if that works. X could be the problem. Reinstall would certainly cure all my mistakes. Before doing that I found xdm works but only allows me to log in as root and then brings up the gnome desktop with all the installed programs. I can live with this until I find out how to correct systemctl's problem with gdm3. Ah! The classic Can't-leave-it-alone-until-I-fix-it masochist. They have a support group for that. We meet every Tuesday at 7. Use my name to get the fresh donuts. ;-) B -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208162201.71ce6...@debian7.boseck208.net
I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207213723.ga24...@tomgeorge.info
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Feb 7, 2015, at 4:52 PM, Thomas H. George li...@tomgeorge.info wrote: Any suggestions? Have you tried logging in to the terminal and typing startx? If that gets you a Gnome GUI, Gnome is (probably) OK, and you can just remove the GUI starters and reinstall the one for Gnome. If not, your problem is (probably) not gdm. Or, if startx works, you can live with typing a command every time you log in (over a lifetime, likely less work than figuring out what's wrong now). Or add the startx command toward the bottom of your .bashrc... -- Glenn English -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/78c8a7ea-9568-4da4-b969-06944c784...@slsware.net
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Thomas H. George wrote: ... What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? i'd go to single user mode and use: apt-get purge gdm3 xdm and then try to install gdm3 again and see how that goes... songbird -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/m9iiqb-mt3@id-306963.user.uni-berlin.de
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Sat, Feb 07, 2015 at 10:02:15PM +, Joe wrote: On Sat, 7 Feb 2015 16:37:23 -0500 Thomas H. George li...@tomgeorge.info wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? My first action would be to install kdm. It will bring a heap of dependencies, but if that's a problem it can be sorted out once you're running again. On installation, you should be offered the choice of DM, and a clean kdm should work OK. Tried this, desktop window failed to open afer installation. Tried /etc/init.d/kdm restart and got a message that kdm.service failed. Same thing happened with xdm, xdm.service failed. You can switch between default DMs from the command line if necessary, by editing /etc/X11/default-display-manager. With wheezy I did this all the time. It does switch display-managers ok, but they don't start with ?dm.service failed. I'd probably then try a purge of gdm3 then a reinstall. If that still doesn't work, you should have some more information to bring back here. If kdm didn't work either, along with gdm3 and xdm, that probably points to something lower-level, such as an X issue. Couldn't purge gdm3 (unspecified dependencies). apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 works but failes to solve the problem. dependencies? -- Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.:wdebian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207220215.6a8df...@jresid.jretrading.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207235216.ga26...@tomgeorge.info
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
Thomas H. George wrote: A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: What was the display problem? problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? Is X starting at all? Is X starting but applications unable to run upon it? All types of possibilities that I couldn't see in the words written. If X is failing to start look in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and see what errors are present there. Anecdote: Just Friday I helped a friend debug his laptop. He said his machine would not boot. When I looked the machine booted fine and started X but using the VESA driver at a non-native resolution rather than using the nvidia driver he had been using. He had accidentally removed the kernel associated with his nvidia driver. That was Ubuntu and his Unity desktop would not display against the VESA driver because I assume lack of hardware acceleration. Installing the right kernel and nvidia drivers was what he needed to get Unity running again. The errors in /var/log/Xorg.0.log showed the nvidia failures. So now when people say gdm3 doesn't start I wonder if it really means that X isn't starting? Maybe. Bob signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: I screwed up gdm3, can't recover
On Sat, 7 Feb 2015 16:37:23 -0500 Thomas H. George li...@tomgeorge.info wrote: OK, my fault. A new jessie installation. Display problem so I tried to switch to xdm. When this didn't work I tried to switch back to gdm3. No Go: gdm3.serviceJob for gdm.service failed. Looked for solution in man systemctl, found reset-failed command. Tried systemctl reset-failed gdm.service exit code was 0 but problem was not fixed. tried apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 problem not fixed. What to do? Reinstall jessie? Continue experimenting with systemctl commands? Any suggestions? My first action would be to install kdm. It will bring a heap of dependencies, but if that's a problem it can be sorted out once you're running again. On installation, you should be offered the choice of DM, and a clean kdm should work OK. You can switch between default DMs from the command line if necessary, by editing /etc/X11/default-display-manager. I'd probably then try a purge of gdm3 then a reinstall. If that still doesn't work, you should have some more information to bring back here. If kdm didn't work either, along with gdm3 and xdm, that probably points to something lower-level, such as an X issue. -- Joe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150207220215.6a8df...@jresid.jretrading.com
