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Subject: Ubuntu 26.04 (encrypted) – cannot reach login screen; gdm3 not
configured and hangs at splash
Hi Ubuntu team,
I’m reporting an issue on my Ubuntu 26.04 desktop that prevents me from
reaching the user login screen. System details and everything I’ve tried
are below.
System
Hardware: Lenovo Yoga 730-13IKB (Intel iGPU)
Disk: LUKS-encrypted root (LVM)
OS: Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute) Desktop, fully updated prior to issue
Display manager: gdm3 (default)
Network: working in recovery (able to apt update when DNS is up)
Symptom
Boot proceeds normally to the Ubuntu splash, then hangs and never shows
the greeter.
If I switch to a TTY, I can unlock LUKS and obtain a root recovery
shell.
When it does progress, I sometimes see only a black screen with a
blinking cursor.
What I’ve done so far (chronological, all from recovery root shell)
Verified disk space and remounted RW
mount -o remount,rw /
df -h /
~37% used; plenty of free space.
Freed journal space
journalctl --disk-usage
journalctl --vacuum-time=10d
Removed ~790 MB of archived journals.
Repaired packages and cache
apt clean
apt update
dpkg --configure -a
apt -f install -y
No broken packages reported after this pass.
Forced Xorg and created gdm3 config
install -d -m 755 /etc/gdm3
cat >/etc/gdm3/custom.conf <<'EOF'
[daemon]
WaylandEnable=false
DefaultSession=gnome-xorg.desktop
EOF
(Confirmed file contents match.)
Ensured graphical target
systemctl set-default graphical.target
Note: in recovery, friendly-recovery.target remains the default until reboot.
Attempted to (re)install desktop stack
apt install -y gdm3 ubuntu-desktop
This repeatedly fails with:
“Package gdm3 is not configured yet”
“dpkg: error processing package ubuntu-desktop (--configure): dependency
problems…”
At one point: “Internal Error: No file name for gdm3:amd64”
invoke-rc.d: initscript gdm3, action ‘reload’ failed / gdm.service is
not active, cannot reload
Collected logs (representative)
High-priority boot errors:
journalctl -b -p err..alert --no-pager | tail -200
(Shows gdm3/greeter not starting; no disk or fs errors.)
gdm logs:
journalctl -b -u gdm3 --no-pager -n 200
(Sometimes no entries / service inactive.)
Xorg log:
tail -200 /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(No hard GPU failures seen.)
Session cleanup & permissions (harmless if absent)
loginctl terminate-user anthony-autore || true
rm -rf /run/user/$(id -u anthony-autore) 2>/dev/null || true
rm -f /home/anthony-autore/.Xauthority
chown -R anthony-autore:anthony-autore /home/anthony-autore
chmod 755 /home/anthony-autore
[ -d /home/anthony-autore/.config ] && chmod 700 /home/anthony-autore/.config
Current state
System boots, reaches splash, but never displays the login screen.
gdm3 appears to be half-configured or failing to configure; ubuntu-
desktop remains unconfigured due to the gdm3 dependency.
Wayland is disabled; Xorg forced via /etc/gdm3/custom.conf.
Disk, memory, and logs do not show obvious hardware faults.
Questions for the team
Is there a known issue with gdm3 configuration on 26.04 in this scenario
(LUKS + Lenovo Yoga + Xorg forced)?
Is the “No file name for gdm3:amd64” dpkg message indicative of a
corrupt package index or a broken alternative/diversion?
Would purging gdm3 and temporarily switching to LightDM be the
recommended remediation? (I can test the following if advised:)
apt purge -y gdm3
apt install -y lightdm xorg
systemctl enable lightdm
reboot
Then, once logged in:
sudo apt install -y gdm3
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3
sudo systemctl disable lightdm
sudo systemctl enable gdm3
sudo reboot
Attachments available
Photos of the recovery shell output showing the dpkg/gdm3 errors and the
created /etc/gdm3/custom.conf.
I can also supply journalctl -b (full), journalctl -b -u gdm3, and
/var/log/Xorg.0.log.
Environment info (happy to provide exact output)
uname -a
cat /etc/os-release
lspci -nnk | grep -A3 -E 'VGA|3D'
apt-cache policy gdm3 ubuntu-desktop mutter gnome-shell
systemctl status gdm3
Any guidance on the correct recovery sequence (especially for the gdm3
configuration failure) would be appreciated. I’m aiming to restore a working
greeter without reinstalling the OS.
Thank you,
Anthony Autore
Lenovo Yoga 730-13IKB
[contact details]
** Affects: ubuntu
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2136086
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