Dup to GNOME 49 - issue besides the nsswitch issue

English Install/Boot/Login
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I just attempted an update to the TW snapshot with GNOME 49 in it. My system was a fresh TW installation, but was originally installed a couple years ago when I purchased the system, so /etc/nsswitch.conf does exist on it.

But I’ve also been running using xorg rather than wayland, and it seems the removal of the gnome-xsession package has resulted in my system booting into icewm rather than GNOME, even though wayland is installed.

I’m using gdm as well. I did fiddle around with the system a bit and got a semi-working wayland session (I have a Wacom Intos 4M tablet with the Wacom mouse, and that was completely unusable, as picking the mouse up would reset it to the upper left of my three-display setup, even though the tablet is not set to use that mode with the mouse, only with the pen - and putting the mouse back down in the same spot it’s picked up from doesn’t leave it where it was. But that’s probably a separate issue.

I’ve rolled back to before the update, as I have some things I need the system for, but I wonder if anyone has any advice on the best way to get this system updated to GNOME 49. I’m thinking getting it working with wayland before the upgrade is probably a step in the right direction.

The system does use the nvidia proprietary driver - generally never had an issue with it (using the RPM installation). The card is a 3090ti.

One thing I did notice while gdm was trying to start was repeats of this error message series in the journal:

Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth gdm[2211]: Gdm: gdm_session_handle_secret_info_query: assertion 'self->user_verifier_interface != NULL' failed
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth gdm-autologin][9543]: gkr-pam: couldn't get the password from user: Conversation error
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth systemd-logind[1896]: New session 94 of user jhenderson.
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth systemd[1]: Started Session 94 of User jhenderson.
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth gdm-autologin][9543]: pam_unix(gdm-autologin:session): session opened for user jhenderson(uid=1000) by jhenderson(uid=0)
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth /usr/libexec/gdm/gdm-x-session[9608]: Unable to run X server
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth gdm-autologin][9543]: pam_unix(gdm-autologin:session): session closed for user jhenderson
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth gdm[2211]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth systemd[1]: session-94.scope: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth systemd-logind[1896]: Session 94 logged out. Waiting for processes to exit.
Oct 02 10:53:08 TheEarth systemd-logind[1896]: Removed session 94.

I do have the system set up to do autologin. Disabling autologin (through sysconfig) did not get me a gdm login screen. I also tried installing sddm and switching to that, but that also did not work.

I’m going to spend some time this afternoon looking at it some more, but any ideas about things to try or to check would be greatly appreciated.

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You can re-make your modified /etc/nsswitch.conf using the content of /usr/etc/nsswitch.conf as a base. Don’t touch /usr/etc/nsswitch.conf, it will get replaced by updates but use it’s content as a reference to re-make a /etc/nsswitch.conf with what you need added along with what’s seen new in /usr/etc/nsswitch.conf

As far as gdm is concerned, make sure the gdm.system package is installed. After that, make sure display-manager-legacy.service is disabled and gdm.service is enabled.

Also, to make sure gdm will use Wayland then look at /etc/gdm/custom.conf It should have a [daemon] section that would have a WaylandEnable=true setting to force it but if no such setting exists or is commented gdm would use Wayland by default. Settings it =false would disable gdm using Wayland.

I didn’t have exactly the same problems as you describe because I use the greeter but I went from a deadlocked physical host controls when starting X Server but working ssh access that let me diagnose from logs and the changes I made were the above. nsswitch.conf resolved the failure of the X server to start but I had a black-screen desktop until I replaced display-manager-legacy.service with gdm.service via the gdm.system package and ensured gdm used Wayland by avoiding disabling it in /etc/gdm/custom.conf

I was also dealing with a desktop PC but so much of my experience is similar to your situation that it’s worth a quick check, e.g. I can’t be sure there is a gdm.system package for your arch.

I’d hope the rest would fall into place if the above all worked but can’t say much about the mouse. The closest I have is another wild behavior that of multiple screens one occasionally goes dark for a second or two even if the desktop screen lock isn’t activating. The screen recovers in a second or two if I do nothing. Gnome-Settings does look like it has new Mouse & Touchpad setting that seem much more comprhensive than I recall from previously.

1 Like
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Thanks for the ideas - I hadn’t even thought about gdm configuration, and it turns out that is forced to false, so I’m going to start with that and get wayland working before running dup again. I dont’ think the nsswitch.conf issue is going to affect me (I don’t have any customizations, my system was installed just over 3 years ago, before /usr/etc came into being, so it’s a default config that was put there at installation time - so removing it should be sufficient, I think).

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Starting with a Wayland session before the upgrade is a good idea. Check that you have installed:

LT-B:~ # zypper se gnome-session
Refreshing service 'NVIDIA'.
Refreshing service 'openSUSE'.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name                   | Summary                                       | Type
---+------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+--------
i+ | gnome-session          | Session Tools for the GNOME Desktop           | package
i  | gnome-session-core     | Minimal version of the GNOME Session Manager  | package
   | gnome-session-lang     | Translations for package gnome-session        | package
i+ | gnome-session-wayland  | Wayland support for the GNOME Session Manager | package
   | gnome-session-xsession | Desktop file for X11 GNOME Session            | package
LT-B:~ #

Then login in a wayland session and check that everything looks as expected.
Unless you modified /etc/nsswitch.conf you can safely rename it (or even delete it), if you have special needs see bug 1250513
Then “dup” to Gnome 49, (almost) everything went well here.

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Thanks - yeah, gnome-session-xsession is no longer in the TW repo, and switching to Wayland first seems to have helped enormously.

Still some wonkiness with my Wacom tablet as well as a couple GNOME extensions, but the system seems to be working with that one change. I have a bluetooth mouse that I can use while I sort out the issues with the tablet’s mouse (there are some things that have always been a little wonky about it anyways - like the scroll wheel doesn’t scroll some apps - the driver dev says the apps need to change to accommodate the device, which I think is probably wrong - but I gave up debating that years ago).

I did rename the /etc/nsswitch.conf file as a precaution, so that also seems to be working fine.

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