Hangs before Login Screen -- gdm does not start

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Recently I uninstalled an Nvidia Graphics card and returned to the Intel Integrated HD 2000 Graphics on a dual-boot Sandy Bridge i7-2600 system. (The graphics card was a GeForce 8400GS being used to feed an old large-screen television as a second monitor through the S-Video Connection. The computer has been moved, but the 8400GS has stayed with the TV now in another computer.) As I have done a while back on this computer, I uninstalled the proprietary Nvidia drivers, made sure the Intel drivers were present, then removed the card.

Normally, it would just pick up the Intel drivers and work perfectly, but this time it hangs after Plymouth (if viewing text, it says something about postfix mail) and before the login page. I can get to the console using Alt+F2, and yast2 works perfectly. I have deleted the folders used by Xorg at /etc/X11, reinstalled the X Server, the Intel drivers and reinstalled just about everything I could think of including the boot manager.

At this point, if I log onto the console, change to superuser, and type “gdm”, the gdm will start up and everything works perfectly from there on letting me log into the desktop environment of my choice.

Is there a way to get the gdm to start up automatically so I don’t have to go through this each time?

Please accept my apologies for the non-specificity as I am now at a computer on campus and the computer in question is several miles away.

Sincerely,

Mark

#2

Probably the option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD in Yast - System - Sysconfig editor is set to “yes” . The NVIDIA needs that. Set it to “no”, the Intel needs modesetting (KMS = Kernel Mode Setting)

BTW, I see it’s your first post here. Welcome.

#3

Thank you for the response. I followed your advice and made the change. The good news is that the graphics no longer go black and Plymouth goes all the way to completion. The bad news is that gdm still does not start up. So, apparently that was part of the problem. Any ideas on what I should try next?

At this point, I am using the computer again, so at least there is a desktop. Thanks again!

#4

When trying to start in recovery mode, I receive the following error:
xdm[908]: starting service gdm…unused

Not sure what this means, but it does appear that the gdm is trying to start up in recover mode.

#5

How did you get to the desktop if gdm doesn’t work? Did you use ‘startx’ as root? (!)

#6

I just tried “startx” with a regular prompt and as root, and it gives me a series of errors. However, “gdm” as root works. Why? I don’t know! I just wish I could get it to start automatically…

#7

Hmmm … Did you say that you removed an nvidia gfx card?. What’s the value of DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager? On a nvidia system I see this:

DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER=X.x11-video-nvidiaG02

It won’t wotk for you anymore. No idea what it puts here for Intel, maybe just Xorg (like for ati).

Further make sure that

DISPLAYMANAGER="gdm"

in this file, and that xdm.service is enable. I gess it is, but fails to start.

# /sbin/chkconfig xdm

It should say:

xdm on
#8

Wow! You were spot on.

*It does say that.

This is really strange. Everything I am seeing says this system should be starting.

It may not be starting, but your help is really appreciated!*

#9

What does your xorg log say? … you can’t start the DM if you can’t start X.

#10

Please accept my appreciation and my apologies. I finally fixed it by doing a fresh install of the operating system. My /home is on a separate partition so all that was replaced were the system files. The configurations were retained. There must have been a corruption somewhere. Usually OpenSUSE and SLED have been quite stable. Our school switched to SLED 11.2 this summer, and the parent who maintains the network is a fan of Novell–even wears a collection of their shirts. I am a hybrid science teacher-school administrator. The reason you haven’t seen me on this forum before is that I have not needed any help; the systems have been stable. If you were to check on the forum of a different distribution with a famous space-traveler as its leader, you will find I have been quite prolific over the past few years solving various problems with our computers at home and school. (I like that distribution and would recommend it, but several tools such as YAST and features of the SUSE distributions are quickly making it my favorite.)

I do want to say that I really appreciate the help I was given–it was of high quality. Thank you!

Mark

#11

Glad you worked things out.

Just want to correct something (for posterity sake) that I posted earlier:

you can’t start the DM if you can’t start X.
the DM, of course, starts X … its just that the graphical login (aka greeter) of the DM requires X in order to work. … in a way, its sort of a symbiotic relationship

Anyway, to paraphrase Frank Black and the Pixies, where was my mind? :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

I’m having the exact same problem (but in my case I’m on KDE and I don’t have a separate / partition). It seems that the NVIDIA driver uninstaller leaves way too many things behind. I fixed the two things in /etc/sysconfig that were mentioned in the thread, and now entering “sudo kdm” manually works, but it still doesn’t want to autostart (still gives me “xdm[723]: Starting service kdm…unused”).

Are there any more things in sysconfig that I need to revert in order to boot correctly?

#13

That’s one of the reasons I prefer (and would recommend) to use the RPMs from the nvidia repo… :wink:

I fixed the two things in /etc/sysconfig that were mentioned in the thread, and now entering “sudo kdm” manually works, but it still doesn’t want to autostart (still gives me “xdm[723]: Starting service kdm…unused”).

Are there any more things in sysconfig that I need to revert in order to boot correctly?

What openSUSE version are you using?
You do realize that this is quite an old thread and not all things mentioned here may apply 1-to-1 for current versions?
Maybe better start a new one with your problem…

Check that “kdm” is set as “DISPLAYMANAGER” in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager.

And what is your default target?
Use “systemctl get-default” or YaST->System->Services Manager to check.

#14

Yes, I always use the repo as well, but I needed a new kernel for the latest btrfs functionality. I wanted to use nouveau (and still do), but it hangs the CPU unless the blob’s firmware is used, so I needed to extract it.

I’m using 13.1, of course. And while I’m aware that some things have changed, most of the information here has been applicable so far. sysconfig doesn’t change all that much. And having all the information on this problem in one thread sounds like a good idea to me.

Yes, kdm is set as the DISPLAYMANAGER in sysconfig. The one thing that looks a bit odd to me is that DEFAULT_WM is set to “kde-plasma”, while the documentation of the entry says it should be “kde4”, but I guess it’s just outdated documentation (I don’t see a reason why NVIDIA would mess with the window manager settings).

systemctl get-default says “runlevel5.target”. And as mentioned, it tries launching xdm, but xdm just skips kdm for some reason.

#15

???
What are you referring here to?
Please quote, I don’t want to search this whole thread to find it…

Ah, I guess the nvidia repo?
You’re right, that doesn’t work with a different kernel than the default one.

But please open a new thread if you have problems installing the nvidia driver.

I’m using 13.1, of course.

I assumed that, but it doesn’t hurt to tell.
It could have been any other version as well, especially if you are replying to an old thread.
And the correct answers may differ…

And while I’m aware that some things have changed, most of the information here has been applicable so far. sysconfig doesn’t change all that much.

It does.
But possibly not regarding your special problem.
I couldn’t judge without more information… :wink:

And having all the information on this problem in one thread sounds like a good idea to me.

And having all the information in a new thread especially for 13.1 would sound even better, wouldn’t it?
Many things have changed and keep changing.

Why do some people always think it’s better to revive an old thread with their problem instead of opening a new one and provide informations about their system? :wink:
Sorry, no offence meant, but that doesn’t necessarily help people in helping you…

Yes, kdm is set as the DISPLAYMANAGER in sysconfig. The one thing that looks a bit odd to me is that DEFAULT_WM is set to “kde-plasma”, while the documentation of the entry says it should be “kde4”, but I guess it’s just outdated documentation (I don’t see a reason why NVIDIA would mess with the window manager settings).

“kde-plasma” is ok.
That has changed a while ago, but the comment has not been adapted.
In fact, “kde4” wouldn’t even work anymore.
And nvidia wouldn’t have messed with that anyway, that’s correct.

systemctl get-default says “runlevel5.target”. And as mentioned, it tries launching xdm, but xdm just skips kdm for some reason.

Does it work if you launch xdm.service manually in textmode?

sudo systemctl start xdm.service

Since you say you can start kdm as root, I’d guess it’s a permissions problem. A while ago (last year) a change was made to not start kdm as root on boot.
Could you provide the file /var/log/kdm.log please?
http://susepaste.org/ if it’s too big.

#16

And another point why you should better open a new thread: this one is about gdm not starting (have a look at the title). You are using kdm, aren’t you? :wink:

#17

Yes. And no, no problems installing it at all. It’s problems uninstalling it.

It doesn’t. Well, just starting it doesn’t do anything at all (since according to systemctl it’s already active, or rather active(exited)). Using systemctl restart I get the same message as before:

systemd[1]: Starting LSB: X Display Manager...
xdm[731]: Starting service kdm..unused
systemd[1]: Started LSB: X Display Manager.

Huh, really? As far as I can tell, X needs to run as root (until its integration with systemd lands, at least), and the login manager starts X. If the login manager isn’t running as root, how can it start a root program?

The whole thing? It looks like it holds all the login data since the system was installed. If you refer to the last entry, it’s this:
http://susepaste.org/65639698
Nothing too unusual as far as I can see. Scrolling up I see pretty much the same text.

This thread is actually about NVIDIA driver uninstallation. The title just reflects the symptoms of that. Although I agree that it might be easier to find such a thread if its name stated the cause rather than the effect.

#18

And I fixed the issue myself. It’s the symlink “/var/lib/X11/X”, which used to point to the same thing that was written in DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER (that doesn’t exist after you uninstall the driver). Fixed by making it point to “/usr/bin/Xorg”.

I also had problems with PulseAudio not finding any sound cards. Not sure if it’s related to the NVIDIA drivers (maybe, since the cards include an HDMI audio device), but they also now work correctly after reverting the file “/var/lib/alsa/asound.state” to the one that was before the driver was installed.

I found out the cause by looking at the files that were changed between the filesystem snapshots of that time (Btrfs and Snapper are extremely useful in cases like this), and had Snapper revert those two files to what was before I tried installing the drivers to begin with. And now it works flawlessly!

#19

Well, AFAICS the nvidia rpms don’t do this.
Did you install the driver from the .run file maybe at one point of time?

I also had problems with PulseAudio not finding any sound cards. Not sure if it’s related to the NVIDIA drivers (maybe, since the cards include an HDMI audio device), but they also now work correctly after reverting the file “/var/lib/alsa/asound.state” to the one that was before the driver was installed.

The nvidia driver shouldn’t cause anything like that either, regadless how you installed it.

But good to here you solved your problem… :slight_smile:

This thread is actually about NVIDIA driver uninstallation. The title just reflects the symptoms of that. Although I agree that it might be easier to find such a thread if its name stated the cause rather than the effect.

And that’s exactly the problem IMHO.

People (especially those that might want to help you) most likely go after the title.

And it always creates a mess in my experience if people with different problems seek for help in the same thread. (although their problems might sound similar)
And nobody will find a solution in such a thread for his problem afterwards.

And, especially after years, nobody really knows what this thread actually was about. Especially if there are a few problems mixed.

So I would say, if you have a particular problem, better start a new thread.
People will try to help you then.

But that’s just my opinion, based on my experience in trying to help others here.
I did get flamed already for stating that, I’m glad you are apparently not one of those people… :wink:

#20

Yes, I had to do that in order to get the modules built for a -trace kernel (can’t extract firmware from non-trace kernels). That’s the whole issue; NVIDIA RPMs uninstall cleanly, because they have file tracking built-in.

I agree about help, but not so much about searching for solutions, because this thread is actually the #1 Google hit for “xdm starting service unused”, which is the main (and only) error you see when you stumble into this problem. And it was the same problem for me and the OP, just that it wasn’t ever truly (cleanly) solved by the OP, it was worked around.