The "Oh, No..." error when gdm is trying to start
 

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:13:53 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote:

> On a student's Debian system, I ran some updates and resulted in gdm
> refusing to start, with the error message that shows a picture of a sad
> computer and a message says:
>
> Oh no! Something has gone wrong.
> A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a
> system administrator.
>
> I'm pretty sure this is due to a failure in the video drivers--some
> gnome3 packages installed and the nouveau video driver is not
> sufficient. And I am certain this problem happened when I tried to
> update to the network-manager from wheezy on his Squeeze-based system.
> I hoped some of you might help me think though the problem so I can
> fix that machine, next time it comes to the office.

(...)

Well, I've got that message under two different situations:

- First, as you say, when there's a problem with the VGA card or driver
that cannot enable 3D acceleration properly which is needed by gnome-
shell to start.

- Second, when there's an error (a "syntax" error) in "/usr/share/gnome-
shell/themes/gnome-shell.css" file.

When this happens, you can still login to "GNOME classical" mode instead
and work from there until you correct the problem that makes gnome-shell
to halt. What I've never seen is gnome-shell crashing because of N-M or a
wireless related update :-?

> This crash happens before GDM offers the list of users, so I don't
> understand how it could be related to a config problem in a user
> account. Right? Everybody says "check ~/.xsession-errors", but why?

(...)

Because that file registers the reason of the gnome-shell crash, so what
does it say? :-)

Greetings,

--
Camaleón


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The "Oh, No..." error when gdm is trying to start
 

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:13:53 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote:
>
>> On a student's Debian system, I ran some updates and resulted in gdm
>> refusing to start, with the error message that shows a picture of a sad
>> computer and a message says:
>>
>> Oh no! Something has gone wrong.
>> A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a
>> system administrator.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure this is due to a failure in the video drivers--some
>> gnome3 packages installed and the nouveau video driver is not
>> sufficient. And I am certain this problem happened when I tried to
>> update to the network-manager from wheezy on his Squeeze-based system.
>> I hoped some of you might help me think though the problem so I can
>> fix that machine, next time it comes to the office.
>
> (...)
>
> Well, I've got that message under two different situations:
>
> - First, as you say, when there's a problem with the VGA card or driver
> that cannot enable 3D acceleration properly which is needed by gnome-
> shell to start.
>
> - Second, when there's an error (a "syntax" error) in "/usr/share/gnome-
> shell/themes/gnome-shell.css" file.
>
> When this happens, you can still login to "GNOME classical" mode instead
> and work from there until you correct the problem that makes gnome-shell
> to halt. What I've never seen is gnome-shell crashing because of N-M or a
> wireless related update :-?
>
>> This crash happens before GDM offers the list of users, so I don't
>> understand how it could be related to a config problem in a user
>> account. Right? Everybody says "check ~/.xsession-errors", but why?
>
> (...)
>
> Because that file registers the reason of the gnome-shell crash, so what
> does it say? :-)
>

I will check. But you seem not to understand something. This "Oh,
NO.." error happens before anyone is allowed to log in. If no user is
logged in--no user has even had a chance to enter a password because
the graphical login display never starts--there would be no trace of
trouble in ~/.xsession-errors because there is no X session.

The trouble is before that.


> Greetings,
>
> --
> Camaleón
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
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>



--
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science Assoc. Director
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504 Center for Research Methods
University of Kansas University of Kansas
http://pj.freefaculty.org http://quant.ku.edu


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The "Oh, No..." error when gdm is trying to start
 

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Paul Johnson <pauljohn32@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:13:53 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote:
>>
>>> On a student's Debian system, I ran some updates and resulted in gdm
>>> refusing to start, with the error message that shows a picture of a sad
>>> computer and a message says:
>>>
>>> Oh no! Something has gone wrong.
>>> A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a
>>> system administrator.
>>>
>>> I'm pretty sure this is due to a failure in the video drivers--some
>>> gnome3 packages installed and the nouveau video driver is not
>>> sufficient. And I am certain this problem happened when I tried to
>>> update to the network-manager from wheezy on his Squeeze-based system.
>>> I hoped some of you might help me think though the problem so I can
>>> fix that machine, next time it comes to the office.
>>
>> (...)
>>
>> Well, I've got that message under two different situations:
>>
>> - First, as you say, when there's a problem with the VGA card or driver
>> that cannot enable 3D acceleration properly which is needed by gnome-
>> shell to start.
>>
>> - Second, when there's an error (a "syntax" error) in "/usr/share/gnome-
>> shell/themes/gnome-shell.css" file.
>>
>> When this happens, you can still login to "GNOME classical" mode instead
>> and work from there until you correct the problem that makes gnome-shell
>> to halt. What I've never seen is gnome-shell crashing because of N-M or a
>> wireless related update :-?
>>
>>> This crash happens before GDM offers the list of users, so I don't
>>> understand how it could be related to a config problem in a user
>>> account. Right? Everybody says "check ~/.xsession-errors", but why?
>>
>> (...)
>>
>> Because that file registers the reason of the gnome-shell crash, so what
>> does it say? :-)
>>
>
> I will check. But you seem not to understand something. This "Oh,
> NO.." error happens before anyone is allowed to log in. If no user is
> logged in--no user has even had a chance to enter a password because
> the graphical login display never starts--there would be no trace of
> trouble in ~/.xsession-errors because there is no X session.
>
> The trouble is before that.

The one time I had this happen, I was able to boot up using an earlier
kernel, which I then made the default until the next upgrade. That
helps, of course, only if the student's machine has an earlier kernel.

Patrick


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The "Oh, No..." error when gdm is trying to start
 

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:08:27 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:

(...)

>>> This crash happens before GDM offers the list of users, so I don't
>>> understand how it could be related to a config problem in a user
>>> account. Right? Everybody says "check ~/.xsession-errors", but why?
>>
>> (...)
>>
>> Because that file registers the reason of the gnome-shell crash, so
>> what does it say? :-)
>>
>>
> I will check. But you seem not to understand something. This "Oh,
> NO.." error happens before anyone is allowed to log in.

Fine. If GDM/greeter is that crashes (and not gnome-shell) then you can
also look at the "other" logs ("/var/log/gdm3/*") ;-)

> If no user is logged in--no user has even had a chance to enter a
> password because the graphical login display never starts--there would
> be no trace of trouble in ~/.xsession-errors because there is no X
> session.

The X server has to be started but anyway, if you can't reach the login
manager, jumping to a tty and manually starting an X session (startx or
init 3) can give you some hints about the error printed in the screen.

> The trouble is before that.

Okay, you mean the file it's irrelevant for you situation, right? But
that's why users point you to the "~/.xsession-errors" file, becasue the
above error is "usually" generated by gnome-shell "once" you login.

Greetings,

--
Camaleón


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The "Oh, No..." error when gdm is trying to start
 

Paul Johnson, 15.08.2012:
>
> In the olden days, I'd just remove gdm and then run "startx" from the
> command line to start X11. But now, as far as I can tell, the Gnome
> system pre-supposes a session-managed display manager.

I run gnome with startx. You need the gnome-session package installed
but you can remove gdm3, gnome and gnome-core.

NB: This is on sid. Make sure you check what else it says it might
remove if you remove those packages.



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