gnome-panel and window manager do not start on login

Thank you for your bug report. Could you please attach your ~/.xsession-errors to this bug report after you experience the issue?

Here it is.

Interesting:

gnome-session[19403]: WARNING: No required applications specified

That'll be why there's no panel or desktop, because your config is broken. Could you please post the output of "gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/session". Could you also try logging in with a fresh user?

Thanks

Could you also please post the output of "gconftool-2 --dump /desktop/gnome/session"

Thanks

running gnome-session sends me back to gdm for another login.
running gnome-panel in terminal session (i.e. no &) gives me limits functionality.

alex@flower2:~$ gconftool-2 -R /desktop/gnome/session
 /desktop/gnome/session/required_components:
  windowmanager = gnome-wm
alex@flower2:~$ gconftool-2 --dump /desktop/gnome/session
<gconfentryfile>
  <entrylist base="/desktop/gnome/session">
    <entry>
      <key>required_components/windowmanager</key>
      <value>
        <string>gnome-wm</string>
      </value>
    </entry>
  </entrylist>
</gconfentryfile>

Also, forgot to tell that my .xsession-errors is after killing gnome-session (starting from lines with Fatal IO error 11).

Fresh user behavior is the same.

I have same problem after upgrade from jaunty to karmic. It seems that there is no default values in gconf, it is not registered gconf schema for gnome-session.
Try
martin@bedna:~$ sudo gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas
This works for me.

I've no idea why this is happening yet, as nothing changed recently (and the window manager part of the schema seems to be registered correctly). I'll take a look at this at the next opportunity.

Martin's solution works for me.

I attach log from dpkg. Maybe this could help you.
There is is problem that packages was installed/upgraded in bad order.

Gnome-session-bin was installed, so new gnome-session.schemas is registered.
Gnome-session was updated, so old package's script postrm unregister gnome-session.schemas.

Hmmm, I'm not convinced there. The old version's postrm script doesn't unregister schema's. Schema's are unregistered on upgrade by the old versions prerm script, before the new versions files are unpacked. The schemas are then re-registered by the new versions postinst script. By this stage, the files of gnome-session and gnome-session-bin should already be unpacked. Did this happen only on upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic? If so, would you mind attaching the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade? They might contains something useful.

Thanks

Here it is.

Thanks, but unfortunately I don't understand most of the info in the log files.

Hi,

> Hmmm, I'm not convinced there. The old version's postrm script doesn't unregister schema's. Schema's are unregistered on upgrade by the old versions prerm script, before the new versions files are unpacked.

Yes, you are right, it is my mistake.

> The schemas are then re-registered by the new versions postinst script. By this stage, the files of gnome-session and gnome-session-bin should already be unpacked.

This is not true in my case as you could see in my dpkg.log. Note that gnome-session.schemas is moved from package gnome-session to gnome-session-bin. Gnome-session-bin was unpacked and configured before old gnome-session is upgraded. Gnome-session-bin brings gnome-session.schemas and it is registered by postint script. In this stage, gnome-session.schemas is still registered by old gnome-session. Double registration is no problem.

During upgrading gnome-session from old version with gnome-session.schemas to new version without gnome-session.schemas, gnome-session.schemas is unregistered by old prerm, but not registered by new postinst script.

The result of this process is that gnome-session.schemas is not registered although schemas was twice registered and once unregistered.

In fact I do not understood why there is no conflict when both old gnome-session and new gnome-session-bin are unpacked at the some time and both contains own gnome-session.schemas.

Thanks

Thanks - you're right. I just expected that they would be both unpacked before either of them are configured, but obviously, that is not a valid assumption.

I have done a number of rebuilds from scratch and end up with the same results --- sent back to login screen if GNOME selected. Get limited use with gnome-panel. gnome-session sends me back to login screen.
compiz also sends me back to the login screen.

I am using an AMD 3800+ with a HD3450 video card.

For all practical purposes I have a useless system. I view this as HIGH priority.

Did a rebuild using Alpha5. Installed xorg.conf file with Option "DRI" "off".
Updated to current code.
Success! All works now.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 2.27.92-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-session (2.27.92-0ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low

  * debian/control:
    - gnome-session-bin Breaks/Replaces gnome-session (<< 2.26.1-5),
      to ensure that the old gnome-session package is deconfigured before
      installing gnome-session-bin on upgrade. This fixes a race condition
      when registering GConf schemas (LP: #424511).

 -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:28:35 +0100

This happens upgrading from Karmic to Karmic Latest also.

I was running Karmic Alpha 5 with all upgrades installed as of Friday.

Upgrading yesterday gave me a black screen. Then dropping into recovery mode and installing today's upgrades gives me the same behavior as this bug.

Upon login there's no window manager or gnome panel (apples).

Issuing the command 'gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas' has no effect in my case.

So currently it appears at least in some cases an upgrade creates a bricked user interface. I'll restart in recovery mode and post a copy of my dist-upgrade log.

My /var/log/dist-upgrade directory is empty.

It would be great if someone could post how to get out of this bind.

Looks like maybe a forced reinstall of gnome-session-bin followed by gnome-session.

Please post the correct sequence so people can at least have a working system till packages are generated.

David - if "gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas" does not work for you, then you are experiencing an unrelated bug.

No combination of reinstalling gnome-session and gnome-session-bin seems to work.

Please post a fix for this problem which may be used till new packages are available.

Please note comment #10 states this bug is fixed in 2.27.92-0ubuntu2 which is what I've been using.

Thus this bug still persists in 2.27.92-0ubuntu2 and should receive further attention.

This bug is fixed already, please don't reopen it unless you are sure you're experiencing the same bug. Like I said, if "gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas" doesn't work, and if no combination of reinstalling gnome-session/gnome-session-bin works, then you are experiencing a completely unrelated bug which you should report separately

I have the same problem: no gnome-panel when login. I am using gnome-session 2.27.92-0ubuntu2 and I think all other packages are also up to date. And "gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas" does not work for me. :(

However, when I looked at "ps" output, gnome-panel was running, and so was compiz. So, I tried killing existing gnome-panel process, and gnome-panel was restarted and it seemed that everything came back as normal. But, some of my keyboard shortcut settings were gone. I think that some mechanism removes "some" of my gconf setting related to gnome-panel and keyboard shortcut.

So... Is it a problem of gnome-panel? or gnome-session? or gconf? or else?

What information should I give for you?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/424511

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic upgraded from Jaunty
rtimai@rtimai-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux rtimai-desktop 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:04:26 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro]

Metacity is not running after I log in also, even after I added it to Startup Applications with "remember running applications" selected. Re-registering the schemas according to earlier instructions also did not have any effect. I have to run "metacity --replace &" from Terminal on every login or run it from the Other > Metacity menu.

More seriously, the regular (secondary?) user is unable to log in, and keeps getting kicked back to the login screen. This problem is critical to the regular user, as it involves access to job application records and resumes. Rarely, but at times we can choose "other user" at the login prompt, re-enter the username, then password, and log in successfully. (Possibly that procedure is only coincidental to login success.)

In those rare sessions when the regular user is able to log in, Metacity or "Window Manager" does NOT appear in the Startup Applications list. So, the window manager must normally be starting up some other way, and must then be crashing... Except when the regular user is successfully logging in, then Metacity has not crashed, because it is not starting up from the Startup Applications list.

MORE: I don't know if this is relevant, but after entering the regular username and password, and just before the user gets kicked back to the login screen, TTY1 appears briefly with a password prompt for the PRIMARY user, then disappears before any password can be entered. This occurs even when the primary user has not logged in then out, and the regular user is attempting to login in after a restart command. Is this normal?

MORE: Just before the login screen is displayed there is a brief message, something about 1152 X 864 resolution being set up, then resetting to 1028 X 768 (my preference, as the higher mode reduces the refresh rate from 85 to 75Mhz.) The login screen background briefly appears off center to the right, the screen flashes before it re-centers. I have an old nVidia RIVA TNT2 card which apparently is no longer supported by Jockey, so the Legacy driver is not detected, and I have no nVidia enhanced features.

Could video mode resets have something to do with the crashing window manager, and the regular user being unable to log in?

If anyone wants log records, please provide the command line entry. Thanks.

Sorry, I forgot to mention this... FWIW I don't think there's a problem with Gnome-Panel. I think it's managed by the window manager, so if metacity or compiz runs Gnome-Panel is active. If the icons are not locked to the panel, they may move when Gnome-Panel is restored by the window manager. But the source of the symptoms is the window manager.

Also, the symptoms I described started the second day of operation after shutting down. The first day after the upgrade everything appeared to function normally. Oh! There were a few additional updates after that. I don't know what they were, or how to track them down, but I wonder if a recent Ubuntu update is responsible?

rtimai, you are seeing a different bug. Please file it as such.

This is still going on in gnome-session 2.28.0-0ubuntu5.
Also, no one has confirmed any of the "fixed" packages so far.

When I first upgraded from jaunty to karmic, I also changed my graphics card and drivers from fglrx to nvidia, so I put all the troubles with my compiz desktop down to that... but this one persists.

Basically, gnome-session is not loading properly, sometimes doesn't load at all, occasionally gives me a text login, etc but if run with the right command line works perfectly. The most frequent scenario is this:

My desktop should load with compiz, but compiz is suddenly killed while gnome-session is loading. The compiz background blinks once for a fraction of a second, and then I get metacity.

running "gnome-session & gnome-panel & compiz &" works perfectly

running compiz --replace after login (and crashing to metacity) works, but it does NOT work as a startup (a workaround posted in some forums, which by all means should work but inexplicably stopped working for me one day--either way it is a workaround and not a solution)

If i run just "gnome-session" in a terminal, it tells me something is "Terminated" immediately after it says "*Starting Compiz" then proceeds to act as if it were in fact starting compiz and outputs some warning messages about bad settings (none critical) then I get the following:
*** glibc detected *** /usr/bin/compiz.real: double free or corruption (!prev): 0x00000000026bba60 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/libc.so.6[0x7f0306a5add6]
/lib/libc.so.6(cfree+0x6c)[0x7f0306a5f74c]
/usr/lib/libGL.so.1[0x7f030726ed28]
======= Memory map: ========
00400000-0043c000 r-xp 00000000 fc:01 398399 /usr/bin/compiz.real
0063b000-0063c000 r--p 0003b000 fc:01 398399 /usr/bin/compiz.real
0063c000-0063d000 rw-p 0003c000 fc:01 398399 /usr/bin/compiz.real
020f5000-04e13000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap]
7f02f4000000-7f02f4021000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
7f02f4021000-7f02f8000000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0
7f02f9aa4000-7f02f9ca4000 rw-s 1f111a000 00:0e 8879 /dev/nvidia0
7f02ff3bd000-7f02ff3c9000 r-xp 00000000 fc:01 212631 /lib/libnss_files-2.10.1.so
7f02ff3c9000-7f02ff5c8000 ---p 0000c000 fc:01 212631 /lib/libnss_files-2.10.1.so
7f02ff5c8000-7f02ff5c9000 r--p 0000b000 fc:01 212631 /lib/libnss_files-2.10.1.so
7f02ff5c9000-7f02ff5ca000 rw-p 0000c000 fc:01 212631 /lib/libnss_files-2.10.1.so
7f02ff5ca000-7f02ff5d4000 r-xp 00000000 fc:01 212642 /lib/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so
7f02ff5d4000-7f02ff7d3000 ---p 0000a000 fc:01 212642 /lib/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so
7f02ff7d3000-7f02ff7d4000 r--p 00009000 fc:01 212642 /lib/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so
7f02ff7d4000-7f02ff7d5000 rw-p 0000a000 fc:01 212642 /lib/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so
7f02ff7d5000-7f02ff7eb000 r-xp 00000000 fc:01 212592 /lib/libnsl-2.10.1.so
7f02ff7eb000-7f02ff9eb000 ---p 00016000 fc:01 212592 /lib/libnsl-2.10.1.so
7f02ff9eb000-7f02ff9ec000 r--p 00016000 fc:01 21259...

Same bug here, after a fresh install, upgrading
Solved with #8 Martin solution "sudo gconf-schemas --register gnome-session.schemas"

Now I dont have a wallpaper img, only solid color, any hint to solve it?

got the same problem on oneiric

It seems it is a constant problem. I faced with that, the symptom was: after GRUB booting the big fat nothing happened, only a black screen (sometimes with the Ubuntu logo). Absolutely no answer for the keyboard tries (the F keys and so), I could only make a 'hardreset' (pushing the ON button for 14 seconds). My laptop is a Dell Latitude 5401, and before the problem I've changed the nVidia settings (nVidia GeForce MX150 card from 'on demand' to 'Performance Mode'. The system rewrote the xorg.config file to the nVidia settings, and this way - as I suspected - this caused a window-handler system failure in Ubuntu. Nothing helped, I tried a lot (key-combinations, Boot-Repair from USB, using Boot-Repair's terminal, etc.), but at last I found the solution. I loaded Puppy linux, and this way I managed to access and delete that config file from /etc/X11 (xorg.config). After all, everything goes fine, but now I don't have a xorg.config file in /etc/X11 folder (do I need that at all?).