F10 won't bootup. Stalls at startx, and gdm

Sun Mar 29 16:09:12 UTC 2009

On Saturday 28 March 2009 23:15, max bianco wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Nigel Henry
>
> <cave.dnb2m97pp at aliceadsl.fr> wrote:
> > F10 was booting up fine yesterday, and I had been trying to get Hydrogen
> > working so that it didn't crash the desktop when I tried to start it. Got
> > that problem resolved, and had rebooted a few times during getting the
> > Hydrogen problem resolved.
> >
> > Today I try to bootup F10 and it stalls when trying to startx, and gdm.
> > The monitor is just clicking off, and on. No text, no nothing.
> >
> > Next I bootup, appending the kernel line in grub to boot into runlevel 3,
> > which gets me into runlevel 3. I login with username, and password, then
> > su to root. Then I type gdm, and gdm opens, and I can login to KDE with
> > no problems.
> >
> > There are some 300MB of updates waiting for my F10, but this problem has
> > arrived before installing any of them.
> >
> > With most of the installs on this Asus M2N-X Plus mobo, I have to append
> > the kernel line in grub with acpi-off, otherwise the bootup hangs when
> > starting X. Everything is locked up. With acpi=off F10 has been booting
> > ok up to to ysterday. Quite why I'm now seeing this problem with F10 is
> > to say the least, a bit bizarre.
> >
> > Anyone have any ideas as how to resolve the problem, apart from
> > re-installing F10?
> >
> > Nigel.
>
> Exactly what kind of voodoo did you have to do to get hydrogen working?
>
> I looked at the web page and i notice it uses QT3(I am assuming were
> talking the drum machine program Hydrogen BTW), I don't know if this
> is significant but I thought KDE used QT4, maybe some interlibrary
> warfare is going on....

Hi Max.
I'm really stuck with the bootup issue at the moment, but if you want to see 
the fix, which turned out to be simple, there's a link to planetccrma 
archives below.
http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/pipermail/planetccrma/2009-March/015581.html
>
> I also know that some updates to X are available, these might solve
> your problem if you can get them installed.
>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, and the bootup problem.

I don't want to do the updates at the moment, as from other posts, one of the 
X ones causes other problems, and I don't want to compound my present 
problem.

Searching /var/log has turned up some stuff, involving selinux. The bit of 
output below is interesting.

/var/log/messages.
SELinux messages. run sealert -l 71611722-fe44-46fd-abe5-16bc7d0f92a4
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost setroubleshoot: SELinux is preventing gnome-session 
(xdm_t) "read" to libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 (unlabeled_t). For complete SELinux 
messages. run sealert -l 71611722-fe44-46fd-abe5-16bc7d0f92a4
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost gdm-binary[2341]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display 
lasted 2.407845 seconds
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost gdm-binary[2341]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: 
maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost init: prefdm main process (2341) terminated with 
status 1
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost init: prefdm main process ended, respawning
Mar 29 14:18:58 localhost setroubleshoot: SELinux is preventing gnome-session 
(xdm_t) "read" to libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 (unlabeled_t). For complete SELinux 
messages. run sealert -l 71611722-fe44-46fd-abe5-16bc7d0f92a4
Mar 29 14:20:13 localhost kernel: imklog 3.21.10, log source = /proc/kmsg 
started.

The above output says gdm display lasted 2.4+ seconds, and even though I 
didn't see the gdm splashscreen, I saw the mouse pointer with a blue rotating 
halo for about that time, then the monitor went into click on and off mode, 
where it looks like X was trying to start, but eventually gives up.

Bit of output below from /var/log/gdm (loads of files in there)

:0-greeter.log

** (gnome-power-manager:2443): WARNING **: DBUS error: Could not get owner of 
name 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver': no such name
** (gnome-power-manager:2443): DEBUG: proxy is NULL, maybe the daemon 
responsible for org.gnome.ScreenSaver is not running?

** (gnome-power-manager:2443): WARNING **: This machine is not identified as a 
laptop.system.formfactor is desktop.

** (gnome-power-manager:2443): WARNING **: This machine is not identified as a 
laptop.system.formfactor is desktop.
** (gnome-power-manager:2443): DEBUG: This machine is not identified as a 
laptop.system.formfactor is desktop.
** (gnome-power-manager:2443): DEBUG: We are not a laptop, so not even trying
Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session 
file /var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/10a1ad83fa6a1e0db123832925114290900000024150003.ms: 
Failed to open file 
'/var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/10a1ad83fa6a1e0db123832925114290900000024150003.ms': 
No such file or directory
** (process:2454): DEBUG: Greeter session pid=2454 display=:0.0 
xauthority=/var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-UI9Mb7/database
Warning:          Key <OUTP> not found in evdev+aliases(qwerty) keycodes
                  Symbols ignored

<skip>

Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a 
timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 
timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a 
timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 
timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.
Warning:          Key <OUTP> not found in evdev+aliases(qwerty) keycodes
                  Symbols ignored

<more skipped stuff>

Warning:          No symbols defined for <I253> (keycode 253)
Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a 
timestamp of 0 for 0x1200022 (Login Wind)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 
timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.

<end of greeter log output>

:1-greeter.log
/usr/bin/gnome-session: error while loading shared libraries: 
libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: Permission denied
<end of :1-greeter.log>

Don't understand the above, as if this was logged when trying a normal bootup, 
gnome-session shouldn't be being called, but gdm, where I can choose KDE, or 
Gnome. (pity these logs arn't timestamped).

Bit of output below from sealert -b.

SELinux is preventing gnome-session (xdm_t) "read" to libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 
(unlabeled_t). Detailed DescriptionSELinux denied access requested by 
gnome-session. It is not expected that this access is required by 
gnome-session and this access may signal an intrusion attempt. It is also 
possible that the specific version or configuration of the application is 
causing it to require additional access. Allowing AccessSometimes labeling 
problems can cause SELinux denials. You could try to restore the default 
system file context for libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0, restorecon -v 
'libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0' If this does not work, there is currently no automatic 
way to allow this access. Instead, you can generate a local policy module to 
allow this access - see FAQ Or you can disable SELinux protection altogether. 
Disabling SELinux protection is not recommended. Please file a bug report 
against this package. Additional InformationSource 
Context:  system_u:system_r:xdm_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023Target 
Context:  system_u:object_r:unlabeled_t:s0Target 
Objects:  libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 [ lnk_file ]Source:  gnome-sessionSource 
Path:  /usr/bin/gnome-sessionPort:  <Unknown>Host:  localhost.localdomainSource 
RPM Packages:  gnome-session-2.24.3-1.fc10Target RPM Packages:  

<end of sealert output>

It's strange that I can bootup into runlevel 3 ok, login, su to root, and 
start gdm with no problems, but doing a normal bootup, X, and, or gdm will no 
longer open.

The only command that I ran, when I was trying to resolve the Hydrogen problem 
outlined above, was ldconfig, which I ran a couple of times, but AFAIK F10 
was booting up ok after that.

I suppose I could, either disable Selinux, or set it to permissive mode, but I 
don't really want to do that, as it has been working ok up to now. I did try 
the restorecon suggestion, but Selinux complained about that as well.

Any suggestions, apart from re-installing F10 would be very welcome.

Nice Sunday evening here in Northern France, sun is shining, and all is well, 
apart from F10 at the moment.

Nigel.