GNU bug report logs - #36924
GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale caches

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Package: guix;

Reported by: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>

Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 21:02:02 UTC

Severity: important

Tags: moreinfo

Done: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>

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Report forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Sun, 04 Aug 2019 21:02:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Acknowledgement sent to Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-guix <at> gnu.org. (Sun, 04 Aug 2019 21:02:03 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: guix-devel <at> gnu.org
Cc: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2019 23:00:41 +0200
Hi Guix,

Today I again couldn’t log into my workstation after upgrading the
system.  I’m using GDM + GNOME Shell.

At first GDM wouldn’t start.  I knew what to do: remove /var/lib/gdm,
because some state must have accumulated there.

GDM came up after a reboot, but I still couldn’t log in.  Instead I was
thrown back to the login screen without any error message.  I looked in
~/.cache/gdm/session.log for information, but it only told me that
gnome-shell was killed.  Thanks.

After removing both .local/share and .cache out of the way I could log
in again.

This happens whenever I upgrade the system.  This makes the system
rather frustrating to use.  I don’t know if booting into an older system
generation would result in the same problem, but my guess is that it
would because both GDM and GNOME Shell appear to be leaving some binary
files behind that cause different versions to crash unceremoneously.

What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?

--
Ricardo





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:18:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Efraim Flashner <efraim <at> flashner.co.il>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 10:17:19 +0300
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
On Sun, Aug 04, 2019 at 11:00:41PM +0200, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
> Hi Guix,
> 
> Today I again couldn’t log into my workstation after upgrading the
> system.  I’m using GDM + GNOME Shell.
> 
> At first GDM wouldn’t start.  I knew what to do: remove /var/lib/gdm,
> because some state must have accumulated there.

For this one can we create a single-shot service that, on reconfigure or
boot, removes this directory and recreates it? In fact, it seems this is
basically what Debian does¹.

> 
> GDM came up after a reboot, but I still couldn’t log in.  Instead I was
> thrown back to the login screen without any error message.  I looked in
> ~/.cache/gdm/session.log for information, but it only told me that
> gnome-shell was killed.  Thanks.
> 
> After removing both .local/share and .cache out of the way I could log
> in again.

This part seems a little harder to automate. /etc/skel is only sourced
when a user is created, so it's hard to make sweeping changes to help
people in this case, if they even want automated help. I'm guessing
making .cache/gdm(?) read-only would create other issues.

> 
> This happens whenever I upgrade the system.  This makes the system
> rather frustrating to use.  I don’t know if booting into an older system
> generation would result in the same problem, but my guess is that it
> would because both GDM and GNOME Shell appear to be leaving some binary
> files behind that cause different versions to crash unceremoneously.
> 
> What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?

Modify the logout scripts to remove a users' .cache file seems extreme.
Some of the other options, such as removing and recreating directories
would address other issues we've had (such as /var/cache/fontconfig).


¹ https://sources.debian.org/src/gdm3/3.30.2-3/debian/gdm3.postinst/#L76

-- 
Efraim Flashner   <efraim <at> flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 05 Aug 2019 14:37:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #11 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: Efraim Flashner <efraim <at> flashner.co.il>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:36:18 +0200
Efraim Flashner <efraim <at> flashner.co.il> writes:

> On Sun, Aug 04, 2019 at 11:00:41PM +0200, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
>> Hi Guix,
>>
>> Today I again couldn’t log into my workstation after upgrading the
>> system.  I’m using GDM + GNOME Shell.
>>
>> At first GDM wouldn’t start.  I knew what to do: remove /var/lib/gdm,
>> because some state must have accumulated there.
>
> For this one can we create a single-shot service that, on reconfigure or
> boot, removes this directory and recreates it? In fact, it seems this is
> basically what Debian does¹.

I suggested as much earlier, but it seems like a hack.  Is this how
GNOME expects this state directory to be handled?  The fact that Debian
does this is reassuring (or not…), but I would very much like to avoid
adding even more hacks.

>> GDM came up after a reboot, but I still couldn’t log in.  Instead I was
>> thrown back to the login screen without any error message.  I looked in
>> ~/.cache/gdm/session.log for information, but it only told me that
>> gnome-shell was killed.  Thanks.
>>
>> After removing both .local/share and .cache out of the way I could log
>> in again.
>
> This part seems a little harder to automate. /etc/skel is only sourced
> when a user is created, so it's hard to make sweeping changes to help
> people in this case, if they even want automated help. I'm guessing
> making .cache/gdm(?) read-only would create other issues.

Does anyone know why this happens at all?  What are the cached data?
Can we do without?

>> What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?
>
> Modify the logout scripts to remove a users' .cache file seems extreme.
> Some of the other options, such as removing and recreating directories
> would address other issues we've had (such as /var/cache/fontconfig).

In my opinion generating a global /var/cache/fontconfig should be
prevented; removing it seems again like an avoidable hack.

--
Ricardo





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:13:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #14 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 12:12:07 -0400
Hi Ricardo,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:

> Today I again couldn’t log into my workstation after upgrading the
> system.  I’m using GDM + GNOME Shell.
>
> At first GDM wouldn’t start.  I knew what to do: remove /var/lib/gdm,
> because some state must have accumulated there.
>
> GDM came up after a reboot, but I still couldn’t log in.  Instead I was
> thrown back to the login screen without any error message.  I looked in
> ~/.cache/gdm/session.log for information, but it only told me that
> gnome-shell was killed.  Thanks.
>
> After removing both .local/share and .cache out of the way I could log
> in again.
>
> This happens whenever I upgrade the system.  This makes the system
> rather frustrating to use.  I don’t know if booting into an older system
> generation would result in the same problem, but my guess is that it
> would because both GDM and GNOME Shell appear to be leaving some binary
> files behind that cause different versions to crash unceremoneously.
>
> What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?

It's interesting that I've never run into this problem, not even once,
in all my years of running GNOME on Guix systems.  Since recently
reverting to mostly using GNOME under X and GDM (whereas for a while I
was mostly launching GNOME manually under Wayland), I've run into some
other problems, e.g. GDM suspending my system automatically, sometimes
immediately after logging out, but I've *never* had to remove my caches.

I wonder if this is related to my use of Btrfs instead of Ext4.  Whereas
system crashes cause file system corruptions under Ext4 (usually in the
form of some files being left empty after a crash), I've never seen any
evidence of corruption from crashes under Btrfs.

       Mark




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Tue, 06 Aug 2019 18:10:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #17 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 20:08:51 +0200
Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org> writes:

> It's interesting that I've never run into this problem, not even once,
> in all my years of running GNOME on Guix systems.  Since recently
> reverting to mostly using GNOME under X and GDM (whereas for a while I
> was mostly launching GNOME manually under Wayland), I've run into some
> other problems, e.g. GDM suspending my system automatically, sometimes
> immediately after logging out, but I've *never* had to remove my caches.

Interesting.

> I wonder if this is related to my use of Btrfs instead of Ext4.  Whereas
> system crashes cause file system corruptions under Ext4 (usually in the
> form of some files being left empty after a crash), I've never seen any
> evidence of corruption from crashes under Btrfs.

I haven’t had a system crash on this machine.  I didn’t use it for a
month, upgraded, rebooted, and then had GDM + GNOME Shell problems.

-- 
Ricardo





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Thu, 08 Aug 2019 03:01:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #20 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Timothy Sample <samplet <at> ngyro.com>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: fixing GDM + GNOME Shell
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 22:59:58 -0400
Hello,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:

> Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org> writes:
>
>> It's interesting that I've never run into this problem, not even once,
>> in all my years of running GNOME on Guix systems.  Since recently
>> reverting to mostly using GNOME under X and GDM (whereas for a while I
>> was mostly launching GNOME manually under Wayland), I've run into some
>> other problems, e.g. GDM suspending my system automatically, sometimes
>> immediately after logging out, but I've *never* had to remove my caches.
>
> Interesting.

FWIW, I’m having the same good luck as Mark.  Other than the upgrade
from 3.24 to 3.28, I’ve never had this kind of trouble with GNOME and
GDM.  And even then, IIRC, the issue wasn’t really with the state files
(deleting them just happened to serve as a temporary work-around).


-- Tim




Severity set to 'important' from 'normal' Request was from Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:43:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Changed bug title to 'GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale caches' from 'fixing GDM + GNOME Shell' Request was from Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:44:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Thu, 12 Sep 2019 09:55:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #27 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
To: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Mesa/GDM/XFCE
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:54:30 +0200
Hello,

now it is my turn to experience a problem in this area. I newly installed a
machine with the graphical installer of Guix 1.0.1 (where I could use xfce
without problem), then I issued a "guix pull" and a "guix system reconfigure".

Now logging into XFCE poses problems, which I can reproduce as follows
(after removing /var/lib/gdm, $HOME/{.config,.cache,.local} once):
- When I remove $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml
  I can log into XFCE once.
- The second time, various problems may occur: The terminal, which was open
  before opens, but does not receive focus so I cannot type, and the windows
  decorations for closing it are absent; or the xfce panel is absent.
- Then I remove $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml
  again, and can log in once more.
And so on.

The following lines in $HOME/.cache/gdm/session.log appear when there is
a problem:

xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
(nm-applet:8046): nm-applet-WARNING **: 11:23:52.630: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.AgentManager.PermissionDenied: An agent with this ID is already registered for this user.
xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
(nm-applet:8046): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 11:23:53.035: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed
xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
(nm-applet:8046): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 11:23:53.357: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed
xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
(nm-applet:8046): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 11:23:53.441: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed
(xfconfd:7966): xfconfd-CRITICAL **: 11:23:58.040: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
(Thunar:8030): thunar-WARNING **: 11:23:58.041: Name »org.xfce.FileManager« auf dem Nachrichten-dbus verloren.
(tumblerd:8023): tumblerd-CRITICAL **: 11:23:58.041: Name org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Cache1 lost on the message dbus, exiting.
(Thunar:8030): thunar-WARNING **: 11:23:58.041: Name »org.freedesktop.FileManager1« auf dem Nachrichten-dbus verloren.
(tumblerd:8023): tumblerd-CRITICAL **: 11:23:58.041: Name org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Manager1 lost on the message dbus, exiting.
(tumblerd:8023): tumblerd-CRITICAL **: 11:23:58.041: Name org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 lost on the message dbus, exiting.

Sorry for the German, but you also have the translation:
"Zusicherung ... nicht erfüllt" = "assertion ... failed"
"auf dem Nachrichten-dbus verloren" = "lost on the message dbus"

Andreas





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:41:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #30 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: Mesa/GDM/XFCE
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 13:40:09 +0200
Hallo!

Thanks for the report, Andreas!

Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr> skribis:

> xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.

That’s the likely root cause to me (in which case it may be unrelated to
this <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>, after all.)

I found these bug reports:

  https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107117
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1678334

In both cases, Xfce and Mesa’s i965 drivers are involved, as is the case
on your machine.  The 2nd bug report includes an xfwm4 patch, even.

I wonder if Xfce before the recent updates (so before
8549e0ca6fd68a57253471436de49b88b2d47e64) works better.

Andreas, if you feel like it, could you try:

  guix pull --commit=97ce5964fb5d52cf2151fea685e28fa23a98b264
  sudo guix system reconfigure …

?

Thanks,
Ludo’.




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 16 Sep 2019 09:45:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #33 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, L p R n d n <guix <at> lprndn.info>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: Mesa/GDM/XFCE
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 11:44:54 +0200
Hello,

On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 01:40:09PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Thanks for the report, Andreas!

and thanks for the time spent putting me on the good track!

> Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr> skribis:
> > xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293: intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target == mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
> That’s the likely root cause to me (in which case it may be unrelated to
> this <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>, after all.)
> I found these bug reports:
>   https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107117
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1678334
> 
> In both cases, Xfce and Mesa’s i965 drivers are involved, as is the case
> on your machine.  The 2nd bug report includes an xfwm4 patch, even.

The first one also contains a patch, but it has been integrated into later
mesa releases, in particular the one we are using.

> I wonder if Xfce before the recent updates (so before
> 8549e0ca6fd68a57253471436de49b88b2d47e64) works better.
> Andreas, if you feel like it, could you try:
>   guix pull --commit=97ce5964fb5d52cf2151fea685e28fa23a98b264
>   sudo guix system reconfigure …

Indeed, the problem disappears with this commit; I can log in and out
and in again with xfce working. So I am cc-ing the author of the commits
updating xfce, maybe they have an answer!

And I will try to look at the patch in the second report you reference
above.

Thanks!

Andreas





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:58:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #36 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: L  p R n  d n    <guix <at> lprndn.info>
To: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: Mesa/GDM/XFCE
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:57:21 +0200
Hello,

Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr> writes:

> Hello,
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 01:40:09PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Thanks for the report, Andreas!
>
> and thanks for the time spent putting me on the good track!
>
>> Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr> skribis:
>> > xfwm4: ../mesa-19.1.4/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/intel_mipmap_tree.c:1293:
>> intel_miptree_match_image: Zusicherung »image->TexObject->Target ==
>> mt->target« nicht erfüllt.
>> That’s the likely root cause to me (in which case it may be unrelated to
>> this <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>, after all.)
>> I found these bug reports:
>>   https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107117
>>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1678334
>> 
>> In both cases, Xfce and Mesa’s i965 drivers are involved, as is the case
>> on your machine.  The 2nd bug report includes an xfwm4 patch, even.
>
> The first one also contains a patch, but it has been integrated into later
> mesa releases, in particular the one we are using.
>
>> I wonder if Xfce before the recent updates (so before
>> 8549e0ca6fd68a57253471436de49b88b2d47e64) works better.
>> Andreas, if you feel like it, could you try:
>>   guix pull --commit=97ce5964fb5d52cf2151fea685e28fa23a98b264
>>   sudo guix system reconfigure …
>
> Indeed, the problem disappears with this commit; I can log in and out
> and in again with xfce working. So I am cc-ing the author of the commits
> updating xfce, maybe they have an answer!

It seems some bugs have been introduced in xfwm4 between 4.12 and 4.14.
(All issues previously linked are for >=4.13 wich was the dev version of
4.14).
I found https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=13233 which seems
interesting. Please let us know if it changes anything.

I don't know what would be the correct way to deal with the problem in
guix though.

> And I will try to look at the patch in the second report you reference
> above.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Andreas

Have a nice day,

L  p r n  d n




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Fri, 27 Dec 2019 07:26:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #39 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
To: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Xfce not starting
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2019 08:25:41 +0100
Hello,

after trying to reconfigure with commit 02b6382169192367e97a2d1bc72f8eb3ed38b0dc
of December 9, I am now running into a problem where I cannot log into my xfce
session under gdm any more: According to the first tty, a session is opened
and closed immediately again, and the gdm login screen reappears.

It is not enough to delete /var/lib/gdm, ~/.cache and ~/.local. Could I try
anything else?

Luckily, there is "guix system rollback" to my working configuration of
September, but I am not very comfortable with running such an old system...

Andreas





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 30 Dec 2019 19:01:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #42 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: Xfce not starting
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2019 20:00:07 +0100
Hi Andreas,

Andreas Enge <andreas <at> enge.fr> skribis:

> after trying to reconfigure with commit 02b6382169192367e97a2d1bc72f8eb3ed38b0dc
> of December 9, I am now running into a problem where I cannot log into my xfce
> session under gdm any more: According to the first tty, a session is opened
> and closed immediately again, and the gdm login screen reappears.

Did you try your config with the same commit in ‘guix system vm’?  Does
it reproduce the problem?

If it does not, that means the problem has to do with state, things like
/var/lib/gdm as you mentioned.

Thanks,
Ludo’.




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:35:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #45 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 12:28:57 +0100
Hi,

This old bug [1] is there since a long time.  What is the status?

1: <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>


On Sun, 04 Aug 2019 at 23:00, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> wrote:

> Today I again couldn’t log into my workstation after upgrading the
> system.  I’m using GDM + GNOME Shell.
>
> At first GDM wouldn’t start.  I knew what to do: remove /var/lib/gdm,
> because some state must have accumulated there.
>
> GDM came up after a reboot, but I still couldn’t log in.  Instead I was
> thrown back to the login screen without any error message.  I looked in
> ~/.cache/gdm/session.log for information, but it only told me that
> gnome-shell was killed.  Thanks.
>
> After removing both .local/share and .cache out of the way I could log
> in again.
>
> This happens whenever I upgrade the system.  This makes the system
> rather frustrating to use.  I don’t know if booting into an older system
> generation would result in the same problem, but my guess is that it
> would because both GDM and GNOME Shell appear to be leaving some binary
> files behind that cause different versions to crash unceremoneously.
>
> What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?

Is it still an issue?


Cheers,
simon




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Wed, 23 Mar 2022 12:49:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #48 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxime Devos <maximedevos <at> telenet.be>
To: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 13:48:36 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
zimoun schreef op wo 23-03-2022 om 12:28 [+0100]:
> > This happens whenever I upgrade the system.  This makes the system
> > rather frustrating to use.  I don’t know if booting into an older
> > system
> > generation would result in the same problem, but my guess is that
> > it
> > would because both GDM and GNOME Shell appear to be leaving some
> > binary
> > files behind that cause different versions to crash
> > unceremoneously.
> > 
> > What can we do to make GDM and GNOME Shell more reliable?
> 
> Is it still an issue?

IIRC, I encountered the same symptom (although perhaps with a different
cause, and I did not know if was caused by upgrades) last time I used
Guix System, which was in the 2022 or at least 2021, so I think it
might still be an issue.  Or maybe it has been solved since then.

Greetings,
Maxime.
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Wed, 23 Mar 2022 20:23:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #51 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
To: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: guix-devel <at> gnu.org, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 21:22:19 +0100
Am Mittwoch, dem 23.03.2022 um 12:28 +0100 schrieb zimoun:
> Hi,
> 
> This old bug [1] is there since a long time.  What is the status?
> 
> 1: <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>
> 
> [...]
> 
> Is it still an issue?
If I recall correctly, the offending caches have not been updated
since, so the short answer is "we don't know".  The files in my
/var/lib/gdm have some quite old dates, some of them ranging as far
back as 2019, so I suppose there still exists an issue potential.

Cheers




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Wed, 23 Mar 2022 22:26:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #54 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>, Ricardo Wurmus
 <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 23:14:07 +0100
Hi Maxime and Liliana,

On Wed, 23 Mar 2022 at 13:48, Maxime Devos <maximedevos <at> telenet.be> wrote:
> zimoun schreef op wo 23-03-2022 om 12:28 [+0100]:

>> Is it still an issue?

> IIRC, I encountered the same symptom (although perhaps with a different
> cause, and I did not know if was caused by upgrades) last time I used
> Guix System, which was in the 2022 or at least 2021, so I think it
> might still be an issue.  Or maybe it has been solved since then.


On Wed, 23 Mar 2022 at 21:22, Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, dem 23.03.2022 um 12:28 +0100 schrieb zimoun:

>> Is it still an issue?

> If I recall correctly, the offending caches have not been updated
> since, so the short answer is "we don't know".  The files in my
> /var/lib/gdm have some quite old dates, some of them ranging as far
> back as 2019, so I suppose there still exists an issue potential.


Thanks for your feedback.

Hum, do we keep a report open based on « maybe » or « we don’t know » or
« I suppose »?  It is an honest question and not a rhetoric one. :-)

Well, how is this bug report actionable?  Other said, what is missing as
concrete information for closing.

From my understanding of your feedback, the current answer to « Is it
still an issue? » seems « no ».  It does not mean that a bug is not
around – so many bugs are around ;-) – but it means that this bug is not
a blocking issue, again from my understanding.

Could you confirm that the bug is appearing for you?  Else, let close it
and reopen once the bug appears.  WDYT?


Cheers,
simon





Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Thu, 23 Jun 2022 09:30:03 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #57 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>, 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2022 11:26:14 +0200
Hi,

On Wed, 23 Mar 2022 at 23:14, zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> Hum, do we keep a report open based on « maybe » or « we don’t know » or
> « I suppose »?  It is an honest question and not a rhetoric one. :-)
>
> Well, how is this bug report actionable?  Other said, what is missing as
> concrete information for closing.
>
> From my understanding of your feedback, the current answer to « Is it
> still an issue? » seems « no ».  It does not mean that a bug is not
> around – so many bugs are around ;-) – but it means that this bug is not
> a blocking issue, again from my understanding.
>
> Could you confirm that the bug is appearing for you?  Else, let close it
> and reopen once the bug appears.  WDYT?

I am proposing to close if no objection.


Cheers,
simon




Added tag(s) moreinfo. Request was from zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 23 Jun 2022 09:30:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Thu, 23 Jun 2022 10:09:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #62 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2022 12:07:54 +0200
zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Wed, 23 Mar 2022 at 23:14, zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hum, do we keep a report open based on « maybe » or « we don’t know » or
>> « I suppose »?  It is an honest question and not a rhetoric one. :-)
>>
>> Well, how is this bug report actionable?  Other said, what is missing as
>> concrete information for closing.
>>
>> From my understanding of your feedback, the current answer to « Is it
>> still an issue? » seems « no ».  It does not mean that a bug is not
>> around – so many bugs are around ;-) – but it means that this bug is not
>> a blocking issue, again from my understanding.
>>
>> Could you confirm that the bug is appearing for you?  Else, let close it
>> and reopen once the bug appears.  WDYT?
>
> I am proposing to close if no objection.

I agree because it is not actionable as it is now.

-- 
Ricardo




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 04 Jul 2022 20:45:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #65 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic via web <issues.guix.gnu.org <at> elephly.net>
To: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale caches
Date: Mon,  4 Jul 2022 22:44:00 +0200
Test (ignore).




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Mon, 04 Jul 2022 21:40:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #68 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: reyman via web <issues.guix.gnu.org <at> elephly.net>
To: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale caches
Date: Mon,  4 Jul 2022 23:38:57 +0200
Hi there
After removing `gdm login` using a transformer and forget to modify/amend it into build-custom-services i break my system : 

(define-public %dm/system-services
  (append (build-custom-services identity)
            (modify-services %desktop-services
            (delete gdm-service-type))))

My gnome crash, and when i even when i try to roll-back, it was impossible to login, my screen freeze at login/password, just before gnome start.

Error in message : 

ul  4 17:44:11 localhost elogind[427]: New session c1 of user gdm.
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost gdm-session-worker: GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed 
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost gdm: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing 
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost elogind[427]: Removed session c1.
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost gdm: Gdm: Child process -552 was already dead. 
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost gdm: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing 
Jul  4 17:44:11 localhost gdm: Gdm: Child process -552 was already dead. 

Removing /var/lib/gdm and mkdir gdm, rebooting with rollback solving the problem. 

during a guix system reconfigure




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Sat, 08 Oct 2022 15:17:07 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #71 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2022 16:47:51 +0200
Hi,

On Thu, 23 Jun 2022 at 12:07, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> wrote:

>> I am proposing to close if no objection.
>
> I agree because it is not actionable as it is now.

Therefore, after some months without an objection, I am closing this old
bug#36924 [1].  If I am missing a point, feel free to reopen.

1: <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>

Cheers,
simon




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Sat, 08 Oct 2022 16:06:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #74 received at 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
To: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 36924 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2022 18:04:51 +0200
Am Samstag, dem 08.10.2022 um 16:47 +0200 schrieb zimoun:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2022 at 12:07, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > > I am proposing to close if no objection.
> > 
> > I agree because it is not actionable as it is now.
> 
> Therefore, after some months without an objection, I am closing this
> old bug#36924 [1].  If I am missing a point, feel free to reopen.
The GDM one in fact got fixed by moving the cache to a tmpfs.

Cheers




Reply sent to Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>:
You have taken responsibility. (Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:40:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Notification sent to Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>:
bug acknowledged by developer. (Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:40:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #79 received at 36924-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>, 36924-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:39:24 -0500
Hi,

zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2022 at 12:07, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> wrote:
>
>>> I am proposing to close if no objection.
>>
>> I agree because it is not actionable as it is now.
>
> Therefore, after some months without an objection, I am closing this old
> bug#36924 [1].  If I am missing a point, feel free to reopen.
>
> 1: <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/36924>

Seems your closing didn't work, so I'm retrying here.  I suspect
d7e56aebec4535f3567c362b6084818873e54b0d ("Mount /var/lib/gdm on a tmpfs
file system") probably helped making this kind of issue go away.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim




Information forwarded to bug-guix <at> gnu.org:
bug#36924; Package guix. (Fri, 18 Nov 2022 14:04:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #82 received at 36924-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>
To: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>, 36924-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#36924: GDM, GNOME Shell, etc. break when there are stale
 caches
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:57:55 +0100
Hi Maxim,

On Thu, 17 Nov 2022 at 17:39, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> Seems your closing didn't work, so I'm retrying here.

Oh, thanks.  I probably missed to append -done. :-)

Cheers,
simon





bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Sat, 17 Dec 2022 12:24:05 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

This bug report was last modified 1 year and 123 days ago.

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