GNU bug report logs - #78495
gnome shell not launching...?

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

From: Christopher Howard <christopher <at> librehacker.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: gnome shell not launching...?
Date: Mon, 19 May 2025 08:04:38 -0800

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On this computer, I use gnome-desktop-environment. Last Friday I attempted a system reconfigure. GDM comes up as expected, and I am able to login. But instead of getting Gnome Shell, I just get an empty X display with a cursor and nothing to click on. The usual Gnome Shell keyboard shortcuts like Alt-F2 do not do anything.

I adjusted my config file to use a version 5 linux-libre, and reconfigured, but I got the same results after a reboot.

This computer is not the latest and greatest model, but I think it should be new enough not to have problems running Gnome Shell.

Pleased see attached log files and config file, which hopefully are helpful.

Here is my system information:

```
christopher <at> theoden 
------------------- 
OS: Guix System x86_64 
Host: OptiPlex 9020 00 
Kernel: 6.13.7-gnu 
Uptime: 3 days, 20 hours, 31 mins 
Packages: 159 (guix-system) 
Shell: bash 5.1.16 
Resolution: 1920x1080 
DE: GNOME 
Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
Terminal: kgx 
CPU: Intel i5-4570 (4) @ 3.600GHz 
GPU: AMD ATI Radeon HD 8490 / R5 235X OEM 
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 
Memory: 5012MiB / 15906MiB 
```

[dmesg.txt (text/plain, attachment)]

[messages.txt (text/plain, attachment)]

[work.scm (text/plain, attachment)]

[Message part 5 (text/plain, inline)]

-- 
📛 Christopher Howard
🚀 gemini://gem.librehacker.com
🌐 http://gem.librehacker.com

בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ

Message #8 received at 78495 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: Christopher Howard <christopher <at> librehacker.com>
Cc: 78495 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78495: gnome shell not launching...?
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 11:46:04 +0900

Hi Christopher,

Christopher Howard <christopher <at> librehacker.com> writes:

> On this computer, I use gnome-desktop-environment. Last Friday I
> attempted a system reconfigure. GDM comes up as expected, and I am
> able to login. But instead of getting Gnome Shell, I just get an empty
> X display with a cursor and nothing to click on. The usual Gnome Shell
> keyboard shortcuts like Alt-F2 do not do anything.
>
> I adjusted my config file to use a version 5 linux-libre, and
> reconfigured, but I got the same results after a reboot.
>
> This computer is not the latest and greatest model, but I think it
> should be new enough not to have problems running Gnome Shell.
>
> Pleased see attached log files and config file, which hopefully are helpful.

That's the same issue reported earlier, right?  Did you try your config
in a VM ?

I just tried running a VM produced with 'guix system vm
~/src/guix/gnu/system/examples/desktop.tmpl', and then issuing:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
/gnu/store/x03nwvky3lil1qn9a5gxhazy3qzrmhwb-run-vm.sh -m 4G
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

And it works (it defaults to Wayland), but it's slow because of the lack
of hardware acceleration.

To try with GNOME Boxes, which will configure hardware acceleration by
default, I generated a disk image with:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix system image --image-type=efi-raw ~/src/guix/gnu/system/examples/desktop.tmpl
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Which gave me a gigantic 9 GiB file, which I copied e.g. to:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
cp /gnu/store/qpfzrzzhajiv5gwd8fmicw60y253i7zj-disk-image \
   /scratch/virtual-machines/gnome-boxes/images/gnome-uefi.raw
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

And loaded up in GNOME Boxes (installing from a file).  To make sure you
can select a UEFI bootloader in GNOME Boxes, you need very recent
libosinfo data, so run this first:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix shell osinfo-db-tools -- osinfo-db-import --user --nightly
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I hope this helps troubleshooting on your side.  Make sure to use the
desktop.tmpl template to avoid any other problems that may be only
apparent from your own config at first, and do try Wayland as X11
support is being removed from GNOME anyway.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

Message #13 received at 78495-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Christopher Howard <christopher <at> librehacker.com>
To: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78495-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78495: gnome shell not launching...?
Date: Wed, 28 May 2025 21:19:59 -0800

Hi, a few hours before I got this e-mail, I tried switching over to Wayland, and everything appears to be working fine using the latest linux-libre kernel. So I guess the short answer is that X11 Gnome support is broken. I originally had disabled Wayland because it made Gnome Shell run very slowly on my computer. But it seems to be running fast and smoothly now. Not sure what changed.

This is a slightly different issue than what I previously reported. But if the Gnome project doesn't care about X11 anymore, I suppose there is no point to keeping this bug open.

-- 
Christopher Howard

Message #16 received at 78495 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: Christopher Howard <christopher <at> librehacker.com>
Cc: 78495 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78495: gnome shell not launching...?
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 16:18:49 +0900

Hi,

> Hi, a few hours before I got this e-mail, I tried switching over to
> Wayland, and everything appears to be working fine using the latest
> linux-libre kernel. So I guess the short answer is that X11 Gnome
> support is broken. I originally had disabled Wayland because it made
> Gnome Shell run very slowly on my computer. But it seems to be running
> fast and smoothly now. Not sure what changed.

Glad to know it at least works with Wayland.

> This is a slightly different issue than what I previously
> reported. But if the Gnome project doesn't care about X11 anymore, I
> suppose there is no point to keeping this bug open.

I can reproduce this is QEMU using the 'guix system vm' command I shared
earlier.  I guess it could be troubleshooted but since it's going away
soon anyway [0], there's little incentive (at least to me) to do so.

I'll leave this open for a bit in case someone is interested debugging
and fixing it on X11.

[0]  https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-GDM-Disable-X11-Default

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

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