No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

[mgl]

I am a newbie with some Linux knowledge.

I have been using Kubuntu Dapper for the past 3 weeks and using apt-get to update and upgrade on a daily basis (if not 2-3 times per day). On May 1, I booted up in the morning and I was not able to login through the splash screen using any user ID. It would go to blank screen, it might flash a screen line at the top, show a graphic mouse pointer arrow in the middle of a blank screen and then return to the Kubuntu login splash screen.

I AM able to login by going to the splash screen login menu button and getting a console login screen. I can login as any user. However, trying to do a startx from this point (a user prompt) gives various xorg failure messages:

"error opening security policy file /etc/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy"

Note: There is no such directory or SecurityPolicy document.

"FreeFontPath: FPE "usr/share/X11/fonts/misc" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing"

Note: I have no idea what that means!

I tried redoing the xorg.conf file - no good.

I tried doing the latest updates which included updating some more of the xorg/xserver packages (from ubuntu36 to ubunt38 versions). However, this did not address the problem.

I tried converting to Gnome from KDE in case there was a KDE problem. This did nothing to solve the problem. Now I am in Ubuntu Dapper Beta mode and I can't figure out how to get back to KDE. Nothing seems to work.

I tried looking at the Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and KDE forums and bug reports. The closest I came to a possible explanation was a Critical bug related to .ICEauthority file ownership (supposedly solved long time ago), starting KDE apps from inside a terminal causing changes in file ownerships, kdeint not being "wrapped properly" and other cryptic references to potential solutions.

Is there someone out there that has survived this experience and has a clean set of instructions as to how I can recover my system? I do not want to continue running in root (sudo). and i do not want to have to scrub the disk and reload Kubuntu.

All help is appreciated

[askrieger]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

I haven't survived the experience you're relating, because I'm still using Breezy, but seeing that you're having trouble finding a solution, I thought I'd pitch in with some useless advice.

First, using "apt-file search SecurityPolicy", I found that the SecurityPolicy file is installed in the xserver-common package. You might try reinstalling that package, just to see what happens. The file seems to have been around for a while. It's dated 2000/08/17 and mentions only Motif and CDE as specific window managers. AFAIK, neither Motif or CDE was anywhere within shouting distance of the state of the art in August 2000.

Second, /usr/share/X11/fonts is a directory contaiing, of all things, fonts. The reference to a refcount is rather strange. That's the kind of thing that results from an "assert" call in code that is undergoing debugging. Of course, that's what Dapper is undergoing, so the reference might mean something to the packagers. I'm inclined to doubt it though, because worrying about refcounts should go on far upstream of the ubuntu packagers. Just in case you're wondering, refcounts are part of a smart pointer mechanism used by c++ coders that releases a block of memory when it is no longer needed.

So what we have is one problem with an obsolete configuration file not getting installed, and a second (source code) problem that belongs at the level of the KDE developers or higher. I'd try to isolate the bug somewhat more clearly and then report it.

[mgl]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Hi Al,

Sorry, I was away and did not see you reply till much later. Thank you for the advise.

I used apt-get to install apt-file. However, running "apt-file search SecurityPolicy" got me nothing. Just a return to the # prompt.

I tried locating SecurityPolicy using a file browser and got nothing.

Would you have any other ideas?

PS: I just updated and upgraded again and there are more x11 and kde updates. Maybe something good will happen. I have to reboot to find out.

Take care,

mgl

[sky]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Hi,

I got it also yesterday when I rebooted from last upgrade, couldn't login, so I've just try upgrade again and happily everything came back well

Cheers

[askrieger]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

I guess that means that the packagers fixed whatever went wrong.

[mgl]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Sorry guys, I started this thread and I am in the middle of moving. Lousy timing for my computer to go off track.

Sorry to diagree but I do not think they have solved the problem. I have done updates, upgrades, and dist-upgrades without any change in the problem.

There are a number of bug reports dating back to March and other postings on Ubuntu sites of exactly the same problem occuring after some form of update or upgrade. The common symptom is the failure of the system to move beyond the splash screen, logging in from the console prompt onyl allows startx to work IF you log in as superuser (sudo).

Strangley this problem is sometimes discussed as a KDE issue but then other people jump in and say they are running Ubuntu and GDM causes the same problem.

I don't know what to think but there is definitely a serious problem.

However, more serious is the fact that there does not seem to be a simple way to trace the problem or monitor the session failure or steps. Does anyone have a troubleshooting guide that can walk a beginner through the maze of startup scripts and logs??

I thank you for the names of some of the logs you mentioned but they do not appear to indicate a clear approach to solving anything.

For instance, I can hit ctl-alt-F1 after logging in as su and review the su session activity and it shows me the xorg. conf being used but then the original error message, related to that non-existent and still missing directory and file "etc/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy" appears; and then it repeats another message
"(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/wacom
No such file or directory.
Error opening /dev/wacom : No such file or directory"

This message repeas six times.

Where did this wacom device come from or why is it referenced. There certainly is no such device on the machine and there is no reference to it in the /dev directory.

Now there are bug reports at https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu...-s3/+bug/40560
However, this is related to GDM and Ubuntu but seems linked to the video card and xorg. it also refers you to a related bug #40560.

When this whole thing started I was using Kubuntu /KDE on a Dell machine within and NV Riva 128 card. All of this was running fine till April 30th and the updates.

Look forward to more dialogue and insights into how to proceed. Otherwise, I will have to clean my drive and start over from the beginning. Yuck!! That reminds too much of a corrupted MS Windows system. Linux has to be better than that!!

Take care

mgl

[askrieger]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Actually, we're getting somewhere. The "wacom" thing is showing up on other systems. I suspect that it's a bug in the software that generates the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. If it hasn't been fixed already, it will be in the very near future. Meanwhile, just comment out the lines referring to the wacom graphics tablet. Of course, it you have a wacom graphics tablet...

However you're more specific problem with the "nvidia" and "nv" drivers has to do with the age of your video card. In order to use the nvidia driver for a Riva TNT card, you need the package nvidia-glx-legacy as well as linux-restricted-modules for your kernel and NOT nvidia-glx. I'm not sure about nvidia-settings. You can then start the nvidia driver by entering "sudo nvidia-glx-config enable".

[mgl]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Thanks Al,

But those Wacom error messages are new. The started after some of the latest updates/upgrades. For some reason xorg.cof got configured fro a tablet PC; maybe it was when i tried to fix the problem by running the "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" to change/fix (?) the xorg.conf settings.

Anyway, I got rid of all the Wacom errors by using VIM on the xorg.conf file and removing all the segemts related to the tablet PC. None of this fixed any of the problems. I can still only startx as su.

Ichecked on the x.org web site for the proper driver for my card (STB Velocity 128) and it is a RIVA128 card which is supported as/by the nv driver that is part of xorg.

However, I went ahead and downloaded and istalled the nvidia-glx-legacy. It installed properly. Then, at the # prompt, I issued the "nvidia-glx-config enable' command and that seemed to run (with no error message). I then logged out to get bech out of the desktop and su to the user prompt. i tried to startx but it still failed. I don't think I understand. Is the new nvidia software enabled for the session or even after I log out of su or how about after I reboot?

If you could clarify what is happening and when, it would be a lot of help.

I am also getting new error messages by the xauth about an error not being able to lock the /home/mgl/.Xauthority. This repeats a few times and the the xorg starts its routine and ends with the old error message related to the SecurePolicy non-existent file.

Is this weird or what??

Take care,

mgl

[askrieger]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

First of all, I have to apologize for leading you astray. When you wrote that you had a nvidia Riva graphics card, I made the unwarranted assumption that it was a TNT or TNT2 card, which requires the legacy driver. The legacy driver supports only the TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, and GeForce2 chipsets. So, (I think) you should be using the nvidia-glx driver after all. I am unfamiliar with the STB Velocity card, so I don't know which chipset it has.

Second, there a number of different problems (most of them related to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file) that can prevent you from starting the GUI. Therefore the fact that there are a lot of posts about not being able to start KDE does not imply one unfathomable problem, rather it indicates a plethora of little problems, each affecting a fews users, that have to be solved one by one. Again I'm sorry I led you astray when I thought that perhaps you and Sky had the same problem.

The absence of your .Xauthority file is a possible reason that you are having difficulty starting the xserver. My initial thought is that you should re-install X, but this is a drastic procedure, which might not even work, so I would hold off on doing it in the hope of getting better advice.

[mgl]

Re: No User Login Allowed after Apr 30 Updates

Well thanks Al,

I think I will stop this post. My only solution seems to be to reload Dapper. I will switch to Fedora for now to get something done.

I am in the middle of a move right now. My phone service has been disconnected and my ADSL will soon disappear.

Before they cut me off...

Take care,

mgl