new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

[budr]

First off, this may not have anything to do with kubuntu or kde, but I would appreciate any suggestions that might help me troubleshoot this problem.

This is a brand new System76 desktop machine. It shipped with 64-bit Intrepid Ubuntu. First time startup in Gnome hung up in the login sequence with a blank beige screen. I had to cycle power to regain control. First login after reboot everything seemed OK. After a while I logged out and back in. It hung again at the same place.

Over night I downloaded and installed most of Kubuntu 4.2.0 from Intrepid backports. I see the same behavior in kde. First login after a reboot works fine. Second login hangs at the same place every time. KDE puts up the splash screen, then the out of focus hard drive, and it hangs at that point every second login. The hard drive icon never comes into focus.

I've asked on the System76 support forum and I'm getting some feedback on possible hardware problems, but this doesn't feel like a hardware problem to me.

I've been messing with linux and kde like forever, although this is my first experience with 64-bit linux. I've never seen this behavior before, so I've never paid that much attention to the startup sequence. I assume the hard drive icon refers to initializing hardware. What processes would be running at that time that might hang the login sequence? Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[Snowhog]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

If it's "brand new" and it was shipped with 64-bit Ubuntu, I'd be getting a return authorization and making the seller "make it right." Was there an actual statement that Ubuntu would run "out of the box?"

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

It may come to that, but I'd rather figure out what the problem is and fix it here if I can. I have a feeling this is simply a misconfiguration problem and if I can find it it won't be that big a deal.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

If you can download a live cd on another machine, you might give that a try, and see if you can boot with that. If not, maybe a video problem - what kind of video card?

Also, the icons on the splash screen after logging in don't mean anything. It's just an effect.
Take a look at the README file in ~/.kde/share/apps/ksplash/Themes/ksplasherx. The python app to create the animated scene is in the src directory.

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

I guess I didn't make myself clear. The machine boots fine, no problem there. And after a reboot, the first login works fine. The problem is if I then log out and then try to log in a second time. The second login hangs at the same place every time.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

OK, sorry about that. What happens if you log out, then at the login screen, choose the "Restart X" option, then try logging in again?

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

Excellent suggestion, and one I should have thought of. Unfortunately, it didn't help, still hangs at the same place.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

Hmm. Starting to sound like it may be a kde problem. I don't remember the login options on Intrepid that well, but if you can choose "start a new session", you might give that a try.

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

Well, it does look like a kde problem, but it does the same thing if I try to log into a gnome session -- first try works OK, second hangs maybe ten seconds into the login sequence. The gnome session just puts up a blank beige screen and hangs there, but I'm guessing it's the same point and probably the same process that's hanging in kde. I would guess that points to X, but so far I haven't found any clues in the Xorg log. Or anywhere else for that matter.

[flarson]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

X will have completed loading before you see the login screen. KDM will then start logging and it will mostly go in /var/log/daemon.log. I would get the system to the login prompt, use Ctl-Alt-F1 to get a virtual terminal and get into /var/log.

Run "ls -ltr" and it will show you a long listing with the newest files at the bottom. You will probably see kdm.log which has very little and daemon.log which will have more. You should note what is last in daemon.log, then go back to VT7 and login to kde. When it hangs go back to vt1 and see what it is putting in the daemon.log file.

I think there is something like a network interface, or bluetooth support or a printer or something that is not loading properly.

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

I've already been there. I can run an ssh session from another box and watch log files while this is happening. So far I don't find anything useful in /var/log. One entry in .xsession-errors might be a clue.

The last entry complains about being unable to start nepomukserver. But if I do a ps, nepomukserver is running. This even though one of the first things I did was go into system settings and disable nepomuk and strigi. So now I'm digging through the kde startup scripts and such. If I can find where nepomukserver is being started, even though I have it disabled, maybe I can comment that out and at least eliminate one more suspect.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

If worse comes to worst, you could go into /usr/bin and kill the execution bits on:

sudo chmod a-x /usr/bin/nepomuk-rcgen /usr/bin/nepomukserver /usr/bin/nepomukservicestub

One other thing you might try, is create a new user and try logging in and out and in.
That would tell if it's your user configuration, or a systemwide problem.

I'm not sure how to enable remote X logins in ubuntu, but it might be worth a try if you know how. That would rule out your graphics hardware.

Another thing, and this may be a longshot, but you could try logging in to the console from a reboot, get a list of running processes, log out, log in to kde, log out, then log back into the console, and see what processes are running that weren't before. My guess is, like mando said, a printer driver or something that isn't shutting down on logout.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

Oh yeah, and another idea--
Do you have any external devices like webcams, scanners, etc plugged in?
Could be the hardware is not resetting on logout, and hanging the driver when logging back in.

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

I may have just stumbled onto something. This machine has an Intel 64 bit processor. When I added intrepid backports and upgraded to kde 4.2.0, it apparently pulled in a bunch of amd64 debs. This is my first real experience with 64 bit linux, but I'm guessing that's probably not a good thing. Will amd64 executables run on an Intel 86-64 processor?

[budr]

Re: new 64-bit Intrepid machine, 2nd login always hangs up

Never mind... Five minutes of teh google answered my question...