Bug#529394: GDM: "Xserver not found: " followed by garbage

[john]

Package: gdm
Version: 2.20.7-4lenny1
Severity: important


This is on a media center with dual display adapters, one connected to a TV
and one to a monitor.

The machines was installed as etch but upgraded to Lenny, and rarely rebooted.
Restarted recently to increaee RAM (possibly, for the first time since the
upgrade) and gdm failed to start X on either display.

Contents of /var/log/gdn/:0.log:
  GDM: Xserver not found: <90>:<F3><98>^R^? -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7
  Error: Command could not be executed!
  Please install the X server or correct GDM configuration and restart GDM.gdm[4499]: WARNING: gdm_server_spawn: Xserver not found: <90>:<F3><98>^R^? -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7

Pasted from "less", so (e.g.) <90> is "really" 0x90. Different garbage string
each time.

My /etc/gdm/gdm.conf:
  [daemon]
  AutomaticLoginEnable=true
  AutomaticLogin=dj

  [security]

  [xdmcp]

  [gui]

  [greeter]

  [chooser]

  [debug]

  [server-TV]
  name=TV server
  command=/usr/bin/X -dpi 96 -audit 0 -layout "PEG-TV" -novtswitch
  flexible=true

  [server-CRT]
  name=CRT server
  command=/usr/bin/X -dpi 96 -audit 0 -layout Onboard -sharevts
  flexible=true

  [servers]
  0=TV
  1=CRT

Note that the options displayed in /var/log/X11/:0.log don't correlate
with those specified in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf.

I've run strace on "/etc/init.d/gdm start" and can see it opening and
reading from /etc/gdm/gm.conf.

The commands specified in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf work, and I'm currently
working around the issue by using individual "startx" invocations
to start the sessions I neeed.

Re-installing gdm makes no difference.

Thanks,


John.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.27.1-0huiac (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gdm depends on:
ii  adduser                3.110             add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.24            Debian configuration management sy
ii  gksu                   2.0.0-8           graphical frontend to su
ii  gnome-session [x-sessi 2.22.3-2          The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii  gnome-terminal [x-term 2.22.3-3          The GNOME 2 terminal emulator appl
ii  libart-2.0-2           2.3.20-2          Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0            1.22.0-1          The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libattr1               1:2.4.43-2        Extended attribute shared library
ii  libc6                  2.7-18            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2              1.6.4-7           The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.1-5           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2       0.76-1            simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdmx1                1:1.0.2-3         X11 Distributed Multihead extensio
ii  libfontconfig1         2.6.0-3           generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6           2.3.7-2+lenny1    FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libglade2-0            1:2.6.2-1         library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.16.6-1+lenny1   The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0      2.20.1.1-1        A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgtk2.0-0            2.12.12-1~lenny1  The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libpam-modules         1.0.1-5+lenny1    Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  libpam-runtime         1.0.1-5+lenny1    Runtime support for the PAM librar
ii  libpam0g               1.0.1-5+lenny1    Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpango1.0-0          1.20.5-3+lenny1   Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  librsvg2-2             2.22.2-2lenny1    SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  librsvg2-common        2.22.2-2lenny1    SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  libselinux1            2.0.65-5          SELinux shared libraries
ii  libwrap0               7.6.q-16          Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  libx11-6               2:1.1.5-2         X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6                1:1.0.3-3         X11 authorisation library
ii  libxdmcp6              1:1.0.2-3         X11 Display Manager Control Protoc
ii  libxext6               2:1.0.4-1         X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxi6                 2:1.1.4-1         X11 Input extension library
ii  libxinerama1           2:1.0.3-2         X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxml2                2.6.32.dfsg-5     GNOME XML library
ii  lsb-base               3.2-20            Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  metacity [x-window-man 1:2.22.0-2        A lightweight GTK2 based Window Ma
ii  sawfish [x-window-mana 1:1.3.3-1         a window manager for X11
ii  twm [x-window-manager] 1:1.0.4-2         Tab window manager
ii  xfce4-session [x-sessi 4.4.2-6           Xfce4 Session Manager
ii  xfwm4 [x-window-manage 4.4.2-5           window manager of the Xfce project
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emul 235-2             X terminal emulator
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-12 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages gdm recommends:
ii  dialog                 1.1-20080316-1    Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
pn  gdm-themes             <none>            (no description available)
ii  whiptail               0.52.2-11.3       Displays user-friendly dialog boxe
ii  xnest                  2:1.4.2-10.lenny1 Nested X server
ii  xserver-xephyr         2:1.4.2-10.lenny1 nested X server
ii  xserver-xorg           1:7.3+18          the X.Org X server
ii  zenity                 2.22.1-2          Display graphical dialog boxes fro

Versions of packages gdm suggests:
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring          2.22.3-2   PAM module to unlock the GNOME key
ii  locales                       2.7-18     GNU C Library: National Language (
ii  pm-utils                      1.1.2.4-1  utilities and scripts for power ma

-- debconf information:
  gdm/daemon_name: /usr/bin/gdm
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm