Bug#650183: gdm3: Continuously starts X servers, uses too much CPU time and RAM

[Stephen Kitt]

Package: gdm3
Version: 3.0.4-4
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

Since upgrading to gdm3 3, I've noticed that the gdm3 daemon spends
its time launching X servers; currently I have

     |-gdm-simple-gree---{gdm-simple-gre}
     |-gdm3-+-58*[gdm-simple-slav-+-Xorg]
     |      |                     `-{gdm-simple-sla}]
     |      |-2*[gdm-simple-slav---Xorg]
     |      |-46*[gdm-simple-slav]
     |      |-gdm-simple-slav-+-Xorg
     |      |                 |-gdm-session-wor-+-x-session-manag-+-evolution-alarm---{evolution-alar}
[snip one user's GNOME session]
     |      |                 |                 `-{gdm-session-wo}
     |      |                 `-{gdm-simple-sla}
     |      |-4*[gdm-simple-slav-+-Xorg]
     |      |                    |-gdm-session-wor]
     |      |                    |-gnome-session-+-gdm-simple-gree---{gdm-simple-gre}]
     |      |                    |               |-gnome-power-man---2*[{gnome-power-ma}]]
     |      |                    |               |-gnome-settings----2*[{gnome-settings}]]
     |      |                    |               |-metacity---2*[{metacity}]]
     |      |                    |               |-polkit-gnome-au---{polkit-gnome-a}]
     |      |                    |               `-3*[{gnome-session}]]
     |      |                    `-{gdm-simple-sla}]
     |      |-gdm-simple-slav-+-Xorg
     |      |                 |-gdm-session-wor-+-x-session-manag-+-changer.sh---sleep
[snip another user's GNOME session]
     |      |                 |                 `-{gdm-session-wo}
     |      |                 `-{gdm-simple-sla}
     |      `-{gdm3}

with vast amounts of logs accumuating in /var/log/gdm3 as X servers
are continuously started even though the system has long run out of
VTs.

Currently, with an uptime of 15:48, the root gdm3 process has
accumulated 4:55 of CPU time used, and 603MB of RAM. On a 3GHz Pentium
4 with 3GB of RAM this is rather a lot.

I've previously tried restarting gdm3 and rebooting the whole system,
but the behaviour remains the same.

Do you have any idea what I could do to determine the problem's cause
and/or fix it?

Thanks in advance,

Stephen


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (200, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.1.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gdm3 depends on:
ii  accountsservice                             0.6.15-1  
ii  adduser                                     3.113     
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend                     0.7.5-3   
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]                       1.5.41    
ii  gconf2                                      2.32.4-1  
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]           3.0.2-3   
ii  gnome-session-bin                           3.0.2-3   
ii  gnome-session-fallback [x-session-manager]  3.0.2-3   
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]        3.0.1-1   
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                   3.2.0-2   
ii  libaccountsservice0                         0.6.15-1  
ii  libatk1.0-0                                 2.2.0-2   
ii  libattr1                                    1:2.4.46-3
ii  libaudit0                                   1.7.18-1  
ii  libc6                                       2.13-21   
ii  libcairo-gobject2                           1.10.2-6.1
ii  libcairo2                                   1.10.2-6.1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                          0.28-3    
ii  libcanberra0                                0.28-3    
ii  libdbus-1-3                                 1.4.16-1  
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2                            0.98-1    
ii  libfontconfig1                              2.8.0-3   
ii  libfreetype6                                2.4.8-1   
ii  libgconf2-4                                 2.32.4-1  
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                          2.24.0-1  
ii  libglib2.0-0                                2.30.2-4  
ii  libglib2.0-bin                              2.30.2-4  
ii  libgtk-3-0                                  3.2.2-2   
ii  libpam-modules                              1.1.3-6   
ii  libpam-runtime                              1.1.3-6   
ii  libpam0g                                    1.1.3-6   
ii  libpango1.0-0                               1.29.4-2  
ii  librsvg2-common                             2.34.1-3  
ii  libselinux1                                 2.1.0-4   
ii  libupower-glib1                             0.9.14-3  
ii  libwrap0                                    7.6.q-21  
ii  libx11-6                                    2:1.4.4-4 
ii  libxau6                                     1:1.0.6-4 
ii  libxdmcp6                                   1:1.1.0-4 
ii  libxklavier16                               5.1-2     
ii  libxrandr2                                  2:1.3.2-2 
ii  lsb-base                                    3.2-28    
ii  metacity [x-window-manager]                 1:2.34.1-2
ii  mutter [x-window-manager]                   3.2.1-2   
ii  policykit-1-gnome                           0.105-1   
ii  upower                                      0.9.14-3  
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator]                 276-1     

Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii  at-spi                 <none>        
ii  desktop-base           6.0.7         
ii  gnome-icon-theme       3.2.1.2-1     
ii  gnome-power-manager    3.0.2-3       
ii  gnome-settings-daemon  3.0.3-3       
ii  x11-xkb-utils          7.6+4         
ii  xserver-xephyr         2:1.11.1.902-1
ii  xserver-xorg           1:7.6+9       
ii  zenity                 3.2.0-1       

Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
ii  gnome-mag             <none>    
ii  gnome-orca            <none>    
ii  gok                   <none>    
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring  3.0.3-2   
ii  metacity              1:2.34.1-2

-- debconf information:
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm3
  gdm3/daemon_name: /usr/sbin/gdm3