Your message dated Sun, 9 Nov 2025 17:51:29 -0500
with message-id
<CAAajCMbsY_Z_ieECm1v=dpvhL_iG=rssp9cxsd9d7zapwgp...@mail.gmail.com>
and subject line Re: gdm3/experimental: document that ~/.xsession-errors is no
longer used
has caused the Debian Bug report #691498,
regarding gdm3/experimental: document that ~/.xsession-errors is no longer used
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
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--
691498: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=691498
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: gdm3
Version: 3.6.1-1
Severity: wishlist
>From NEWS:
> =============
> Version 3.5.2
> =============
>
> ...
>
> - save log to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/gdm/session.log instead of ~/.xsession-errors
This is a good thing in the long term - I approve of reducing crap in $HOME -
but it's going to confuse people who're debugging GNOME 3.6 or other X apps,
particularly those that are "part of the session" and so can't easily be
restarted with stderr visible (gnome-shell, gnome-session,
gnome-settings-daemon etc.). I've been tricked by it already.
I'm not sure what the best solution is, though. Options include:
* say something in NEWS.Debian
* on session start, if ~/.xsession-errors exists and is a regular file,
replace it with text like "Session started by GDM,
see ~/.cache/gdm/session.log" (I think this is probably the one that
will "interoperate" best with startx and other display managers, since
they'll overwrite .xsession-errors with their own session logs on login, as
expected - so it'll always contain either a non-GDM session log, or a
pointer to the GDM log)
* on session start, if ~/.xsession-errors exists and is a regular file,
replace it with a symlink to ~/.cache/gdm/session.log (this interops
poorly with other display managers, but might be better for bug-reporting
tools that know about ~/.xsession-errors)
* log to ~/.xsession-errors if it exists, or ~/.cache/gdm/session.log in new
installations
* agree on a session log location in $XDG_CACHE_HOME with the maintainers
of x11-common, and patch both x11-common and gdm3 to be consistent
-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
APT prefers testing-proposed-updates
APT policy: (500, 'testing-proposed-updates'), (500, 'unstable'), (500,
'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 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 0.6.24-1
ii adduser 3.113+nmu3
ii dconf-gsettings-backend 0.14.0-1
ii dconf-tools 0.14.0-1
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.46
ii dpkg 1.16.9
ii gir1.2-glib-2.0 1.34.1.1-1
ii gnome-session [x-session-manager] 3.6.0-1
ii gnome-session-bin 3.6.0-1
ii gnome-session-fallback [x-session-manager] 3.6.0-1
ii gnome-settings-daemon 3.6.1-1
ii gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator] 3.4.1.1-2
ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.6.0-1
ii libaccountsservice0 0.6.24-1
ii libatk1.0-0 2.6.0-1
ii libaudit0 1:1.7.18-1.1
ii libc6 2.13-35
ii libcairo-gobject2 1.12.2-2
ii libcairo2 1.12.2-2
ii libcanberra-gtk3-0 0.28-5
ii libcanberra0 0.28-5
ii libfontconfig1 2.9.0-7
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.26.4-2
ii libglib2.0-0 2.34.1-1
ii libglib2.0-bin 2.34.1-1
ii libgtk-3-0 3.6.1-1
ii libpam-modules 1.1.3-7.1
ii libpam-runtime 1.1.3-7.1
ii libpam0g 1.1.3-7.1
ii libpango1.0-0 1.30.0-1
ii librsvg2-common 2.36.4-1
ii libselinux1 2.1.9-5
ii libupower-glib1 0.9.17-1
ii libwrap0 7.6.q-24
ii libx11-6 2:1.5.0-1
ii libxau6 1:1.0.7-1
ii libxdmcp6 1:1.1.1-1
ii libxrandr2 2:1.3.2-2
ii lsb-base 4.1+Debian7
ii metacity [x-window-manager] 1:2.34.3-3
ii mutter [x-window-manager] 3.6.1-1
ii openbox [x-window-manager] 3.5.0-4
ii policykit-1-gnome 0.105-2
ii upower 0.9.17-1
ii x11-common 1:7.7+1
ii x11-xserver-utils 7.7~3
ii xterm [x-terminal-emulator] 278-2
Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii at-spi2-core 2.7.1-1
ii desktop-base 7.0.3
ii gnome-icon-theme 3.6.0-1
ii gnome-icon-theme-symbolic 3.6.0-1
ii x11-xkb-utils 7.7~1
ii xserver-xephyr 2:1.12.4-1
ii xserver-xorg 1:7.7+1
ii zenity 3.4.0-2
Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
ii gnome-orca 3.4.2-2
ii gnome-shell 3.6.1-3
pn gok <none>
ii libpam-gnome-keyring 3.6.1-1
-- debconf information:
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm3
gdm3/daemon_name: /usr/sbin/gdm3
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I'm closing this bug since the stated explanation is obsolete. I guess
we could have a bug for providing documentation for troubleshooting
GDM issues, but probably best to use a new bug for that.
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/-/issues/557
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/-/issues/560
Thanks,
Jeremy Bícha
--- End Message ---
