Public bug reported: This is more a case of unwieldy behavior than an actual bug. Steps to recreate: (1) create a user (2) rename their home directory (3) log in to X as that user.
After a number of error messages pop up, you're left with a semi-running X session. No panels are running so there's no top-bar menu. Also there's no right-button menu on the desktop. So... There's NO CLEAN WAY TO LOG OUT. Even the two three-fingered- salutes (ctrl-alt-del and ctrl-alt-backspace) fail to shut down X. An experienced end user will switch to tty1 or some other virtual terminal and kill the X server from the command line. However, a less experienced end user will probably end up powering down the computer to recover from this. I understand that the steps-to-recreate are a process that won't happen very often, if at all, during normal use, but there are situations such as migrating a user from one machine to another machine where this sort of thing can and will happen. I can think of a dozen or more ways that a solution could be put in place, but I'm not sure which of them would be preferable so I'll leave that to the experts. ProblemType: Bug Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Feb 4 00:59:19 2010 DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10 ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/Xorg MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E6500 Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.1 PccardctlIdent: Socket 0: no product info available PccardctlStatus: Socket 0: no card ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=64193dcd-8a8f-4115-9ba0-cf31eeb7f02f ro quiet splash ProcEnviron: LANG=en_US.UTF-8 PATH=(custom, no user) ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic RelatedPackageVersions: xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2.1 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1 SourcePackage: xorg-server Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic x86_64 dmi.bios.date: 07/31/2009 dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.bios.version: A14 dmi.board.asset.tag: RSTOPS-PBR dmi.board.name: 0W612R dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.chassis.asset.tag: RSTOPS-PBR dmi.chassis.type: 8 dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc. dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA14:bd07/31/2009:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE6500:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0W612R:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr: dmi.product.name: Latitude E6500 dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc. fglrx: Not loaded system: distro: Ubuntu architecture: x86_64kernel: 2.6.31-17-generic ** Affects: xorg-server (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: apport-bug -- Xorg misbehaves when user home directory is missing https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/516929 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to xorg-server in ubuntu. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp