I had the same problem. I solved it renaming '/etc/init/failsafe-x.conf' to '/etc/init/failsafe-x.conf-disable' ('sudo mv /etc/init/failsafe-x.conf /etc/init/failsafe-x.conf-disable')
Apparently there is some issues with the new 'start' scripts which, in my case surfaced after the upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10. I don't know which package was the culprit for leaving the failsafe mode in init because the upgrade had issues with the proprietary nvidia driver and i had to reconfigure X for the nv driver, so I cannot tell when this specific issue started. ** Changed in: kdebase-workspace (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- Karmic boot scripts starting kdm twice during bootup https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/485033 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs