I've discovered that an obscure interaction between plymouth graphical boot splash and X, when plymouth falls back to text mode, is the cause of this strange behaviour.
A temporary workaround is to disable plymouth-splash: sudo mv /etc/init/plymouth-splash.conf /etc/init/plymouth- splash.conf.disabled ** Description changed: - Binary package hint: xorg + Binary package hint: plymouth - Ubuntu Lucid, Gnome edition 64-Bit Alpha3 + Updates installed in - Virtualbox. + Lucid adopted the Plymouth graphical splash service that uses the Kernel + Mode Setting (KMS) facilities to provide a flicker-free graphical splash + during start-up. For older video chipsets and drivers (e.g. intel i815) + that *do not* support KMS plymouth falls back to using a text console + (using the text plugin). It attaches to tty7 and outputs Linux terminfo + control codes to draw a colour progress-bar at the bottom of the + display. - At Ubuntu login, click on Username and enter password, - after the first keystroke of the password, X crashes and starts again. - The next login attempt works flawlessly. + There is an unfortunate interaction between plymouth and X. X also uses + tty7. When the X/GDM log-in screen appears for the first time plymouth + is still running. A script triggers a quit message to the plymouth + daemon. It seems that plymouth is waiting for either the "2" key or + "Enter" key to be pressed, whereupon a SIGQUIT (signal 3) is sent to + tty7. This causes both plymouth *and* X to terminate. - ProblemType: Bug - Architecture: amd64 - CurrentDmesg: - [ 18.510206] eth0: no IPv6 routers present - [ 41.740240] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 - [ 41.770924] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 - [ 42.865977] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 - [ 43.322226] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A - Date: Thu Mar 4 18:26:24 2010 - DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 - DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory - InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100224.1) - Lsusb: - Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub - Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub - MachineType: innotek GmbH VirtualBox - Package: xorg 1:7.5+1ubuntu12 - ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-15-generic root=UUID=fefa9a42-a546-42c3-984a-c873258026d8 ro quiet splash - ProcEnviron: - PATH=(custom, no user) - LANG=de_AT.UTF-8 - SHELL=/bin/bash - ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-15.22-generic - SourcePackage: xorg - Uname: Linux 2.6.32-15-generic x86_64 - dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006 - dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH - dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox - dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2: - dmi.product.name: VirtualBox - dmi.product.version: 1.2 - dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH - glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory - system: - distro: Ubuntu - codename: lucidarchitecture: x86_64kernel: 2.6.32-15-generic + So, if a password contains "2" or the user logs in by pressing "Enter" + after typing their password, the user experience is that X 'crashes' + (however, gdb reveals that X receives SIGQUIT). + + Some stray plymouth control codes can be witnessed on tty7 if X is + stopped and tty7 console is on-screen. + + Upstart (/sbin/init) then restarts gdm (which launches X) and the second + session performs correctly. + + *** A temporary workaround is to disable the plymouth-splash upstart job + *** + + sudo mv /etc/init/plymouth-splash.conf /etc/init/plymouth- + splash.conf.disabled -- Plymouth text-mode splash causes X to crash on first run due to shared tty7 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532047 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
