600. gdm/gnome breakage in debian jessie October/November 2014

I did a dist-upgrade last night and encountered this on my next boot:

During the dist-upgrade I got a message about the nvidia driver version not being compatible with my system -- small surprise as I have an onboard intel chip and no external graphics card (it's a lenovo thinkpad SL410).

Installing kdm let me at least boot into a DM. I still couldn't launch gnome from kdm, it giving the same error message as in the photo.
Digging a bit deeper and looking at what happened before/during a crash:

journalctl

Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium kdm[1317]: Stopping K Display Manager: kdm...done.
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium systemd[1]: Dependency failed for X11 Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed state.
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium kdm[1350]: Starting K Display Manager: kdm.
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium sudo[1311]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1372): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1373): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1374): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:30 niobium kdm_greet[1378]: Cannot load /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
Nov 02 10:46:31 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 02 10:46:31 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:31 niobium systemd[1]: Dependency failed for X11 Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:31 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed state.
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1398): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1399): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium console-kit-daemon[1707]: (process:1400): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium systemd[1]: Dependency failed for X11 Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:32 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed state.
Nov 02 10:46:33 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Nov 02 10:46:33 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:33 niobium systemd[1]: Dependency failed for X11 Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:33 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed state.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service start request repeated too quickly, refusing to start.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: Dependency failed for X11 Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed sta

GDM shouldn't be involved at all as I was using kdm.

systemctl -l status gdm.service

● gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service; enabled)
  Drop-In: /run/systemd/generator/gdm3.service.d
           └─50-gdm3-$x-display-manager.conf
   Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Sun 2014-11-02 10:46:35 AEDT; 14min ago
  Process: 1405 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c [ "$(cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null)" = "/usr/sbin/gdm3" ] (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: gdm.service start request repeated too quickly, refusing to start.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: Failed to start GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 02 10:46:35 niobium systemd[1]: Unit gdm.service entered failed state.

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The solution:
Either way, I now had enough keywords to start googling, and came across http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=118305

Basically,

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*
sudo apt-get purge libnvidia-ml1:i386 nvidia-smi:i386
sudo apt-get install glx-alternative-mesa
sudo apt-get --reinstall install gdm3

Launching gnome (standard) from kdm gave me prompts to set up the configuration for an installed extension (I miss the frippery extensions...). Not sure whether the breakage was related to the extension.

 Either way, everything is working properly now.

184. Fixing Gnome screenshot (3.4.1) in Debian Wheezy by patching and compiling

Approach
Putting a hold on gnome-screenshot forever will likely prevent gnome from upgrading properly since I'd suspect it's a required dependency.

Clarification: this fix restores the original behaviour. gnome-screenshot --interactive is NOT an acceptable solution. This guide restores gnome-screenshot to it's good old functional state.

So, time to build our own gnome-screenshot -- but one which actually works in a reasonable way. The gnome-screenshot cockup is just another sign that something is clearly amiss with the way gnome is being developed. And this, if true, is another truly idiotic 'feature' -- turn gnome into windows? Most of us left for a reason...

Anyway, linux is still sane though -- if we don't like something we're not entirely up a creek, which will buy us a bit more time while we're getting ready to move to xmonad  -- or for debian to move away from not making downstreams changes to gnome.

We have two options:
Either look here: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-screenshot/commit/?id=3bbc1e158fd58ec7f4f984f6d3c15ec95e65a035&ignorews=1 and try to come up with your own way of reverting the crippling.

Or use the ubuntu patches as a guide: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/gnome-screenshot

Normally you shouldn't mix ubuntu and debian packages, and we won't: we'll be compiling our own package, but using the work done by the ubuntu maintainers.

In particular, look at this: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gnome-screenshot/gnome-screenshot_3.4.1-0ubuntu1.debian.tar.gz

Look in the debian/patches directory and you'll find the ubuntu_interative_screenshots.patch

Building:
sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev libcanberra-gtk3-dev intltool
wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnome-screenshot/gnome-screenshot_3.4.1.orig.tar.xz
tar xvf gnome-screenshot_3.4.1.orig.tar.xz
cd gnome-screenshot-3.4.1/src

You can wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gnome-screenshot/gnome-screenshot_3.4.1-0ubuntu1.debian.tar.gz and untar it to look at the debian/patches/ubuntu_interactive_screenshots.patch, which what we do below is based on:

In the ubuntu patch there's a test to see whether unity is used. We'll do it a bit cruder -- we'll just make sure the condition is always true by testing for 0<1.

Edit src/screenshot-application.c and change the part in red

130 static void

131 save_pixbuf_handle_error (ScreenshotApplication *self,

132                           GError *error)

133 {

134   if (screenshot_config->interactive)

135     {

136       ScreenshotDialog *dialog = self->priv->dialog;

137       GtkWidget *toplevel = screenshot_dialog_get_toplevel (dialog);

138 

139       screenshot_dialog_set_busy (dialog, FALSE);

to

134   if (0 < 1)

Also, change

348   screenshot_play_sound_effect ("screen-capture", _("Screenshot taken"));

349 

350   if (screenshot_config->interactive)

351     {

352       self->priv->dialog = screenshot_dialog_new (self->priv->screenshot, self->priv->save_uri);

353       toplevel = screenshot_dialog_get_toplevel (self->priv->dialog);

354       gtk_widget_show (toplevel);

to

350   if (0 < 1 )

Time to build!
./configure --prefix=${HOME}/.gsc --program-suffix=.debugged
make
make install

Note: the install prefix here works fine for a single-user desktop. If you want everyone to be able to use our shiny new gnome-screenshot, put everything in /usr/bin instead.

We now have a working gnome screenshot in ~/.gsc that behaves as intended.
tree -L 2 -d
.
|-- bin
`-- share
    |-- applications
    |-- GConf
    |-- glib-2.0
    |-- gnome-screenshot
    |-- locale
    `-- man

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 However, we need to make sure our fixed gnome-screenshot gets invoked.

In Gnome Shell 3.2.X
sudo apt-get install gconf-editor
Start gconf-editor
go to /apps/metacity/keybinding_commands/command_screenshot
change to e.g.  /home/verahill/.gsc/bin/gnome-screenshot.debugged
Also, change command_window_screenshot to
/home/verahill/.gsc/bin/gnome-screenshot.debugged --window

Note: defining Print/Alt+print keyboard shortcuts the 'gnome-shell' way (i.e. via system-settings) doesn't seem to work in gnome 3.2. Conversely, doing it the gconf-editor way in gnome 3.4 doesn't work.


In Gnome Shell 3.4.X
Go to System Settings, Keyboard, Shortcuts
Disable the automatically defined shortcuts for gnome-screenshot

And add your own under custom shortcuts:

Done! 
Unless you want to add to PATH in which case you can put this in your ~/.bashrc:
export PATH=$PATH:${HOME}/.gsc/bin

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Note: If it's still not working, try to launch from the terminal. If you get

(gnome-screenshot.debugged:7493): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: Settings schema 'org.gnome.gnome-screenshot' does not contain a key named 'auto-save-directory'
Trace/breakpoint trap

it's because you had the old, good gnome-screenshot. 

sudo su

echo "gnome-screenshot install"|dpkg --set-selections

exit

sudo apt-get install gnome-screenshot

Now try

gsettings get org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory
which should be empty.

gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory '/home/verahill/Pictures'

Finally, make sure to re-set your keybindings.

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Links to this post:
http://qfox.nl/notes/153

131. Sort of Fixed: Gnome-screenshot (3.4.1) broken in debian testing -- how to fix it

UPDATE 9/6/2012: It's becoming incrasingly difficult to revert back to the old version of gnome-screenshot, hence the changed title of the post. I can't believe the gnome-screenshot hasn't been reverted back to a more sane behaviour -- any behaviour that leads to a score of bug reports (remember that there's a lot of self-censorship as few people submit bug reports even if they encounter a bug) is highly undesirable. I would not include screenshot in my posts if I hadn't already put a hold on my gnome-screenshot package. Anyway, keep an eye on this one for (a lack of) updates: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669629

Original post
Something weird happened after the updates today (http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/todays-3rd-of-may-2012-debian.html). When taking screenshots I didn't get a save dialogue.

I naturally presumed this to be a crippling bug:

gnome-screenshot

** (gnome-screenshot:8520): WARNING **: Unable to use GNOME Shell's builtin screenshot interface, resorting to fallback X11. Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Error: Expected type utf8 for Argument 'filename' but got type 'boolean' (nil)

After reading bug reports I noticed that a new screenshot shows up in the ~/Pictures folder -- but you get no dialogue re saving and name etc, so I might be forgiven for thinking that it didn't work at all. Yet, something was clearly out of whack.

A bit of googling led me here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screenshot/+bug/929536

which pointed me to this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screenshot/+bug/927952 and this: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669629

Here's the source of it all: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-screenshot/commit/?id=3bbc1e158fd58ec7f4f984f6d3c15ec95e65a035

Yes. The broken behaviour is a design feature. It's idiotic.

I like gnome-shell now that I've customized it. But seriously, what the gnome devs want as default behaviour can only be considered as broken behaviour by any long term desktop user. This new behaviour is idiotic and will only benefit those who don't use screenshot very often  -- those who do will definitely want control over where screenshots are saved and under what names.

The worst, intended 'solution':

If I would guess at the intentions of the gnome dev/s, they'd suggest you map your print scrn key to gnome-screenshot -i. This brings up a dialogue. Asking you to select full screen, window or area. You can then click on take screen shot, and you then get the save dialogue. Suddenly it got a lot less convenient. Something that was quick and easy now has become clunky.

The better solution:

I used the snapshot archive:

http://snapshot.debian.org/package/gnome-utils/3.2.1-3/#gnome-screenshot_3.2.1-3

1. Download the previous version, e.g. 

wget http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20120313T034114Z/pool/main/g/gnome-utils/gnome-screenshot_3.2.1-3_amd64.deb

2. And install

 sudo dpkg -i gnome-screenshot_3.2.1-3_amd64.deb 

dpkg: warning: downgrading gnome-screenshot from 3.4.1-1 to 3.2.1-3.

3. Prevent the package from being upgraded again:

sudo su

echo "gnome-screenshot hold"|dpkg --set-selections

The behaviour should now be back to usable.

This post contained no screenshots. For obvious reasons.

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Links to this post:
http://qfox.nl/notes/153