[wplug] gdm: "Failsafe dialog failed"

[Brandon Kuczenski]

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Robert E. Coutch wrote:

> What distro are you using?
>

Debian testing -- nearly current.  The problem exists only for my user and 
it exists no matter what Desktop Environment I select (Gnome, KDE, Xfce). 
I'm fairly confident now that it's not an X problem, strictly -- since X 
still starts for my user, it just exits shortly thereafter.

I've posted to the debian-testing list and am in a bit of a conversation 
there; I just now mailed a message to the (relatively disused) gdm mailing 
list asking for an explanation of the error message below, though it 
doesn't seem to be a gdm problem either.

I'm pulling at straws here.  Would welcome suggestions.

Regarding the font server: That has been the same all along, and the 
config file says that it falls back to the explicit font paths in case 
there is no font server running, so I don't think that's it.

Thanks again,
Brandon



> On Thursday 07 July 2005 11:18 pm, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
>> Today is the day for stupid, inexplicable failures for which google has no
>> assistance.  This time: I install the stupid closed-source nvidia drivers
>> for my stupid built-in video card and suddenly 3D acceleration works, but
>> my screen resolution is vastly reduced.  So I go back to the old 'nv'
>> drivers but now I can't login to gdm.  When I try to login, I get the
>> error in syslog:
>>
>> Jul  7 22:56:50 localhost gdm[6383]: failsafe dialog failed (inhibitions: 0
>> 0) Jul  7 22:56:53 localhost gdm[6383]: failsafe dialog failed
>> (inhibitions: 0 1) Jul  7 22:56:55 localhost gdm[6383]: failsafe dialog
>> failed (inhibitions: 1 1)
>>
>> Nothing useful in XFree86.x.log, nothing useful in messages, nothing
>> useful anywhere.  The web has about a dozen message posts of other people
>> having this problem, but no solutions.
>>
>> An important fact: other users -- that is, users who did not login with
>> the evil closed-source drivers installed -- can still login.  Only I
>> cannot.
>>
>> Here is a comparison between an unsuccessful and a successful login:
>>
>> # diff XFree86.0.log XFree86.1.log
>> 25c25
>> < (==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Thu Jul  7 23:12:16 2005
>> ---
>>
>>> (==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.1.log", Time: Thu Jul  7 23:12:26 2005
>>
>> 47c47
>> < (++) using VT number 7
>> ---
>>
>>> (++) using VT number 8
>>
>> 721,726c721,723
>> < (WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
>> < (==) NV(0): Write-combining range (0xe8000000,0x2000000)
>> < (**) NV(0): DPMS enabled
>> < (==) RandR enabled
>> < (II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
>> < Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
>> ---
>>
>>> GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 175500
>>> GetModeLine - hdsp: 1600 hbeg: 1664 hend: 1856 httl: 2160
>>>               vdsp: 1200 vbeg: 1201 vend: 1204 vttl: 1250 flags: 5
>>
>> The > represents a successful login; the < represents a failed login.
>>
>> I have no idea what to do next.  Literally.  I mean... reinstall X?  Seems
>> rather extreme. But I'll try that next, I suppose.
>>
>> desperately,
>> Brandon
>>
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>> wplug at wplug.org
>> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
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