Bug#726516: gdm3 fails to launch, stuck on "gone wrong" screen

[Martin Erik Werner]

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 01:47:57PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Am 16.10.2013 13:25, schrieb Martin Erik Werner:
> > Package: gdm3
> > Version: 3.8.4-2
> > Severity: important
> > 
> > Dear Maintainer,
> > After installing a whole slew of updates recently (2013-10-15, and I think my last
> > previous upgrade was 2013-09-20), gdm3 has stopped working.
> > 
> > When gdm3 is auto-started on boot or restarted manually it always ends
> > up at the white "oh no, something has gone wrong" screen, where pressing
> > "log out" takes you directly back to the same screen.
> > 
> > On each occurence there seems to appear an extra systemd error message
> > in the dmesg:
> > ###
> > (...)
> > [ 1113.820112] systemd-logind[3352]: Failed to issue method call: Launch
> > helper exited with unknown return code 1
> > [ 1121.219748] systemd-logind[3352]: Failed to issue method call: Launch
> > helper exited with unknown return code 1
> > [ 1123.382056] systemd-logind[3352]: Failed to issue method call: Launch
> > helper exited with unknown return code 1
> > [ 1124.631593] systemd-logind[3352]: Failed to issue method call: Launch
> > helper exited with unknown return code 1
> > (...)
> > ###
> 
> Is libpam-systemd installed?
> 

Yes.

$ apt-cache policy libpam-systemd                                                                                                          
libpam-systemd:
  Installed: 204-5
  Candidate: 204-5
  Version table:
 *** 204-5 0
        500 http://http.debian.net/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

(So both in symptoms and that regard it seemed unrelated to #724731, which is
why I reported it separately)