Bug#1059245: gdm3: GDM3 fails to start on Wayland, maybe due to org.freedesktop.systemd1 failing to activate

[Olivier Mehani]

Package: gdm3
Version: 45.0.1-2
Followup-For: Bug #1059245

Thanks for the reply, Simon.

I have done some more investigation, comparing to a freshly installed 
VM, and see this difference in the debug logs of gdm-wayland-session, 
which seems to be what misbehaves in my previous logs.

  $ sudo journalctl -t gdm-wayland-session
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: Gdm: Enabling debugging
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: Gdm: Running session message bus
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: GLib: g_unix_open_pipe() called with FD_CLOEXEC; please migrate to using O_CLOEXEC instead
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: GLib: g_unix_open_pipe() called with FD_CLOEXEC; please migrate to using O_CLOEXEC instead
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: Gdm: could not fetch environment: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: Gdm: Running wayland session
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: GLib: g_unix_open_pipe() called with FD_CLOEXEC; please migrate to using O_CLOEXEC instead
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: GLib-GIO: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
  Dec 26 14:01:56 desktop gdm-wayland-session[1469]: Gdm: Could not register display: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Aucun affichage disponible

This compared to a healthier test VM

  $ sudo journalctl -t gdm-wayland-session
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: Gdm: Enabling debugging
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: Gdm: Running session message bus
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: GLib-GIO: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: Gdm: session message bus already running, not starting another one
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: Gdm: Running wayland session
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: GLib-GIO: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
  Dec 26 07:29:00 test-vm gdm-wayland-session[2232]: Gdm: gdm-wayland-session: Session will register itself

So the error seems to be that “Aucun affichange disponible” (No display 
available), so this would confirm the permission issue somewhere. I 
indeed can't see a running Xwayland on the impacted system.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.4
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-15-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_AU.UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gdm3 depends on:
ii  accountsservice                       22.08.8-6
ii  adduser                               3.134
ii  dbus [default-dbus-system-bus]        1.14.10-1~deb12u1
ii  dbus-bin                              1.14.10-1~deb12u1
ii  dbus-daemon                           1.14.10-1~deb12u1
ii  dconf-cli                             0.40.0-4
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend               0.40.0-4
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]                 1.5.82
ii  gir1.2-gdm-1.0                        45.0.1-2
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]     43.0-1+deb12u1
ii  gnome-session-bin                     43.0-1+deb12u1
ii  gnome-session-common                  43.0-1+deb12u1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                 43.0-4
ii  gnome-shell                           43.9-0+deb12u1
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]  3.46.8-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas             43.0-1
ii  libaccountsservice0                   22.08.8-6
ii  libaudit1                             1:3.0.9-1
ii  libc6                                 2.36-9+deb12u3
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                    0.30-10
ii  libcanberra0                          0.30-10
ii  libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0                   2.42.10+dfsg-1+b1
ii  libgdm1                               45.0.1-2
ii  libglib2.0-0                          2.78.3-1
ii  libglib2.0-bin                        2.78.3-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                            3.24.38-2~deb12u1
ii  libgudev-1.0-0                        237-2
ii  libkeyutils1                          1.6.3-2
ii  libpam-modules                        1.5.2-6+deb12u1
ii  libpam-runtime                        1.5.2-6+deb12u1
ii  libpam-systemd [logind]               252.19-1~deb12u1
ii  libpam0g                              1.5.2-6+deb12u1
ii  librsvg2-common                       2.54.7+dfsg-1~deb12u1
ii  libselinux1                           3.4-1+b6
ii  libsystemd0                           252.19-1~deb12u1
ii  libx11-6                              2:1.8.4-2+deb12u2
ii  libxau6                               1:1.0.9-1
ii  libxcb1                               1.15-1
ii  libxdmcp6                             1:1.1.2-3
ii  polkitd                               122-3
ii  procps                                2:4.0.2-3
ii  systemd-sysv                          252.19-1~deb12u1
ii  ucf                                   3.0043+nmu1
ii  x11-common                            1:7.7+23
ii  x11-xserver-utils                     7.7+9+b1
ii  xiterm+thai [x-terminal-emulator]     1.10-2+b2

Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii  at-spi2-core                       2.46.0-5
ii  desktop-base                       12.0.6+nmu1~deb12u1
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]  43.0-1+deb12u1
ii  x11-xkb-utils                      7.7+7
ii  xserver-xephyr                     2:21.1.7-3+deb12u2
ii  xserver-xorg                       1:7.7+23
ii  zenity                             3.44.0-1

Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
pn  libpam-fprintd        <none>
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring  42.1-1+b2
pn  libpam-pkcs11         <none>
pn  libpam-sss            <none>
ii  orca                  43.1-1

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/gdm3/daemon.conf changed:
[daemon]
[security]
[xdmcp]
[chooser]
[debug]
Enable=true


-- debconf information:
* shared/default-x-display-manager: gdm3
  gdm3/daemon_name: /usr/sbin/gdm3