Bug#1119809: Black screen after upgrading from 48

Ben Hutchings ben at decadent.org.uk
Fri Oct 31 16:58:30 GMT 2025


Package: gdm3
Version: 49.1-4
Severity: serious

I did a full-upgrade today which upgraded the gdm packages from
version 48.0-3 to 49.1-4.  After rebooting, gdm did not display
anything.  I was still to switch virtual terminals with Ctrl-Alt-F<n>.

Downgrading gdm3, libgdm1, and gir1.2-gdm-1.0 to the version in trixie
(48.0-2) resolved this, so this doesn't seem to be triggered by some
other dependency of gdm.

All I can see in the journal is:

Oct 31 17:35:12 deadeye systemd[1]: Starting gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager...
Oct 31 17:35:12 deadeye systemd[1]: Started gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager.
Oct 31 17:35:12 deadeye gdm-launch-environment][2863]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm-greeter(uid=60578) by (uid=0)
Oct 31 17:35:44 deadeye gdm3[2689]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Oct 31 17:35:44 deadeye gdm3[2689]: Gdm: Child process -3016 was already dead.
Oct 31 17:35:44 deadeye gdm3[2689]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never registered, failing
Oct 31 17:35:44 deadeye gdm3[2689]: Gdm: Child process -3016 was already dead.
Oct 31 17:35:44 deadeye gdm-launch-environment][3894]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm-greeter-2(uid=60579) by (uid=0)
Oct 31 17:38:43 deadeye systemd[1]: Stopping gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager...
Oct 31 17:38:43 deadeye gdm3[2689]: Gdm: Child process -3974 was already dead.
Oct 31 17:38:43 deadeye systemd[1]: gdm.service: Deactivated successfully.
Oct 31 17:38:43 deadeye systemd[1]: Stopped gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager.
Oct 31 17:38:54 deadeye systemd[1]: Starting gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager...
Oct 31 17:38:55 deadeye systemd[1]: Started gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager.
Oct 31 17:38:55 deadeye gdm-launch-environment][5604]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm-greeter(uid=60578) by (uid=0)

Let me know what additional information you need.

Ben.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.16.12+deb14+1-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=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                             23.13.9-8
ii  adduser                                     3.153
ii  dbus [default-dbus-system-bus]              1.16.2-2
ii  dbus-bin                                    1.16.2-2
ii  dbus-daemon                                 1.16.2-2
ii  dconf-cli                                   0.49.0-2
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend                     0.49.0-2
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]                       1.5.91
ii  gir1.2-gdm-1.0                              49.1-4
ii  gnome-classic [x-session-manager]           49.0-2
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]           48.0-2
ii  gnome-session-bin                           48.0-2
ii  gnome-session-common                        48.0-2
ii  gnome-session-xsession [x-session-manager]  48.0-2
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                       48.1-2
ii  gnome-shell                                 48.5-3
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]        3.58.0-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                   49.1-1
ii  konsole [x-terminal-emulator]               4:25.04.2-1
ii  kwin-x11 [x-window-manager]                 4:6.5.1-1
ii  libaccountsservice0                         23.13.9-8
ii  libaudit1                                   1:4.1.2-1
ii  libc6                                       2.41-12
ii  libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0                         2.44.4+dfsg-1
ii  libgdm1                                     49.1-4
ii  libglib2.0-0t64                             2.86.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-bin                              2.86.1-1
ii  libgtk-3-0t64                               3.24.51-1
ii  libgudev-1.0-0                              238-7
ii  libjson-glib-1.0-0                          1.10.8+ds-1
ii  libkeyutils1                                1.6.3-6
ii  libpam-modules                              1.7.0-5
ii  libpam-runtime                              1.7.0-5
ii  libpam-systemd [logind]                     258.1-2
ii  libpam0g                                    1.7.0-5
ii  librsvg2-common                             2.60.0+dfsg-1+b1
ii  libselinux1                                 3.9-2
ii  libsystemd0                                 258.1-2
ii  libx11-6                                    2:1.8.12-1
ii  libxau6                                     1:1.0.11-1
ii  libxcb1                                     1.17.0-2+b1
ii  libxdmcp6                                   1:1.1.5-1
ii  metacity [x-window-manager]                 1:3.58.1-1
ii  mutter [x-window-manager]                   48.5-1
ii  plasma-workspace [x-session-manager]        4:6.5.1-1
ii  polkitd                                     126-2
ii  procps                                      2:4.0.4-9
ii  ptyxis [x-terminal-emulator]                49.2-1
ii  rxvt-unicode [x-terminal-emulator]          9.31-3+b2
ii  systemd-sysv                                258.1-2
ii  ucf                                         3.0052
ii  x11-common                                  1:7.7+26
ii  x11-xserver-utils                           7.7+11
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator]                 402-1

Versions of packages gdm3 recommends:
ii  at-spi2-core                                2.58.1-1
ii  desktop-base                                14.0.0~pre2
ii  gnome-classic [x-session-manager]           49.0-2
ii  gnome-session [x-session-manager]           48.0-2
ii  gnome-session-xsession [x-session-manager]  48.0-2
ii  plasma-workspace [x-session-manager]        4:6.5.1-1
ii  x11-xkb-utils                               7.7+9
ii  xserver-xephyr                              2:21.1.20-1
ii  xserver-xorg                                1:7.7+26
ii  zenity                                      4.1.99-1

Versions of packages gdm3 suggests:
pn  libpam-fprintd        <none>
ii  libpam-gnome-keyring  48.0-4
pn  libpam-pkcs11         <none>
pn  libpam-sss            <none>
ii  orca                  49.4-1

-- debconf-show failed



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