Bug#1124788: gdm3: X11 session fails to restore after hibernation

Francisco Javier Jose Angeles bocho.zic at gmail.com
Tue Jan 6 18:43:40 GMT 2026


Package: gdm3
Version: 43.0-3
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: bocho.zic at gmail.com

Dear Maintainer,

Dear Maintainer,

I am reporting a recurring issue with gdm3 when using GNOME on Xorg
(gnome-xorg session) after resuming from hibernation.

What led up to the situation:
The system is running Debian 12 (bookworm) with gdm3 managing a GNOME
session on X11 (Wayland explicitly not used). The issue occurs after the
system is put into hibernation (systemctl hibernate) and then powered
on again.

What exactly did you do:
I hibernated the system normally. After powering it back on, the system
attempts to restore the graphical session.

What was the outcome:
The graphical login/session does not restore correctly. The screen
remains blank or shows an incomplete GDM state (sometimes without user
avatar), and the GNOME X11 session cannot be resumed. Switching to a TTY
is possible, but the graphical session is unusable until gdm3 is
restarted or the system is rebooted.

This failure is intermittent but frequent, and it occurs even after
short hibernation periods (less than two hours).

What outcome did you expect instead:
I expected the GDM login screen or the previous GNOME Xorg session to be
restored correctly after resuming from hibernation, as it does after a
normal reboot.


Additional diagnostic information:

- The issue reliably occurs after resuming from hibernation; cold boots work correctly.
- Short hibernation periods (<2h) are sufficient to reproduce the failure.
- When the failure occurs, the GDM greeter renders incompletely: only input fields are shown, without the usual user avatar or branding.
- Wayland is intentionally disabled; the system is configured to use X11 only (gnome-xorg).
- /var/lib/AccountsService/users/<user> explicitly sets Session=gnome-xorg.
- Xorg starts successfully after resume, and gdm-session-worker and gdm-x-session processes are present.
- The failure occurs after GDM hands off to gnome-session, resulting in a black screen or blinking cursor.
- systemd reports failures starting gnome-keyring components (pkcs11, secrets, ssh).
- loginctl may fail to resolve $XDG_SESSION_ID after resume; multiple sessions remain registered and user lingering is enabled.
- Restarting systemd-logind caused immediate session failure, resulting in an unusable login state.
- After resume, Dropbox reports missing AppIndicator support, suggesting incomplete session or tray initialization.




-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.12
  APT prefers oldstable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500, 'oldstable-security'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386


Note:
This bug report and the diagnostic steps leading to it were prepared
with assistance from ChatGPT because i a new user, but I made diagnostic
many test after the error hapen and only send the resume of all results.


Kernel: Linux 6.12.57+deb12-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=es_MX.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=es_MX.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=es_MX:es
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  alacritty [x-terminal-emulator]       0.11.0-4
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                        43.0-3
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+deb12u2
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]  3.46.8-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas             43.0-1
ii  kitty [x-terminal-emulator]           0.26.5-5
ii  libaccountsservice0                   22.08.8-6
ii  libaudit1                             1:3.0.9-1
ii  libc6                                 2.36-9+deb12u13
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                    0.30-10
ii  libcanberra0                          0.30-10
ii  libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0                   2.42.10+dfsg-1+deb12u2
ii  libgdm1                               43.0-3
ii  libglib2.0-0                          2.74.6-2+deb12u7
ii  libglib2.0-bin                        2.74.6-2+deb12u7
ii  libgtk-3-0                            3.24.38-2~deb12u3
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]               252.39-1~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                           252.39-1~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                          252.39-1~deb12u1
ii  tilix [x-terminal-emulator]           1.9.5-2
ii  ucf                                   3.0043+nmu1+deb12u1
ii  x11-common                            1:7.7+23
ii  x11-xserver-utils                     7.7+9+b1
ii  xfce4-terminal [x-terminal-emulator]  1.0.4-1
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator]           379-1

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+deb12u11
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

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



More information about the pkg-gnome-maintainers mailing list