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

[Jindřich Makovička]

Journald log from the last failure (masking the emacs daemon systemd unit
for gdm did not help unfortunately). Got a login screen after three reboots.

Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd-logind[1604]: Removed session c2.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd-logind[1604]: Session c2 logged out. Waiting
for processes to exit.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm-launch-environment][1856]:
pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user
gdm-greeter(uid=60579) by (uid=0)
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm-launch-environment][1856]:
pam_winbind(gdm-launch-environment:account): valid_user: wbcGetpwnam gave
WBC_ERR_DOMAIN_NOT_FOUND
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: Child process -1836 was already dead.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never
registered, failing
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: Child process -1836 was already dead.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: session-c2.scope: Deactivated
successfully.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never
registered, failing
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gdm-launch-environment][1814]:
pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session closed for user
gdm-greeter-2
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: Failed to start unit
gnome-session at gnome.target:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: Starting GNOME session target:
gnome-session at gnome.target
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: Failed to reset failed state of
units: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: Failed to check if a graphical
session is running: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner:
Name "org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: Failed to upload environment to
systemd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60581/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60581/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60581/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60581/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly gnome-session[1845]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60581/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1840]:
dbus-daemon[1840]: [session uid=60580 pid=1840 pidfd=5] Activated service
'org.freedesktop.systemd1' failed: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited
with status 1
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1840]:
dbus-daemon[1840]: [session uid=60580 pid=1840 pidfd=5] Activating service
name='org.freedesktop.systemd1' requested by ':1.0' (uid=60580 pid=1836
comm="/usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session gnome-session" label="unconfined")
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1840]:
dbus-daemon[1840]: [session uid=60580 pid=1840 pidfd=5] Cannot set up
inotify for '/run/gdm3/home/gdm-greeter-2/.local/share/dbus-1/services':
Permission denied
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1840]: dbus[1840]:
Unable to set up transient service directory: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
"/run/user/60581" is owned by uid 60581, not our uid 60580
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Starting power-profiles-daemon.service -
Power Profiles daemon...
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Reached target multi-user.target -
Multi-User System.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Finished plymouth-quit-wait.service -
Hold until boot process finishes up.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Started session-c2.scope - Session c2 of
User gdm-greeter-2.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Failed to start user at 60581.service - User
Manager for UID 60581.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: user at 60581.service: Failed with result
'exit-code'.
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: user at 60581.service: Main process exited,
code=exited, status=217/USER
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly (systemd)[1833]: user at 60581.service: Failed at step
USER spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd: Invalid argument
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly (systemd)[1833]: user at 60581.service: Failed to
determine credentials for user '60581': Unknown user
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Starting user at 60581.service - User
Manager for UID 60581...
Sep 15 18:16:20 holly systemd[1]: Finished user-runtime-dir at 60581.service -
User Runtime Directory /run/user/60581.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd-logind[1604]: New session 'c2' of user
'gdm-greeter-2' with class 'greeter' and type 'wayland'.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Starting user-runtime-dir at 60581.service -
User Runtime Directory /run/user/60581...
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Created slice user-60581.slice - User
Slice of UID 60581.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm-launch-environment][1814]:
pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user
gdm-greeter-2(uid=60580) by (uid=0)
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm-launch-environment][1814]:
pam_winbind(gdm-launch-environment:account): valid_user: wbcGetpwnam gave
WBC_ERR_DOMAIN_NOT_FOUND
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: Child process -1793 was already dead.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never
registered, failing
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: Child process -1793 was already dead.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd-logind[1604]: Removed session c1.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd-logind[1604]: Session c1 logged out. Waiting
for processes to exit.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: session-c1.scope: Deactivated
successfully.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm3[1698]: Gdm: GdmDisplay: Session never
registered, failing
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm-launch-environment][1710]:
pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session closed for user
gdm-greeter
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: Failed to start unit
gnome-session at gnome.target:
GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: Starting GNOME session target:
gnome-session at gnome.target
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: Failed to reset failed state of
units: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: Failed to check if a graphical
session is running: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner:
Name "org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: Failed to upload environment to
systemd: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name
"org.freedesktop.systemd1" does not exist
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gnome-session[1800]: unable to create directory
'/run/user/60578/dconf': Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1796]:
dbus-daemon[1796]: [session uid=60579 pid=1796 pidfd=5] Activated service
'org.freedesktop.systemd1' failed: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited
with status 1
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1796]:
dbus-daemon[1796]: [session uid=60579 pid=1796 pidfd=5] Activating service
name='org.freedesktop.systemd1' requested by ':1.0' (uid=60579 pid=1793
comm="/usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session gnome-session" label="unconfined")
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1796]:
dbus-daemon[1796]: [session uid=60579 pid=1796 pidfd=5] Cannot set up
inotify for '/run/gdm3/home/gdm-greeter/.local/share/dbus-1/services':
Permission denied
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly /usr/libexec/gdm-wayland-session[1796]: dbus[1796]:
Unable to set up transient service directory: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
"/run/user/60578" is owned by uid 60578, not our uid 60579
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Started session-c1.scope - Session c1 of
User gdm-greeter.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Failed to start user at 60578.service - User
Manager for UID 60578.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: user at 60578.service: Failed with result
'exit-code'.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: user at 60578.service: Main process exited,
code=exited, status=217/USER
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly (systemd)[1792]: user at 60578.service: Failed at step
USER spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd: Invalid argument
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly (systemd)[1792]: user at 60578.service: Failed to
determine credentials for user '60578': Unknown user
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Starting user at 60578.service - User
Manager for UID 60578...
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Finished user-runtime-dir at 60578.service -
User Runtime Directory /run/user/60578.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd-logind[1604]: New session 'c1' of user
'gdm-greeter' with class 'greeter' and type 'wayland'.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Starting user-runtime-dir at 60578.service -
User Runtime Directory /run/user/60578...
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly systemd[1]: Created slice user-60578.slice - User
Slice of UID 60578.
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm-launch-environment][1710]:
pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user
gdm-greeter(uid=60579) by (uid=0)
Sep 15 18:16:19 holly gdm-launch-environment][1710]:
pam_winbind(gdm-launch-environment:account): valid_user: wbcGetpwnam gave
WBC_ERR_DOMAIN_NOT_FOUND

On Tue, Sep 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM Jindřich Makovička <makovick at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am encountering this bug too, and I am starting to suspect systemd user
> services (eg. gdm3 runs Emacs in the background when installed and there is
> apparently no way to tell systemd to avoid running these services under the
> system users like gdm3)
>
> Can you share the output of `ls -lR /etc/systemd/user` ?
>
> Regards,
> --
> Jindřich Makovička
>


-- 
Jindřich Makovička
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