Ubuntu

Multiple users login crash

Asked by Richard J Uschold

I initially reported this several months ago on bug.launchpad.net, but apparently that was the wrong place, as the problem is in an older version, not Lucid. (It may exist there too, for all I know, but I can't test it there)

I initially reported it to an existing bug: 244737, which appeared to be the same problem, but was informed that I should open a new bug, so I opened: 534433.

The problem is:

I installed Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS in January, 2010.
I have the same problem (as bug: 244737 ) on a Dell Inspiron which uses the Intel graphics chip set.
The error is extremely repeatable. I login as the first user, then login as the second user. Switch to the first user, and log out. I get the login screen and the login screen sound: drum beat, plays forever. I can successfully login as the second user, but if I try to do anything other than shutdown, the screen will go blank and only CTRL-ALT-DEL will do anything. CTRL-ALT-BS does nothing.

I get the same authentication errors in syslog and auth.log as the above bug.

If I do not switch users, it runs for a few hours and then crashes, i.e., the screen goes blank. I assume that is the same problem.

I also installed Ubuntu 8.04. LTS on a much older machine and it runs fine.

The logs indicate a gdm problem, I have: gdm 2.20.7-0ubuntu1.1

In the bug group, it was suggested to run 'apport-collect BUGNUMBER'. Is this still appropriate for this answers group or something different?

Gilligan

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Uwe Geuder (ubuntulp-ugeuder) said : 		#1

answers.launchpads.net is for asking questions like e.g.

Q: How do I xyz
A: Select X and press Y

bugs.launchpad.net is for reporting bugs e.g.

When I do X, program Y crashes.

This distinction is not dependent whether you use the newest release or an older one.

So bugs.launchpad.net is the right place for your issue.

From my experience (this is not an official Ubuntu statement) nobody is willing to work
with a bug in an old release in the first place. You are supposed to test it in the
current release.

1.) if the bug is not the new release the correction might be backported to the old
one if the release is still supported and if the problem is really important for many users.
I doubt that this is the case for your problem (it seems specific to certain hardware,
not many users ever switch users and many people have upgraded from 08.04)

2.) if the bug is still in the new release, it might be corrected there first. After that number #1
can be applied.

I understand that you are not satisfied with this answer, but these are the facts (according to
my observation). The same applies to commercial closed source software, you typically have no control
what bugs will be fixed an when.

The advantage with open source is that if you think the problem is really worth it, you can get the source code
and fix it yourself (or pay somebody to do it for you)

apport-collect works only for bug reports.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Richard J Uschold for more information if necessary.

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