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I'm stuck on boot with the spinny Ubuntu logo never stopping.

I just started a new job and was given an existing HP with Ubuntu Studio 17 on it. I was rolling along on it just fine until I decided I wanted to try out the Sublime Text editor, which requires the root user, which the machine wasn't set up for.

I had some success getting root enabled, but it still wasn't allowing me to get Sublime installed, so I looked around for some more hints, and The Last Thing I did was follow these instructions: http://www.configserverfirewall.com/ubuntu-linux/enable-ubuntu-desktop-root-login/

... which ends with editing /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf with

[SeatDefaults]    
greeter-session=unity-greeter
user-session=ubuntu
greeter-show-manual-login=true

...saved that and rebooted. Can't get past the spinny ubuntu start up screen now.

I finally booted from a Live CD and edited the above changes out, but the computer is still stuck in spinny logo purgatory. Obviously something else needs to be changed, updated, hacked and/or deleted. I've looked all over for clues on how to get around this without any success.

Any clues I can use?

Stephen Peters
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  • Log in through the terminal (ctrl+alt+F1) What is the output of ls /usr/share/xgreeters – stumblebee Mar 05 '18 at 20:23
  • ctrl+alt+f1 does something really odd. Now there's a large blinking underscore cursor mark in the upper left like you'd imagine from a terminal, but in the center of the screen there's a small square that still shows the center of the spinny logo, still spinning. It does not seem to respond to the keyboard. :-( – Stephen Peters Mar 05 '18 at 21:20

1 Answers1

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You should not enable the root user on ubuntu, use sudo instead. If you boot into ubuntu, and get to the spinning ubuntu startup screen, press esc to see the bootmessages. what are those saying? Also what instructions did you follow to install sublime text editor? It seems really strange that you are required to use the root user for this. look at these instructions for installing sublime: How do I install Sublime Text 2/3? I also believe Seatdefaults should be SetDefaults, maybe it would help removing that file and reconfiguring lightdm? If you're stuck at the spinny logo, try ctrl+alt+f1 to open a terminal and type:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

don't log in as root to do this, but as your own useraccount. for more info on lightdm, read this wiki:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LightDM

Glenn van Acker
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  • I'm afraid it's been more than a week, so I don't remember where I got the sublime instructions. On boot, the machine doesn't respond to the escape key. ctrl+alt+f1 does something really odd. Now there's a large blinking underscore cursor mark in the upper left like you'd imagine from a terminal, but in the center of the screen there's a small square that still shows the center of the spinny logo, still spinning.

    It does not seem to respond to the keyboard. :-(

     – Stephen Peters Mar 05 '18 at 21:19
  • try to reboot to a different runlevel then, and try from there. Reboot into grub, and press e. you can enter configuration options for starting then. if you add a 3 to the end of the linux line, it should boot in runlevel 3 (without GUI) then you should be able to run the command and reboot again – Glenn van Acker Mar 05 '18 at 21:42
  • Added the "3", booted. The spinny logo appeared, then the spinny part went away. I hit ctrl+alt+f1 and got the text terminal and was able to get into my account!

    sudo tail -10 /var/log/lightdm.log

    shows:

     – Stephen Peters Mar 05 '18 at 23:50
  • failed to find session configuration unity-greeter failed to create greeter session failed to start seat: seat0

    ... now off to do more googling on how to turn this frown upside down!

     – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 00:00
  • ran sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm which returned no errors or messages – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 00:11
  • sudo start lightdm says sudo: start: command not found ... a new mystery... – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 00:12
  • try init 5 , or ctrl alt f7 – Glenn van Acker Mar 06 '18 at 00:55
  • Tried startxon the command line, and lightdm fired right up! Ok, so I have use of the box again! That's a welcome improvement. On reboot still have to run thru that process to get the GUI going, but in the morning I can tackle that set of issues. – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 01:43
  • Ok, so now we know the x server is not starting up properly.. at least that's a step forward :) – Glenn van Acker Mar 06 '18 at 01:49
  • @stumblebee output of ls /usr/share/xgreeters is lightdm-greeter.desktop lighted-gtk-greeter.desktop – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 17:07
  • Looks like the sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm command did this: [SeatDefaults] greeter-session=unity-greeter user-session=ubuntu greeter-show-manual-login=true

    When left to it's own devices, the machine still spins the logo forever on boot. Not sure how to move forward debugging this. By jumping through the hoops above, I can get in and use the machine. Not so much for the non-technical people around here.

     – Stephen Peters Mar 06 '18 at 17:21
  • it seems weird that that command did that, since there's a typo in it. can you just remove the config file and run that again, – Glenn van Acker Mar 06 '18 at 20:26
  • There's a typo in here? sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm – Stephen Peters Mar 15 '18 at 19:57
  • no, [SeatDefaults] is supposed to be [SetDefaults] – Glenn van Acker Mar 17 '18 at 15:05
  • Ugh! I completely missed that. In the meantime I gave up and re-installed from scratch. – Stephen Peters Mar 25 '18 at 01:01
  • that's not a bad idea. mostly it's better to not manually reconfigure packages, except if you have some sort of gui for it. especially if you've been messing with the root user, reïnstallation is probably the best option – Glenn van Acker Mar 26 '18 at 11:44