9

Today when I started Ubuntu, it didn't start lightdm, showing a black screen. I changed to console Ctrl-Alt-F1 and tried to start lightdm manually

sudo start lightdm

It threw me to the graphic console (Ctrl-Alt-F7) and showed the same black screen. Moreover, it looks like it starts, the console returned the number of process,

lightdm start/running, process 3616

However, after

sudo stop lightdm

I got

stop: unknown instance

Then I started gdm

sudo start gdm

and gdm started normal. So, the problem in lightdm.

To solve the problem I tried to purge lightdm and reinstall it

sudo apt-get purge lightdm
sudo apt-get install lightdm

and

sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm

The both ways didn't help.

Now I use gdm, but wants to restore lightdm if it is possible.

Thank you all for you help!

PS: I didn't install recently any additional driver (and haven't NVidia card at all).

PPS: Some additional information

$ sudo start lightdm
lightdm start/running, process 2466
$ dmesg | grep lightdm
[   18.284992] init: lightdm main process (1446) killed by TERM signal
[   57.691273] init: lightdm main process (2466) terminated with status 1

$ sudo start lightdm
lightdm start/running, process 8140
$ sudo cat /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log 
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 1.2.3, UID=0 PID=8140
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loading configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xlocal
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Adding default seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting new display for automatic login as user stas
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting local X display
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using VT 7
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Activating VT 7
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Writing X server authority to /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Launching X Server
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Launching process 8145: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.01s] DEBUG: Registering seat with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Process 8145 exited with return value 1
[+0.03s] DEBUG: X server stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Removing X server authority /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Releasing VT 7
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Display server stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Stopping display
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Display stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Stopping X local seat, failed to start a display
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Stopping seat
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Seat stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Required seat has stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Stopping daemon
[+0.03s] DEBUG: Exiting with return value 1

$ sudo cat x-0.log
X: cannot stat /etc/X11/X (No such file or directory), aborting.
Chaosor
  • 373
  • Can you check the lightdm log in /var/log/lightdm? – Nattgew Apr 28 '14 at 16:37
  • Thank you. I've added the output of cat /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log. – Chaosor Apr 28 '14 at 19:33
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    Try looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see why X is quitting. – Nattgew Apr 28 '14 at 19:36
  • I'm not sure, but it looks like nothng added to /var/log/Xorg.0.log. I've done the following commands sudo cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log > 1.log

    sudo start lightdm

    sudo cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log > 2.log

    The files 1.log and 2.log are identical. What have I done wrong?

     – Chaosor Apr 29 '14 at 13:27

1 Answers1

11

try to press CTRL + ALT + F1 then:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (for Gnome)

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm stop (for Unity)

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

if you wish to backup X so not to worry: 

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

after all of this start X display:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start (for Gnome)

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start (for Unity)
JoKeR
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