With x11-base/xorg-server-1.10.4-r1 sys-apps/dbus-1.4.16-r2 gnome-base/gdm-3.2.1.1-r1 gdm fails to start because /etc/init.d/xdm is started before /etc/init.d/dbus. Changing the execution order by adding “before xdm” to /etc/init.d/dbus fixed the problem here. Reproducible: Always Output of rc-update: alsasound | boot bootmisc | boot dbus | default devfs | sysinit dmesg | sysinit fsck | boot hostname | boot hwclock | boot keymaps | boot killprocs | shutdown local | default localmount | boot modules | boot mount-ro | shutdown mtab | boot net.lo | boot netmount | default ntp-client | default procfs | boot root | boot savecache | shutdown sshd | default swap | boot sysctl | boot syslog-ng | default termencoding | boot udev | sysinit udev-postmount | default urandom | boot vixie-cron | default xdm | default
This needs to be fixed in /etc/init.d/xdm. @x11: OK to change "use consolekit xfs" to "use dbus consolekit xfs" in /etc/init.d/xdm? (Note that gdm rdepends on sys-apps/dbus, so this should be sufficient to ensure that dbus gets started before gdm.)
Maybe "after dbus" would be better, as not all DMs need dbus.
(In reply to comment #2) > Maybe "after dbus" would be better, as not all DMs need dbus. But "after dbus" will still result in a non-functional gdm for users who haven't added dbus to their default runlevel. And realistically, if you have dbus installed, you almost certainly want to start it before X. Even if you are only running xdm and twm, dbus is still needed for input device hotplugging. However, if you really think that it makes sense to allow users who already have dbus installed to run kdm without starting dbus, then I suppose the requirement for gdm will have to be special-cased: local MY_XDM MY_XDM=$(echo "${DISPLAYMANAGER}" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]') if [[ $MY_XDM = "gdm" || $MY_GDM = "gnome" ]]; then use dbus fi
(In reply to comment #3) sorry, typo, that should be if [[ $MY_XDM = "gdm" || $MY_XDM = "gnome" ]]; then
If I understand correctly, gnome-shell depends on NetworkManager anyway, which already needs dbus. So gnome3 users will have it started before gdm. Relying on the dependencies of other init scripts is not so great, but starting dbus just because it is installed isn't either. Also I think only input device hotplugging needs dbus, but input device autoconfiguration doesn't.
Hello I've had this problem I've solved it by adding dbus in the boot level, not default.
(In reply to comment #5) > If I understand correctly, gnome-shell depends on NetworkManager anyway, which > already needs dbus. Yes, you are correct; libgnome-shell links to libnm-glib, and therefore gnome-shell has networkmanager in its DEPEND and RDEPEND. > So gnome3 users will have it started before gdm. No. First of all, gnome-shell works perfectly fine without a running networkmanager process (although in practice, I expect that almost all gnome3 users will be running networkmanager, e.g. in order to be able to use the pretty network config GUI). Second, without an explicit dependency in the xdm init script, there is no guarantee that networkmanager or dbus will be started before gdm. Third, in fact there is no need for networkmanager to be started before gdm: gnome-shell automatically disables many features when in gdm mode, and network configuration is one of those features. By contrast, without dbus, gnome-shell (and gdm) will simply fail. If you don't want the "use dbus" enabled for all display managers, at least please special-case enable it for gdm.
I think the special case for gdm is not so elegant. I have added "after dbus" to the xdm init script. Let's watch this situation. If users keep on hitting the bug, we can make xdm always start dbus.
Masked gdm>2.21 have this known issue too (#327257)
Same error for me.
xorg-server-1.11.2-r2 added "use dbus" to the init script. It is apparently needed not only for gdm (bug 391275).
*** Bug 392927 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I am still hitting this one on my up-to-date ~amd64 system. What extra information shoud I supply?
The "use dbus" only comes into effect when /etc/init.d/xdm is started through some runlevel.
