Thanks. It is fine to chime-in if you have the same problem - only need to start a new thread if there is a different problem or a variation to the same problem. Yours is the same issue.
I’d like to see if @jgordon or @AZorin can weigh-in because at this point I don’t know what the issue could be.
Thanks, carmar.
OK, I have made a little progress, but not much. Continued reading other solutions buried in your last linked post. After getting to the shell, tried:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm
Nothing. There is a suggestion to purge lightdm, but it looked as though it might take Zorin down with it. Also a suggestion to reinstall xserver-org, but don’t know what that is.
My understanding is that lightdm is the manager by which the user logs into the desktop. Is that correct? There’s an additional suggestion to try installing a different manager, gdm. Would that be worth a shot?
Finally, from the shell, I tried:
startx
That gets me into the desktop. But I can’t figure how to get there directly by booting into it. Any thoughts?
Can you try sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target ?
PS - If that doesn’t work, try sudo systemctl enable graphical.target --force and then the first line.
Thanks, carmar.
I tried it in terminal. Here’s the response:
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target
I’ll try rebooting now. By the way, I had a look inside .xsession-errors, and it’s filled with WARNINGs and CRITICALs. Would any of that information be diagnostically useful?
Tried rebooting. No luck. After the Zorin logo, the screen still goes blank. I can get into the shell with ctrl+alt+f3, and then log in, and then start the desktop with startx.
Is there any way to undo yesterday’s updates?
To be honest, this is pretty discouraging… Yesterday the operating system was working normally, and today it’s suddenly dysfunctional.
Can you check if there are any broken packages in Synaptic? If there are, use the selection under Edit to fix them.
As for reversing updates, the only thing I can think of is removing the kernel and falling back to an older one. To first check on that, when you boot, check in grub that under Advanced options you have an older kernel that you can boot into. Boot into the most recent older kernel (call it, N-1) and see if your machine works fine. If it does then remove the most recent kernel (call it, N) using Synaptic. Do a search for “linux-image” and then “linux-header”. On my machine, I have 5.4.0-54 as the current version and 5.4.0-53 as the older version. So, if I wanted to remove the current kernel and boot into the older one, I would completely remove 5.4.0-54 for both linux-image and linux-header.
Hi, carmar,
Thanks for your help. I checked for broken packages in Synaptic, but found none.
Also checked under advanced options in grub. My kernels are the same as yours. Tried booting from both. No luck.
I guess I’m wondering whether there’s any way to isolate whatever updates happened with me and @ribvivi yesterday. I checked history in Synaptic, but there’s nothing for yesterday.
Do you think it’s a problem with lightdm? Should I try installing a different login manager?
Or is it worth looking at any of the information in .xsession-errors? There are countless lines like this: (xfce4-session:5002): xfce4-session-WARNING …
Or like this: (xiccd:5193): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL …
Or like this: (wrapper-2.0:2352): Gtk-CRITICAL …
But that information doesn’t mean anything to me. If you or the others you mentioned (@jgordon or @AZorin) have any further insights, I’d appreciate it.
I recommend trying to reinstall your display manager (again, I recommend Synaptic). Since I have Core, I have gdm3 as opposed to your lightdm - if lightdm still gives you problems you can try gdm3 or some other.
You could post the error details that you saw earlier - may help if your display manager reinstallation doesn’t fix the problem.
Thanks, carmar. I did try to reinstall lightdm, a few posts ago, through the command line. Then a second time through Synaptic. No luck. But I’ll try a different display manager, as you suggest.
Installed lxdm. More or less the same problem. After the Zorin logo, it cuts straight to a command-line login prompt: username, password. Then startx, and the desktop appears. I still don’t understand why the boot process is breaking down mid-way.
Here are a few of the numerous error messages from .xsession-errors:
(Thunar:5150): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.286: gtk_main_quit: assertion ‘main_loops != NULL’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.454: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.454: g_object_unref: assertion ‘G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.454: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.454: g_object_unref: assertion ‘G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.455: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.455: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.455: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.455: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.455: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.456: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.456: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.456: g_object_unref: assertion ‘G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.456: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.456: g_object_unref: assertion ‘G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(wrapper-2.0:5155): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:03:18.641: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion ‘GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
Gdk-Message: 23:03:19.104: xfdesktop: Fatal IO error 4 (Interrupted system call) on X server :0.
Something I found that may be useful: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1132932/cannot-login-anymore-to-xfce
Thanks, carmar. I tried doing the two things mentioned by Lagane (the author of the post), but no luck.
I was able to check the log of what updates were installed yesterday:
Commandline: aptdaemon role=‘role-commit-packages’ sender=’:1.67’
Upgrade: libsystemd0:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libpulsedsp:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11), pulseaudio:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11), udev:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libudev1:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libpulse0:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11), libnss-myhostname:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11), systemd-sysv:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libpam-systemd:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), systemd:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), libnss-systemd:i386 (237-3ubuntu10.42, 237-3ubuntu10.43), pulseaudio-module-bluetooth:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11), pulseaudio-utils:i386 (1:11.1-1ubuntu7.10, 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.11)
A lot of pulse audio updates, so those can be eliminated but I can’t make a determination on the rest of them.
Thanks, carmar.
When you say that the pulse audio updates can be eliminated, do you mean that I may uninstall them, or that they’re unlikely to be relevant to the problem?
Should I try uninstalling these updates, or is there a risk that I could make things worse? I’ve noticed that the desktop is also behaving oddly: applications disappear from the panel, for example.
Sorry. I meant you can ignore the pulse audio updates. I don’t see how they could have caused any problem.
I don’t know enough about the rest to opine. Perhaps send a PM to AZorin?
Hi, just wanted to add to this topic. I too have very similar/same symptoms which started following an update yesterday. In trying to solve the issue I have noticed a couple of extra things that may help someone with more knowledge than me to find the source of the problem.
I have booted via the Zorin recovery option from the boot menu, selected the root prompt option and typed ‘startx’ at the prompt. This takes me into what I assume is the default XFCE environment for the root user. This works fine, apart from the fact that it doesn’t look or feel like my normal Zorin WinXP look. However, if I try to start the ‘Zorin Appearance’ application it fails to load.
I also looked at my system log file for my previous boot attempts and could see that the ‘lightdm’ application was repeatedly failing on start (it was retrying each time and failing) and never launched successfully.
Additionally, I went via the same recovery boot mechanism but brought up a new terminal prompt and logged in as my usual (not root) user. I ran ‘startx’ again and part of my normal Zorin (WinXP lookalike) screen appeared i.e. the taskbar along the bottom and the outer frame. But the screen then locked including mouse and keyboard.
My inexpert conclusion is that X and XFCE are probably working but it is the Zorin ‘automatic reshaping’ of the XFCE environment that is part of the issue. I’m not sure how this fits in with the lightdm failure as I don’t really know how all these things fit together.
Hope this helps someone towards a solution as I have had great trouble-free use of Zorin 15 Lite up until now, and it is my daily use computer.
Hi, I’m using Zorin OS 32 bits Lite edition from one year ago and this is my first time on GNU/Linux due to the end of Windows 7 hehe and my problem is similar with the difference that I can’t hit the keys ctrl + alt and F1 or whatever to access to the console to log in in a different way because the screen is in a loop. I was tried today some methods that you mentioned but don’t worked anyone. I uploaded a video on my youtube’s channel to try to illustrate my problem: Zorin OS don’t works good My netbook is from 7 years ago and it has some simples hardware failures due to the use. Best regards.
Hi, Following KRB’s helpful description above, I was able to log in, under the recovery option, as root, and launch the bare-bones Xfce environment. But the regular boot process remains broken. As carmar suggested, I wrote to @AZorin. Let’s hope that we hear back, since this problem is affecting more than one user and we seem to have reached a dead-end.
Hi, Folks, I may have found a diagnosis. In syslog, I found an error message referring to lightdm-gtk-gre, and ran an internet search. It seems to be a bug resulting from the recent systemd update in Ubuntu 18.04:
The solution proposed in posts ##14, 18-19 worked for me. But I don’t understand why it worked. I don’t like opening the hood and messing around with the interior without understanding what I’m doing. If anybody could explain the bug and the solution, I’d be grateful.