GDM session fail to start after update[2], black screen, terminal only access

Ask Fedora
1 
Note: I had to repost this because I accidentally delete the previous post. And I do not know how to remove the deleted state of the previous one.

in my defense, the delete button on the posts do not show confirmation to delete the posts. I press it accidentally.

today I update my laptop and the gnome session stop working. Looking on the journal I see some errors for the gnome-shell process:

  • [gnmoe-session-binary]: Unrecoverable failure in required component org.gnome.Shell.desktop
  • [abrt-notification] Process (gnome-shell) crashed in drisw_init_screen()
  • [gdm] Gdm: GdmSession: no session desktop files installed, aborting.
  • [abrt-notiication] process gdm crashed in ??()

I’m posting this for another laptop, but I have terminal access on the broken laptop. currently I’m looking for solutions. let me know if more is needed. Thanks in advance

2

sudo dnf distro-sync would probably be the first thing I’d try.

Edit: If that is insufficient to correct the problem, next I’d try sudo dnf reinstall @gnome-desktop.

I’d like to see a confirmation dialog for that action as well. It looks like the issue has been reported before here. Unfortunately, it appears to have been rejected. :confused:

3 
dev@fedora:~$ sudo dnf distro-sync

only show all packages are update

also I try to use the dnf history but don’t show the today changes, this must be because I perform the update with the update & restart button of the software app.

for the sudo dnf reinstall @gnome-desktop shows

Failed to resolve transaction:
Reinstall action for argument "gnome-desktop" is not supported
4

Eh, try just sudo dnf install @gnome-desktop first then. I’ll see if I can figure out how to get reinstall to work for a group …

Edit: It’s a bit of a hack, but I think this should work to reinstall all the packages in a group. (There must be a better way to do this?)

dnf -q group info gnome-desktop | sed -n '{ s/^\s*: \(.*\)/\1/; s/^.*packages.*: \(.*\)/\1/; p; }' | grep -v ':' | sudo xargs dnf -y reinstall
5

@glb the reinstall command don’t work for the group. but I remove the group with dnf remove @gnome-desktop that work. then I install again the desktop with dnf install @gnome-desktop.

but I getting the same error. must be something broken on the last version of these packages.

note: The dnf group list command don’t show the gnome desktop group.

1 Like
6

That error looks more like some package is missing or corrupted.

What are the contents of /usr/share/xsessions and /usr/share/wayland-sessions?

Edit: For GNOME, it looks like the session desktop file is provided by the gnome-session-wayland-session package. Try just reinstalling that package.

7

these directories are empty. looks that the reason for the fail. how I can install a previous version using dnf ?

8

If the directories are empty and the package isn’t installed, try just sudo dnf install gnome-session-wayland-session.

As for doing a dnf rollback, it can be done, but I’d only try that as a last resort.

9

dnf install show the package is already installed. for that I was asking how to install a different version of the package. reinstalled do noting. the rollback I try that on the start but because the update was raise with the gui app, there is not entry on the dnf history.

maybe the build is broken ? but then I wouldn’t be the only one with the problem :disappointed:

10

It is very strange that the file isn’t there if the package is installed. Does rpm -ql gnome-session-wayland-session show that the package is installed and providing that file? If so, does rpm -V gnome-session-wayland-session show any problems with the package’s installation?

Edit: I guess if all else fails, I would try installing a different Desktop and Desktop Manager.

11

the cosmic desktop work disabling the gdm service. but I like gnome, so I will try to solve the issue. thk to you I know better about the problem. thk very much. I nothing work I suppose I will use cosmic or try kde.

1 Like
12

sudo dnf downgrade gnome-session-wayland-session

13

It say I had the only one "the lowest available version of the “gnome…” package is already installed. :rofl:

14

sudo dnf reinstall fedora-release-workstation

15

Using the gnome software app uses packagekit which is not tied to dnf so does not record the history the same. The update and restart button does the same.

I always want to be able to see what actions have been taken so I always use dnf for updates and never use the gnome software app for that purpose.

2 Likes
16

And we need to know more about system like do you use nvidia etc …

17

sadly I had to switch to KDE. Everything works fine on KDE. but the gnome session don’t work. after all the suggestions.

18

I don’t know if that would help you, I had this issue this morning after upgrading my Fedora 41. Just after I got the black screen, I switched to the tty2 Ctrl+Alt+F2, logged in as root (or over sudo, doesn’t matter) and rebuilded the NVIDIA driver: sudo akmods --rebuild --force. After reboot everything worked again.

19

You should be able to see the history for gnome software with sudo dnf4 history

20

This often happens when the user updates but does an immediate reboot.
It can take several minutes for the new kernel module to complete the compile and installation. Users should always wait at least 5 minutes or more after an update that includes a kernel before they reboot. Once the kernel module completes the build and installation the black screen usually does not occur.

The akmods command you used forces the build from the command line.