[RESOLVED] Trouble logging out from added user accounts

[timek718]

I added 2 accounts to my Lucid installation for my daughters. Everything works fine except that when I log out from either of these 2 accounts that I added the screen goes black and the keyboard is unresponsive. I can hear the hard drive working for a short while (~15-20 seconds) then nada. More black screen & unresponsive keyboard.

It is possible to reboot & shutdown the computer from those 2 accounts. It's just that logging out doesn't seem to work. I thought maybe a clumsy work around would be to do a shutdown from the accounts, then maybe it would be possible to log out from those accounts. I also tried rebooting & then logging in and logging out. Same result: the screen goes black & the keyboard is unresponsive.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

[dibl]

It sounds like a KDM issue -- the K Display Manager runs the desktop including video and keyboard.

It could be a bug. However, first look through the groups that the new users are members of -- make sure they're in the "video" group. Also, if you don't wish for them to be able to shutdown the system, you can change that in systemsettings > advanced > login manager > shutdown.

An experiment that might shed some light is to log yourself in to command line mode, shutdown X with
sudo service kdm stop then start one of the other tty terminals with Ctrl-Alt-F2 (or F3 - F6) and then log in one of your users there. Now at that login run
startx and see if you get KDE. If yes, then try the logout again and see what happens.

[timek718]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I tried what you suggested. Here's what happened:

I did the "sudo service kdm stop". X shut down. Then it was almost the same as when trying to logout: black screen; I couldn't Ctrl-Alt-F2 (for F3-F6 to get to a new terminal. Consequently, I was unable to login. I was, however, able to restart the computer using Ctl-Alt-Del.

It looks like X is not shutting down properly. Could it be something to do with run levels?

tim

[toad]

You could try:

sudo service kdm start
Failing that have a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log and post the last few errors...

[dibl]

I think the name of the problem is "framebuffer".

The new (with 9.10 and 10.04) Grub boot system has brought some new challenges, in the area of framebuffers. To get started, review this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3111199.0

and follow the thread to the end.

[timek718]

Ok. I think there may have been some misunderstanding.

I can log into the 2 accounts that I added 2 days ago. It is possible to reboot from those accounts. It is possible to shutdown the computer from those accounts. It is not possible to logout from those accounts.

When I try to log out from either of those 2 accounts, there is no command line. Ctl-Alt-F2 (or F3 through F6) does not launch a new console. The screen is black. Sometimes I can Ctl-Alt-Del and restart the computer. Sometimes it happens that a regular X session does not start after the restart from either of those 2 recently added accounts. But after rebooting, X & KDM start normally.

tim

[oshunluvr]

Try and get some more info on what's happening:

1. Do the thing that causes the problem, note the time - then search all your log files for messages around that time.

2. Rather than logging in at all, immediately switch to a text console CRTL-ALT-F1 and log in as root and stop KDM via sudo service kdm stop. Then log out and back in as one of the troubled accounts. Then do startx. In theory, you should then be logged into the GUI as the troubled user. Then attempt to log out. If it stills fails, it's not KDM. If you still cannot log out, try it again only this time after logging in, switch back to CRTL-ALT-F1 and attempt to stop X with CRTL-X. You should see some error output in the text console.

[timek718]

After I installed the FGLRX ati drivers, all my problems with logging out simply vanished.

So, I don't know why or what happened. But everything is now behaving itself. Any ideas why this happened?

tim

[oshunluvr]

There's been many framebuffer issues with xorg and Lucid -this must be one of those. Glad you got it resolved.

Please edit your first post and add Resolved or something similar to the Subject line, thanks.