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Sean O.
Asked: 2012-06-06 11:20:38 +0800 CST

Blank black screen with cursor after login -- RHEL5

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I have a RHEL 5 machine here which is a Dell Precision T3500.

I'm an Ubuntu guy, but I'm having a heck of a time with this machine.

After processing its first security update, we cannot log in via the gdm greeter. A new kernel was installed; then I installed the nVidia drivers for our Quadro NVS 295.

I know the X configuration is valid because the gdm greeter does display; however, upon login all we can get is a blank, black screen with a cursor.

I thought perhaps our python installation was corrupted but a reinstall via yum has not helped.

I have searched & googled extensively for a potential fix for this and can find nothing.

Below are outputs from uname, a tail of an error in /var/log/messages, and the Xorg.conf.

Can anyone suggest a course of action?

[sean@cheetah ~]$ uname -a
Linux cheetah.*.* 2.6.18-308.8.1.el5 #1 SMP Fri May 4 16:43:02 EDT 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[sean@cheetah ~]$ sudo tail /var/log/messages
Jun  5 15:03:04 cheetah gconfd (sean-4592): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jun  5 15:03:05 cheetah hcid[3855]: Default passkey agent (:1.8, /org/bluez/applet) registered
Jun  5 15:03:05 cheetah pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jun  5 15:03:05 cheetah last message repeated 2 times
Jun  5 15:03:06 cheetah gconfd (sean-4592): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/sean/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0
Jun  5 15:03:06 cheetah setroubleshoot: [program.ERROR] exception ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/bin/sealert", line 952, in ?     from setroubleshoot.gui_utils import *   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setroubleshoot/gui_utils.py", line 26, in ?     import gtk   File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 48, in ?     from gtk import _gtk ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr
Jun  5 15:03:07 cheetah setroubleshoot: [program.ERROR] exception ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/bin/sealert", line 952, in ?     from setroubleshoot.gui_utils import *   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setroubleshoot/gui_utils.py", line 26, in ?     import gtk   File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 48, in ?     from gtk import _gtk ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr
Jun  5 15:03:08 cheetah pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jun  5 15:07:01 cheetah ntpd[4114]: synchronized to 64.16.211.38, stratum 3
Jun  5 15:07:01 cheetah ntpd[4114]: kernel time sync enabled 0001


[sean@cheetah ~]$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 295.53  ([email protected])  Sat May 12 00:34:20 PDT 2012

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "single head configuration"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    ModelName      "LCD Panel 1600x1200"
    HorizSync       31.5 - 74.7
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 65.0
    Option         "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Update: Switching to the nv driver (which is installed) in xorg.conf resulted in no solution. I don't think that this is an X issue anymore.

Since there is a setroubleshoot error, I'm going to set SELinux to permissive and see if that helps.

Update: That didn't help. Anyone?

Update: Here's a more comprehensive tail of the messages log. You can see I tail'd it then went an logged in to the machine at 10:44, and this output is clearly the problem.

    [sean@cheetah ~]$ sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
Jun 27 10:17:05 cheetah smartd[4362]: Device /dev/sdb: using '-d sat' for ATA disk behind SAT layer. 
Jun 27 10:17:05 cheetah smartd[4362]: Device: /dev/sdb, opened 
Jun 27 10:17:06 cheetah smartd[4362]: Device: /dev/sdb, found in smartd database. 
Jun 27 10:17:06 cheetah smartd[4362]: Device: /dev/sdb, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list. 
Jun 27 10:17:06 cheetah smartd[4362]: Monitoring 0 ATA and 2 SCSI devices 
Jun 27 10:17:06 cheetah smartd[4392]: smartd has fork()ed into background mode. New PID=4392. 
Jun 27 10:17:08 cheetah pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jun 27 10:17:08 cheetah last message repeated 3 times
Jun 27 10:21:16 cheetah ntpd[4109]: synchronized to 46.166.138.172, stratum 2
Jun 27 10:21:16 cheetah ntpd[4109]: kernel time sync enabled 0001
Jun 27 10:44:49 cheetah gconfd (sean-4757): starting (version 2.14.0), pid 4757 user 'sean'
Jun 27 10:44:49 cheetah gconfd (sean-4757): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Jun 27 10:44:49 cheetah gconfd (sean-4757): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/sean/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Jun 27 10:44:49 cheetah gconfd (sean-4757): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Jun 27 10:44:50 cheetah hcid[3851]: Default passkey agent (:1.8, /org/bluez/applet) registered
Jun 27 10:44:50 cheetah kernel: nm-applet[4821]: segfault at 0000000000000000 rip 0000000000000000 rsp 00007fff668d1d68 error 14
Jun 27 10:44:51 cheetah pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jun 27 10:44:51 cheetah last message repeated 2 times
Jun 27 10:44:51 cheetah gconfd (sean-4757): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/sean/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0
Jun 27 10:44:51 cheetah setroubleshoot: [program.ERROR] exception ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/bin/sealert", line 952, in ?     from setroubleshoot.gui_utils import *   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setroubleshoot/gui_utils.py", line 26, in ?     import gtk   File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 48, in ?     from gtk import _gtk ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr
Jun 27 10:44:52 cheetah setroubleshoot: [program.ERROR] exception ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/bin/sealert", line 952, in ?     from setroubleshoot.gui_utils import *   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setroubleshoot/gui_utils.py", line 26, in ?     import gtk   File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 48, in ?     from gtk import _gtk ImportError: /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr
Jun 27 10:44:54 cheetah pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
linux redhat xorg gdmgreeting

1 Answers

  1. Also See http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001511 for what helped me. I had to add the mode lines to the "Screen" section, mount the vmware cd manually and reboot to get my vmware installation working.

    Workaround the issue by manually selecting a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, either by using RedHat's configuration tool or by directly editing xorg.conf.

    To use the RedHat configuration tool, execute system-config-display and choose 1024 x 768 from the drop down menu in the user interface.

    To edit the Xorg configuration file manually:

    Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and make sure that the 1024 x 768 mode is included in the Screen section as shown below:

    ------------------------------------------
Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen0"

Device "Videocard0"

Monitor "Monitor0"

DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"

Viewport 0 0

Depth 24

Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

EndSubSection

------------------------------------------

    For the changes to take effect, press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to stop and restart the X server.

    Note: If the issue still persists, try changing the resolution using the resolution tool. To do this, Click System > Preferences > Screen Resolution, select the preferred resolution size, and set it as a default for the system

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