← Back to team overview

tieto team mailing list archive

[Bug 1251281] Re: gnome-session-flashback/Unity fails to start without hardware acceleration in cloud/remote environments (Forwarded-X/XRDP/VNC/NX/X2GO/Chromoting)

 

Dmitry Shachnev, thanks for your quick response.

>"Christopher, why do you think this is a bug in gnome-panel?"

I'll let you make the call on what is the root cause package.

Despite this, as per https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel
gnome-session-flashback is provided by gnome-panel (not gnome-session),
which this report was supposed to be scoped to how xrdp'ing (among other
protocols mentioned) doesn't properly present a GUI when using gnome-
session-flashback (and Unity). What I can speak to is the issue that I
thought this bug report was scoped to still isn't addressed.

However, if you find that this report should be re-scoped, I'm happy to
file a new report on it.

"I see that gnome-panel is not even started in your screenshot."

I'm not sure what you are talking about. To clarify what you are seeing,
it is my host computer (whose environment is irrelevant, could be
Windows, etc., but happens to be using Ubuntu) using a remote desktop
client (Remmina), remoting into a gnome-session-flashback environment
(the horizontal black/white lines, with a white diagonal line).

>"I don't have the environment needed for reproducing this so can't look
at it"

Have you ever tried virtualization with Virtualbox? It's available via
the Ubuntu repositories, and works quite well. Also, one may setup a
temporary live environment as noted in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-
session/+bug/1251281/comments/58 .

", but patches are welcome."

As I'm not a developer by profession, nor have that as a background,
this will unfortunately not be coming from me.

Ryan Tandy, thanks for testing to this issue, it is greatly appreciated.

>"Whether or not this works with xrdp probably depends on how your
session is set up."

Hmmm. All I did was a default install from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com
/daily-live/current/ , install xrdp and gnome-session-flashback, log
into gnome-session-flashback and attempt an RDP.

>" I just tried installing gnome-session-flashback and xrdp on the vivid
daily CD; the default configuration does nothing, but the following
~/.xsession: env DESKTOP_SESSION="gnome-flashback-metacity"
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME-Flashback:Unity" gnome-session --session
=gnome-flashback --disable-acceleration-check does load the session.
(but the keyboard layout seems wrong somehow... :/)"

Unfortunately, I'm not following you here. Could you please provide this
information in a keyboard click-for-click fashion?

As well, just to clarify, making the modifications you advised above
allows you to see an actual desktop GUI (icons, windows, etc.)?

>"If xrdp needs to be adjusted to set this up by default, or documented
somehow, maybe that should be a separate bug against xrdp."

I already started a support article on xrdp at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/xrdp . Once I can reproduce your
results, I'm happy to put it up there in a keyboard click-for-click
fashion.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Tieto,
which is subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1251281

Title:
  gnome-session-flashback/Unity fails to start without hardware
  acceleration in cloud/remote environments
  (Forwarded-X/XRDP/VNC/NX/X2GO/Chromoting)

Status in The GNOME 2 Session Manager:
  Fix Released
Status in gnome-panel package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete
Status in gnome-session package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in gnome-panel source package in Trusty:
  Incomplete
Status in gnome-session source package in Trusty:
  In Progress
Status in gnome-panel source package in Utopic:
  Incomplete
Status in gnome-session source package in Utopic:
  In Progress
Status in gnome-panel source package in Vivid:
  Incomplete
Status in gnome-session source package in Vivid:
  Fix Released
Status in gnome-session package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  == Impact ==
  It was impossible to launch a gnome-session-based desktop on a system where hardware accelerations is not available (such as old hardware, or when using a remote desktop).

  That looks like a quite popular use case — more than a hundred of
  people marked this bug as affecting them.

  == Test Case ==
  The original bug description below contains a test case.

  == Proposed Fix ==
  The fix backports an upstream commit which adds --disable-acceleration-check commandline option, and makes Upstart user session pass that flag to gnome-session when the session is gnome-fallback (aka gnome-flashback-metacity). Of course, that option can be used with other sessions as well.

  This was fixed in vivid in version 3.14.0-2ubuntu4.

  == Regression Potential ==
  The option was accepted upstream, and nobody complained so far. So the regression potential should be low.

  This bug will cause static grey or black screen instead of opening
  remote session using Forwarded-X/XRDP/VNC/NX/X2GO/Chromoting from
  x2goclient, rdpclient(reminna/vinagre/mstsc), SSH, VNC, NOMACHINE and
  etc.

  == Original Description ==
  1) lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
  Release:	14.04

  2) apt-cache policy gnome-session
  gnome-session:
    Installed: 3.9.90-0ubuntu12
    Candidate: 3.9.90-0ubuntu12
    Version table:
   *** 3.9.90-0ubuntu12 0
          500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

  3) What is expected to happen is when one installs xrdp on the host
  and attempts to use remmina or vinagre on a Ubuntu 14.04 client to RDP
  in, it works.

  4) What happens instead is it shows a gray static screen as per attached screenshot. This would appear an issue with gnome-session as per client log:
  cat .xsession-errors.old
  Script for ibus started at run_im.
  Script for auto started at run_im.
  Script for default started at run_im.
  init: indicator-application main process ended, respawning
  init: indicator-application main process ended, respawning
  init: indicator-application respawning too fast, stopped
  Xsession: X session started for  at Sun Jul 20 15:25:59 CDT 2014
  X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
    Major opcode of failed request:  109 (X_ChangeHosts)
    Value in failed request:  0x5
    Serial number of failed request:  6
    Current serial number in output stream:  8
  localuser:moniker being added to access control list
  X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
    Major opcode of failed request:  109 (X_ChangeHosts)
    Value in failed request:  0x5
    Serial number of failed request:  6
    Current serial number in output stream:  8
  Script for ibus started at run_im.
  Script for auto started at run_im.
  Script for default started at run_im.
  Script for ibus started at run_im.
  Script for auto started at run_im.
  Script for default started at run_im.
  gnome-session-is-accelerated: No composite extension.
  gnome-session-check-accelerated: Helper exited with code 256
  gnome-session-is-accelerated: No composite extension.
  gnome-session-check-accelerated: Helper exited with code 256

  ** (process:2565): WARNING **: software acceleration check failed:
  Child process exited with code 1

  ** (x-session-manager:2565): CRITICAL **: We failed, but the fail
  whale is dead. Sorry....

  The following is not a WORKAROUND, create /etc/xorg.conf :
  Section "Device"
     Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
     Driver      "Intel"
     Option      "DRI" "False"
  EndSection

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: gnome-session 3.9.90-0ubuntu12
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Sun Jul 20 15:35:23 2014
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-06-22 (28 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: gnome-session
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-session/+bug/1251281/+subscriptions