Cannot access Gnome (GUI) Desktop

Support
1

I am having a problems getting passed the GUI logon screen. To be fair I have not used this Vbox machine running Alma-Linux-8.3 since last week; since updating my kernel and etcetera.

I can switch to an alternate-terminal with
CTRL-ALT-F3 and successfully logon, but just not get into a GUI (gnome) desktop.

What happens is
I select the username from the logon page, I enter my password, the password is accepted, the GUI goes black as if it is logging me account in to the desktop environment, then I pop back out to the logon page. I have attempted to logon as root and experienced the exact same problem.

Here is a snippet from my /var/log/secure file, but I am not sure what to make of it:

May  2 20:28:27 alma systemd[5507]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user wfrench by (uid=0)
May  2 20:28:27 alma gdm-password][5497]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user wfrench by (uid=0)
May  2 20:28:38 alma polkitd[1211]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:13 (system bus name :1.1122 [/usr/bin/gnome-shell], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
May  2 20:28:41 alma polkitd[1211]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-session:13 (system bus name :1.1122, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8) (disconnected from bus)
May  2 20:28:50 alma polkitd[1211]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-session:13 (system bus name :1.1167 [/usr/bin/gnome-shell], object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8)
May  2 20:28:51 alma polkitd[1211]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-session:13 (system bus name :1.1167, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_US.UTF-8) (disconnected from bus)
May  2 20:28:52 alma gdm-password][5497]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session closed for user wfrench

My machine
I a virtual machine running inside Oracle Vbox 6.1.18. The VM has plenty of disk capacity available to each filesystem (usage percentages are less than 50%). The VM has been allocated 6,144 MB vRAM.

Here are the versions of the packages I have installed that I think relate to the issue, in the case it helps:

kernel-core-4.18.0-240.22.1.el8_3.x86_64
kernel-tools-libs-4.18.0-240.22.1.el8_3.x86_64
kernel-core-4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64
kernel-modules-4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64
kernel-tools-4.18.0-240.22.1.el8_3.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-240.22.1.el8_3.x86_64
kernel-modules-4.18.0-240.22.1.el8_3.x86_64
gnome-software-3.36.1-4.el8.x86_64
gnome-terminal-nautilus-3.28.3-2.el8.x86_64
gnome-control-center-filesystem-3.28.2-22.el8.noarch
gnome-video-effects-0.4.3-3.el8.noarch
gnome-bluetooth-libs-3.28.2-2.el8.x86_64
gnome-session-3.28.1-10.el8.x86_64
gnome-user-docs-3.28.2-1.el8.noarch
gnome-keyring-pam-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-shell-3.32.2-20.el8.x86_64
gnome-boxes-3.36.5-6.el8.x86_64
gnome-initial-setup-3.28.0-8.el8.x86_64
gnome-logs-3.28.5-3.el8.x86_64
gnome-menus-3.13.3-11.el8.x86_64
gnome-terminal-3.28.3-2.el8.x86_64
gnome-session-xsession-3.28.1-10.el8.x86_64
gnome-keyring-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-shell-extension-window-list-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-classic-session-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-desktop3-3.32.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-session-wayland-session-3.28.1-10.el8.x86_64
gnome-control-center-3.28.2-22.el8.x86_64
gnome-shell-extension-apps-menu-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-shell-extension-places-menu-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-system-monitor-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-calculator-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-screenshot-3.26.0-3.el8.x86_64
gnome-getting-started-docs-3.28.2-1.el8.noarch
gnome-bluetooth-3.28.2-2.el8.x86_64
gnome-settings-daemon-3.32.0-11.el8.x86_64
gnome-shell-extension-common-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-color-manager-3.28.0-3.el8.x86_64
gnome-remote-desktop-0.1.8-3.el8.x86_64
gnome-online-accounts-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-autoar-0.2.3-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-shell-extension-horizontal-workspaces-3.32.1-11.el8.noarch
gnome-disk-utility-3.28.3-2.el8.x86_64
gnome-font-viewer-3.28.0-1.el8.x86_64
gnome-characters-3.28.2-1.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.1.5-11.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-ati-19.1.0-1.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.4.0-3.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-wacom-serial-support-0.38.0-1.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.10.6-2.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-wacom-0.38.0-1.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-server-Xwayland-1.20.8-6.1.el8_3.x86_64
xorg-x11-xinit-session-1.3.4-18.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-utils-7.5-28.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-xkb-utils-7.7-28.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-server-common-1.20.8-6.1.el8_3.x86_64
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.20.8-6.1.el8_3.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-1.0.15-4.el8.1.x86_64
xorg-x11-xinit-1.3.4-18.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-font-utils-7.5-40.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.5.0-2.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-server-utils-7.7-27.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.99.917-39.20200205.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-xauth-1.0.9-12.el8.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-libinput-0.29.0-1.el8.x86_64

I do not have Oracle VirtualBox installed. I was going to try the steps offered by @lee to see if I would have some success. But with gnome not working at all, it does not make sense to attempt to install that software.

Thanks for the help,
Warron

2

My test Alma is running under KVM/Qemu on a C7 host. I updated this morning (about half an hour ago).

My /var/log/secure for the login period has the same first three lines (20:28:27 and 20:28:38) but that’s all, no 20:28:41) The fact that you had a login screen makes me think that the hosting is working fine, you need to concentrate on why the AuthenticationAgent disconnects from the bus.

Just a passing thought, do you run the audit service? It might be worth seeing what happens in the period 20:28:39-41. I’m assuming you’ve alread checked the other logs for the same period.

3

@MartinR I did check the other logs. Thanks for the input, I cannot remember if I did configure auditd or not since I am using it at home to fiddle around with the OS in general.

Thanks for the feedback!

4

Slightly OT, but I’m in the process of migrating now to a bare metal installation and so far have had no problems with the GUI (once I’d attacked it with Tweak). Sorry if I don’t respond quickly, but when I’m on the new system I don’t see fora and emails.

1 Like
5

Guest additions also installs a display driver. Is that the issue?

6

Yes, for some reason Oracle VirtualBox (vBox) now requires the installation of vBox Guest Additions (for Linux) in order to fix video issues, and even invisible mouse cursor issues.

I just discovered this detail is correct as of last night (8/8/2021).

7

Just a suggestion.
It would be great to have guest editions in the Alma Linux installer, and the final install like Fedora does.
This makes deploying in VMs very pleasant.

1 Like
8

I wonder if this was fixed upstream in C8Stream. Seems like that would be the best place to ask for those to be added to anaconda.