Ubuntu
plymouth package

KUbuntu 10.04 freezes on boot with Glib warning getpwuid_r() failed...

Bug #620606 reported by Jon Sahlberg on 2010-08-19

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #649917: GLIb-WARNING **: getpwid_r(): failed due to unknown user id. Edit Remove

This bug affects 2 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	X.Org X server	New	Undecided	Unassigned
	plymouth (Ubuntu)	New	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

I've been using KUbuntu 10.04.1 LTS, 64bit everything updated from KUbuntu repositories.

For a while now my laptop has been freezing during boot after splash screen appearing. On the times of the freeze occurs the only thing on blank screen has been an error message "(Process:399): Glib-WARNING ** getpwuid_r(): Failed due to unknown user id(0)". This is really annoying event since like today (Thu Aug 19 20:32:24 2010 onwards) it happened several times in a row and every time the only way to get past it is to reboot the computer.

I read all the logs I could find and the only error like message I was able to find was from /var/log/kdm.log (file attached)

If there is some other logs / info you need me to provide, I'm happy to help (and get this fixed). :)

I know there is numerous duplicates of similar issue (getpwuid_r()...), but most of them were filled with useless "me too" comments. So please don't comment on this bug report unless you have something new to add

Revision history for this message

Jon Sahlberg (jon-sahlberg) wrote on 2010-08-19:

freeze on several boot attempts in a row Edit (11.4 KiB, text/plain)

Revision history for this message

Jon Sahlberg (jon-sahlberg) wrote on 2010-08-20:

Xorg.0.log.old Edit (2.3 KiB, application/x-trash)

Found a realated Xorg.log file (attached Xorg.0.log.old) from one of the failed boot attempts (Thu Aug 19 20:34:25 2010)
In case it matters my hardware is HP NX7400 laptop, Intel Core2duo T5600 64bit with integrated Intel GMA 950 (945GM Express Chipset).

Revision history for this message

Jon Sahlberg (jon-sahlberg) wrote on 2010-08-24:

Since the bug is somewhat random I can't verify that this temporary fix works, but all has been good for three to four days for now.

Modify as root: /etc/default/grub

<clip>
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
</clip>

<clip>
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
</clip>

save file and run as root: update-grub

This removes the splash screen from system boot and makes the boot process visible on screen as text.

Søren Bredlund Caspersen (soeren-b-c) on 2010-08-29

affects:

ubuntu → plymouth (Ubuntu)

Revision history for this message

Jon Sahlberg (jon-sahlberg) wrote on 2010-09-07:

For a couple of weeks I had no trouble in booting up with the above temporary fix in place. As a test I added "splash" back to grub boot options today and the problem came back right at the first boot attempt. I had to boot three times to succeed to log in. It would seem that the temporary fix is good. I didn't like the splash screen anyway. :)

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Michael Zaugg (AOI) (it-oas) wrote on 2010-09-08:

This Bug is related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532984

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Michael Zaugg (AOI) (it-oas) wrote on 2010-09-08:

Bug #633256 is related

Revision history for this message

Jon Sahlberg (jon-sahlberg) wrote on 2010-10-05:

I have a laptop with similar specs at work (HP/Compaq nc6320) and I was wondering why the bug appears only on my home laptop (HP/Compaq nx7400) but not at work. Well today the bug appeared also on my work laptop. The only difference in the setups is that my work laptop has 32bit Ubuntu (versus 64bit KUbuntu at home). In my mind this would state that the bug is really quite random, and effects both 32bit and 64bit environments.