# "Something has gone wrong" with Gnome3



## Free.vesh (Jan 21, 2016)

Hi, all

I used FreeBSD v10.2 and the WM is Gnome3
I had the same problem with Ati and Nvidia VGA cards.

After I logged in GDM, my gnome-shell(1) showed "Something has gone wrong."






I tried to check the EE in Xorg.0.log and Xorg.0.log.old; however, nothing in these two files.





If I clicked ALT+F1, I could see the gnome-shell.





Does anyone have any idea for this problem?

Thanks for help.
F.V.


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## Chris_H (Jan 22, 2016)

I don't use GDM. I have, but don't like it. But seems to me, it's running on the wrong tty. You'll get better information, if you search /var/log/Xorg.0.log. In fact, it will tell you most everything that happened at startup -- including which terminal it was started on. Just a hunch; but looks like you're setup for 2 displays, and the one you _think_ it should start on, isn't configured properly. Video card driver, perhaps? Which may be why it started on (p)tty1, instead of 9 (it's fallen back to (s)vga mode, and started up on (p)tty1). Anyway. If you open up your rc.conf(5) file, and disable GDM, then reboot. That should make it a bit easier to debug the Xorg/GDM issue you're having -- especially if it's Video card setup related. That way you can use `Xorg -configure` followed by `Xorg -config xorg.conf.new -retro` to test any changes you make.

Best wishes.

--Chris


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## Free.vesh (Jan 22, 2016)

Chris_H said:


> I don't use GDM. I have, but don't like it. But seems to me, it's running on the wrong tty. You'll get better information, if you search /var/log/Xorg.0.log. In fact, it will tell you most everything that happened at startup -- including which terminal it was started on. Just a hunch; but looks like you're setup for 2 displays, and the one you _think_ it should start on, isn't configured properly. Video card driver, perhaps? Which may be why it started on (p)tty1, instead of 9 (it's fallen back to (s)vga mode, and started up on (p)tty1). Anyway. If you open up your rc.conf(5) file, and disable GDM, then reboot. That should make it a bit easier to debug the Xorg/GDM issue you're having -- especially if it's Video card setup related. That way you can use `Xorg -configure` followed by `Xorg -config xorg.conf.new -retro` to test any changes you make.
> 
> Best wishes.
> 
> --Chris



Thanks Chris_H,

I tried to disable GDM, however, I cannot solve this error. Based on the Xorg.0.log, I cannot find out any problems.
This error seemed to happen to some users (https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/cant-get-the-gnome-3-desktop.49250/)
I did not see any solution yet. Interestingly, I can access MATE and KDE4. For my Lenovo X200, I can also access Gnome-shell without any error.

This problem had bothered me for several weeks....


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## fernandel (Jan 24, 2016)

Try to disable or uninstall gnome-extensions? Do you have a touchpad?


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## Free.vesh (Jan 25, 2016)

Thanks fernandel,

Your suggestion was good. However, I did not install any extension. Also, I did not have any touchpad since I installed FreeBSD 10.2 in a desktop PC. After I tried two desktop PCs, I had the identical problem regardless FreeBSD 10.2 and 11-current.

The Gnome of FreeBSD 10.2 and 11 was version 3.16.
In the identical desktop PCS, I tried linux (Debian 8.2 with gnome 3.14). The gnome was no problem. I may try OpenBSD.

Thanks again.


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## Chris_H (Jan 25, 2016)

If you're able to attach a copy of your /var/log/Xorg.0.log. I could probably point you to a more specific path to resolving this.

--Chris


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## Free.vesh (Jan 25, 2016)

Chris_H said:


> If you're able to attach a copy of your /var/log/Xorg.0.log. I could probably point you to a more specific path to resolving this.
> 
> --Chris



Thanks Chris_H,

I post my Xorg.0.log on http://pastebin.ca/3350257

Thanks again.


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## SirDice (Jan 25, 2016)

Your Xorg.0.log looks good. How are you starting GDM?


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## Free.vesh (Jan 25, 2016)

SirDice said:


> Your Xorg.0.log looks good. How are you starting GDM?



Thanks, SirDice

In /etc/rc.conf, I added:

```
dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
gdm_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"
```


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## PacketMan (Jan 26, 2016)

Hmmmm, somewhere I discovered in GNOME3 there is a place to tell it what is primary monitor and what is secondary monitor. I had to fart with it a bit to get my Nvidia (HDMI) card made primary for GNOME3, but I also wanted both the Nvidia card and motherboard card to output simultaneously during boot up.  I'll try to dig that up this evening if I get time.

Maybe in your case its trying to output GNOME3 to the onboard video which can't drive it.  I lost a lot of time trying to get GNOME3 working on the motherboard video, and the logs were 'o k' in being helpful. Stuck in an NVIDIA card and I was up and running in minutes.


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## Free.vesh (Jan 26, 2016)

Thanks, PacketMan.
However, no VGA chips were embedded in my motherboard.

I found an interesting issue.
If I applied gnome_enable="YES" in /etc/rc.conf, I failed to log in Gnome.
However, without GDM and gnome-shell, if I applied gnome-session in .xinitrc, I could log in gnome via `startx` command.
So, I guessed that some default settings in Gnome3 caused the problem.


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## Chris_H (Jan 26, 2016)

Free.vesh said:


> However, without GDM and gnome-shell, if I applied 'gnome-session' in .xinitrc, I could log in gnome via 'startx' command.
> So, I guessed that some default settings in gnome3 caused the problem.


WOOT! That's amazing. I just finished updating one of my systems, and afterwards, was unable to start x11/cinnamon-session. So I attempted to start x11/gnome-session. But Gnome returned the same screen you posted at the beginning of your port:

```
:(
Oh no! Something has gone wrong.
```
I always use .xinitrc ( startx(1) ). So it's the same problem, but from the opposite problem.
( Thread cinnamon-failed-to-load-session-cinnamon.54874 )


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## Free.vesh (Jan 26, 2016)

Hi, Chris_H,
Sorry for your problem.
I guessed downgrading or upgrading Gnome3 or Cinnamon might solve the problem.
The current version of Gnome3 is 3.16.4
However, I did not know how to do.....

By the way, dbus might be a cause for this problem (I may be wrong).
When you performed `startx`, please switch into tty2 or other ttys.
You could observe some strange processes...


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## Chris_H (Jan 26, 2016)

Free.vesh said:


> Hi, Chris_H,
> Sorry for your problem.
> I guessed downgrading or upgrading Gnome3 or Cinnamon might solve the problem.
> The current version of Gnome3 is 3.16.4
> However, I did not know how to do.....


Thanks for the reply, Free.vesh . But it took me some 2 days to build, and upgrade the 1024 ports required to update this system. I'm *not* going back.  I'm just going to need to figure out _why_. Which is a good thing(tm). Because, when I do. When someone else has this problem, I'll have the solution for them. 

Thanks again, Free.vesh!

--Chris


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## Free.vesh (Jan 27, 2016)

Hi, all.
Today, I had tested FreeBSD 10.2 and Gnome 3.14.2 (installing gnome3 from DVD).
I can access gnome desktop successfully.
Therefore, I am sure that a bug exised in Gnome 3.16.4.
I also reported this bug for FreeBSD team.
Thanks all.


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## Chris_H (Jan 28, 2016)

Yea, I have the same (similar) problem with x11/cinnamon-session (It's Gnome3 repackaged, and tweaked).
It ran near flawlessly, when I was running the previous version. But my recent up(date|grade) made it unusable. It won't start, and neither will Gnome3.
I think they should roll-back Gnome3, until upstream get's it right.

--Chris


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## Free.vesh (Jan 28, 2016)

Chris_H said:


> Yea, I have the same (similar) problem with x11/cinnamon-session (It's Gnome3 repackaged, and tweaked).
> It ran near flawlessly, when I was running the previous version. But my recent up(date|grade) made it unusable. It won't start, and neither will Gnome3.
> I think they should roll-back Gnome3, until upstream get's it right.
> 
> --Chris



HI, Chris.
You may follow this: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=206663
I and Lan tried to find out the solution.
Thanks.


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## Chris_H (Jan 28, 2016)

Indeed. I had already caught your bug report, when it came in on the port-bugs@ mailing list. It started out slow. But I see it's starting to get interesting now. 
There's a bit of a difference, from the issue I'm having.
1) I'm trying to get x11/cinnamon-session going
2) I don't use (X|G)DM. I simply boot to the console/terminal, and issue startx(1), which sucks my chosen Desktop and initial environment from ~/.xinitrc
As to 1), it's still fairly tied to Gnome3, so the tips, and pointers you're getting in the pr(1) you started, will indeed be (at least) helpful. 

Thanks for the pointer Free.vesh !

--Chris


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