Xfce Forum

dpengel3

Member

Registered: 2020-05-24

Posts: 3

Switch user is killing existing sessions

I am using XFCE on Pop!OS using GDM as the dm. When trying to run multiple users in this configuration, I run into the existing session always being killed when trying to return to it.

For example:

Two users, dan and terry.

1. dan logs in, has XFCE session. Everything's great.

2. switch user - goes to login screen

3. terry logs in, has XFCE session. Everything's great.

4. either switch user or terry logs out (it doesn't matter) - goes to login screen

5. dan logs in

At this point, it logs in to what appears to be dan's existing session. Then the screen blanks and goes back to the login screen. So dan logs in again, and this time it's a fresh session.

I had previously been using XFCE in Arch Linux, and this was never a problem. All sessions were preserved and loging in just returned to the corresponding user's existing session.

Neither user's .xsession-errors files has any recent information. I'm not sure where to even start troubleshooting the issue.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Has anyone else struggled with an issue like this?

Thanks in advance.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,488

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

Hello and welcome.

How did you set up switch user functionality on that setup? It doesn't appear to work out of the box.

Also, after this happens, is there anything of interest in your journal?

sudo journalctl -u gdm -b 0

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Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

We have been seeing that issue as well, and our Lead Dev Dolphin Oracle filed a bug report on it (will try to find later). It used to work just fine...

We're thinking of putting a bounty on it to get some attention because it is pretty annoying.

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

We have been seeing that issue as well, and our Lead Dev Dolphin Oracle filed a bug report on it (will try to find later).

I think it's bug #16638, still unresolved.

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

Yes, that's it--thanks.

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

dpengel3

Member

Registered: 2020-05-24

Posts: 3

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

Thank you for the feedback.

I think user switching just worked out of the box, since I'm using gdm, and there is a valid /usr/bin/gdmflexiserver executable.

The bug you referenced, @Jerry3904 and @alcornoqui, is similar but not quite what I'm seeing. (You can see the difference if you read my sequence and the one in the bug side-by-side.)

@Toz, I followed the journalctl output and noted exactly what was being logged at each step in the sequence. I'm reproducing my scenario below, with the journal entries shown after each step. (Note, my second user, in this case, is rtz, not terry.)

1. dan logs in, has XFCE session. Everything's great.
2. switch user - goes to login screen

May 24 20:07:51 pop-os gdm3[1134]: GLib: Source ID 1329 was not found when attempting to remove it

3. rtz logs in, has XFCE session. Everything's great.

May 24 20:08:02 pop-os gdm3[1134]: GLib: Source ID 1330 was not found when attempting to remove it
May 24 20:08:08 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
May 24 20:08:10 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
May 24 20:08:10 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
May 24 20:08:10 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: gkr-pam: stashed password to try later in open session
May 24 20:08:10 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user rtz by (uid=0)
May 24 20:08:10 pop-os gdm-password][558464]: gkr-pam: gnome-keyring-daemon started properly and unlocked keyring

4. rtz logs out - goes to login screen

May 24 20:08:28 pop-os gdm3[1134]: GLib: Source ID 1339 was not found when attempting to remove it

5. dan logs in

At this point, it logs in to what appears to be dan's existing session. Then the screen immediately blanks and goes back to the login screen.

May 24 20:08:51 pop-os gdm3[1134]: GLib: Source ID 1367 was not found when attempting to remove it

So dan logs in again, and this time it's a fresh session.

May 24 20:09:18 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
May 24 20:09:20 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: pam_unix(gdm-password:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
May 24 20:09:20 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
May 24 20:09:20 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: gkr-pam: stashed password to try later in open session
May 24 20:09:20 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user dan by (uid=0)
May 24 20:09:20 pop-os gdm-password][559417]: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring

I don't see anything there that's helpful. I did a brief search regarding the "unable to locate daemon control file" and it does not appear to be related, or even significant.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,488

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

You can send output to an ~/.xsession-errors file by creating a /usr/local/bin/startxfce4 file with the following content:

#!/bin/bash

[[ -f ~/.xsession-errors ]] && mv ~/.xsession-errors ~/.xsession-errors.old
/usr/bin/startxfce4 > ~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

...and make the file executable.

When dan's second login goes back to the login screen, have a look at the end of his ~/.xsession-errors file. If you log in again as him, then the file to look at is ~/.xsession-errors.old.

Perhaps there is some information there as to what is causing the logout.

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dpengel3

Member

Registered: 2020-05-24

Posts: 3

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

Just a quick follow-up: The .xsession-errors files seem to indicate that X is being restarted. In any case, it seems to be resolved if I use lightdm instead of gdm.

(BTW, I might have been using gdm3 rather than gdm...not sure now.)

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: Switch user is killing existing sessions

i've been switching users for a few years with lightdm and have never seen an unintended session restart.  and i regularly run 18 to 22 users at a time.