SLES 11 and VMWare - GUI login dies after awhile

I’m running the latest SLES 11 on VMWare. After a reboot everything
works fine for awhile. Then, a couple days later, the local console
shows the green screen but no login. VNC gives a gray screen.

I can reboot to fix it temporarily. Any ideas?


dlewis7444

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try using ssh and then do an rcxdm restart.

–El

dlewis7444;2155991 Wrote:[color=blue]

I’m running the latest SLES 11 on VMWare. After a reboot everything
works fine for awhile. Then, a couple days later, the local console
shows the green screen but no login. VNC gives a gray screen.

I can reboot to fix it temporarily. Any ideas?[/color]


El LaGrew
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I tried that earlier. It shows the same error about 6 times and doesn’t
change anything. Unfortunately it’s on a fresh reboot right now so when
I run it it succeeds. I can’t tell you what the error messages were
until it crashes again.


dlewis7444

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So, here are the error messages I get - and nothing changes: still no
login screen, still gray on VNC:

rcxdm restart
Shutting down service gdm
done
Starting service gdm
done
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.383867 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.083328 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.084250 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.015943 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.016446 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.016002 seconds
gdm[21921]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X
display failures reached: check X server log for errors

And this is from /var/log/gdm/:4.log.2
AUDIT: Mon Nov 28 22:11:31 2011: 14618 X: client 1 rejected from local
host ( uid=106 gid=111 pid=14700 )


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2155991 Wrote:[color=blue]

I’m running the latest SLES 11 on VMWare.[/color]

That could mean a couple of things (in my twisted mind) :

  1. You are running SLES 11 (SP0) with all the latest patches applied
  2. You are running SLES 11 SP1 with all the latest patches applied
  3. You are running SLES 11 SP1 with not so much the latest patches
    applied

…Which one of those is it? :slight_smile:

It would also be good to know which VMware (ESX/ESXi/…) version are
you running and what version of VMware tools is installed in SLES (also
tar of rpm install?)?

How is the load of your VMware host(s) and any other strangeness
happening there?

Lastly, is this the special SLES VMware version or the regular SLES
version?

-Willem


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The first one, SLES 11, no service pack, regularly updated.

VMWare ESXi, 4.1.0. Tools installed from tar,
VMwareTools-8.3.2-257589.tar.gz.

The load is very low - the host is way overpowered for what it’s used
for.

Didn’t know there was a special VMWare SLES version - this is the
regular one.


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dlewis7444;2157105 Wrote:[color=blue]

The first one, SLES 11, no service pack, regularly updated.

VMWare ESXi, 4.1.0. Tools installed from tar,
VMwareTools-8.3.2-257589.tar.gz.

The load is very low - the host is way overpowered for what it’s used
for.

Didn’t know there was a special VMWare SLES version - this is the
regular one.[/color]

Hmmm… sounds ok. I have seen some issues with SLES 11 (SP0) and
leaving the X GUI at the login screen. If possible I’d suggest to
update the server to SLES 11 SP1 + post patches.

One other thing you could try is check the hosts file of the server,
see here :
http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/suse-linux-enterprise-server-sles/sles-configure-administer/377990-sles11-vnc-gray-desktop-x.html#post2070254

Maybe also rerun the VMware config tool and select to reconfigure the
display resolution and set it to something different than you are using
now to see if that makes a difference.

-Willem


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Well I updated to SP1. Now instead of a green screen, no login, I have
a text login only. Startup log shows the gdm display attempting to
start 6 times and failing.


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2158045 Wrote:[color=blue]

Well I updated to SP1. Now instead of a green screen, no login, I have
a text login only. Startup log shows the gdm display attempting to
start 6 times and failing.[/color]

Try booting into runlevel 3 (‘init 3’ as boot option), and either run
‘sax2 -a -r’ or rerun the vmwmare-config-tools.pl script and reselect a
different resolution… seems the X configuration is somewhat mucked
up.

Curious, did you also check the /etc/hosts file for incorrect entries?

-Willem


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Thank you, Magic - that solved that problem. We’re now back to where we
were. After a reboot I get the login and am able to VNC in. After a
while, however, the login window disappears and VNC connects but shows
only a black screen.


dlewis7444

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After updating to SP1, I still have the same issue - login and VNC work
fine immediately after a reboot. But in a few hours the login prompt
goes away. VNC, which formerly gave only the grey screen, now shows
only a black screen. It says it is the 6th session ([name of
machine]:6).

Anyone have any other ideas at all?


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2159975 Wrote:[color=blue]

After updating to SP1, I still have the same issue - login and VNC work
fine immediately after a reboot. But in a few hours the login prompt
goes away. VNC, which formerly gave only the grey screen, now shows
only a black screen. It says it is the 6th session ([name of
machine]:6).

Anyone have any other ideas at all?[/color]

Sorry for the late reply… This crashing of the X service, does it
only occur on servers where a VNC connection has been established… or
does it also happen to a server that has been booted to the GUI but has
not been ‘touched’ by remote sessions? And do you have multiple SLES
VM’s where this is happening? Or just this one?

I’m curious, have you changed anything specific in the X11 or VNC
configuration?

The version of VMware tools you are using is a little bit older, as I
see most SLES VM’s here are running 8.3.7-341836. Could be there is
something going on there…

-Willem


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Thanks for the reply, Magic.

I will test the server with VNC disabled.

I haven’t changed anything that I know of. The server was installed a
little over a month ago and has been doing this since its install.

Will see about updating VMware Tools again.


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2161035 Wrote:[color=blue]

I will test the server with VNC disabled.

I haven’t changed anything that I know of. The server was installed a
little over a month ago and has been doing this since its install.

Will see about updating VMware Tools again.[/color]

One more thing that could be different in why I’m not seeing these
issues… which resolution have you set for your VM’s display (meaning
the resolution configured when running VMware tools)? I usually keep it
at 1024x768 and don’t touch the color depth as that can have undesired
results.

-Willem


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VNC is disabled. I reran the vmware tools configuration and selected
1024x768.

I went to here to download the newest vmware tools:
‘Index of /45848/tools/esx/latest’
(http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/index.html)

But it has 3 options for SLES 11 - 11.0, 11.1, and 11.2. I seem to
have 11, SP1, which I thought was the latest. What are 11.1 and 11.2?

Will check tomorrow to see if disabling VNC or selecting a different
res made a difference.


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2162711 Wrote:[color=blue]

But it has 3 options for SLES 11 - 11.0, 11.1, and 11.2. I seem to have
11, SP1, which I thought was the latest. What are 11.1 and 11.2?[/color]

11.1 stands for SLES 11 SP1, and 11.2 for SLES 11 SP2 (which is in it’s
late stages of the Beta).

-Willem


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I updated to the latest vmware-tools, using the rpm, but no joy. In
fact, it’s back to not starting the GUI login at all.

I tried running the sax command and rebooting but that didn’t help
(there is no vmware tools config script with the rpm install).


dlewis7444

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dlewis7444;2163567 Wrote:[color=blue]

I updated to the latest vmware-tools, using the rpm, but no joy. In
fact, it’s back to not starting the GUI login at all.

I tried running the sax command and rebooting but that didn’t help
(there is no vmware tools config script with the rpm install).[/color]

Great fun indeed. Sorry it’s going so goofy for something that should
be quite straight forward.

The rpm should have a vmware-config-tools option… what possible
options do you get presented using the tab (e.g. 'vmware-)?

Might be an option to compare xorg.conf files and see if something is
going on there…

Also check the vga setting (usually set to vga=0x314 in vSphere) in the
/boot/grub/menu.1st of the bootloader. It sets the console resolution,
not the GUI… but it might conflict in some way.

As I’m not anywhere near work now :slight_smile: I’ll post an xorg.conf from a
SLES 11 SP1 server I have running under VMware workstation. It should
be compatible though.

—xorg.conf

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2010-11-14T00:56:13+0100.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer sax@suse.de, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list

https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users

Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
Option “NoAutoAddDevices”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “dri”
Load “dbe”
Load “freetype”
Load “extmod”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “VMware Keyboard”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “vmmouse”
Identifier “VMware Mouse”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “InputFashion” “Mouse”
Option “Name” “VMware Pointer”
Option “Protocol” “IMPS/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
Modeline “800x600” 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync
+vsync
Modeline “800x600” 38.22 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 622
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “VMware SVGA”
Driver “vmware”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “off”
Screen “Screen[0]”
InputDevice “VMware Keyboard” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “VMware Mouse” “CorePointer”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Device “VMware SVGA”
Monitor “vmware”

Don’t specify DefaultColorDepth unless you know what you’re

doing. It will override the driver’s preferences which can

cause the X server not to run if the host doesn’t support the

depth.

Subsection “Display”

VGA mode: better left untouched

Depth 4
Modes “640x480”
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1024x768”
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1024x768”
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024x768”
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1024x768”
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “vmware”
VendorName “VMware, Inc”
HorizSync 1-10000
VertRefresh 1-10000
EndSection


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I see TAB’s get lost when posting here (and therefore the original
layout)… Configuration should still be in working order, just less
readable.


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