Error when booting, "Broken pipe"

Question

When I reboot my computer, a black screen appeared with the following message:

could not write bytes: Broken pipe

* Stopping save kernel messages...                               [ok]
* Checking battery state...                                      [ok]
* Stopping system V run level compatibility...                   [ok] 

This is the third time I have reformatted my computer and reinstalled Xubuntu for the same error.

---

The following is the log file from "/var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log" when following @sameetandpotatoes' instructions found below:

[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting Light Display Manager 1.2.3, UID=0 PID=1033
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Loaded configuration from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using D-Bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xlocal
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Registered seat module xremote
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Adding default seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting seat
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting new display for greeter
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Starting local X display
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Using VT 7
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Activating VT 7
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Writing X server authority to /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Launching X Server
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Launching process 1041: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
[+0.02s] DEBUG: Waiting for ready signal from X server :0
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Acquired bus name org.freedesktop.DisplayManager
[+0.04s] DEBUG: Registering seat with bus path /org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
[+1.20s] DEBUG: Got signal 10 from process 1041
[+1.20s] DEBUG: Got signal from X server :0
[+1.20s] DEBUG: Connecting to XServer :0
[+1.20s] DEBUG: Starting greeter
[+1.20s] DEBUG: Started session 1051 with service 'lightdm', username 'lightdm'
[+1.52s] DEBUG: Session 1051 authentication complete with return value 0: Success
[+1.52s] DEBUG: Greeter authorized
[+1.52s] DEBUG: Logging to /var/log/lightdm/x-0-greeter.log
[+1.52s] DEBUG: Session 1051 running command /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-greeter-session /usr/sbin/lightdm-gtk-greeter
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Greeter closed communication channel
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Session 1051 exited with return value 1
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Greeter quit
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Failed to start greeter
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Stopping display
[+1.73s] DEBUG: Sending signal 15 to process 1041
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Process 1041 exited with return value 0
[+1.76s] DEBUG: X server stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Removing X server authority /var/run/lightdm/root/:0
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Releasing VT 7
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Display server stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Display stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Stopping X local seat, failed to start a display
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Stopping seat
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Seat stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Required seat has stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Stopping display manager
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Display manager stopped
[+1.76s] DEBUG: Stopping daemon
[+1.77s] DEBUG: Exiting with return value 1

Solution

Press Ctrl + Alt + F2. You will then see a new screen that looks like a full screen terminal. Then, you can type in your username and password. If you would like to return to the GUI, try typing the following command:

sudo service lightdm start

You also may want to check to see if you are booting into text mode by default. To do that, use the following commands in Terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Find this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"

If it says "text", please change it to "quiet splash".

If you made any changes, you need to update grub. You can do this with this command:

sudo update-grub

Reboot your computer and see if it works.

Comments

[Daniel Grothe]

When I entered "sudo service lightdm start", the following appeared, but no GUI: * Starting the Winbind daemon winbind [ok] saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned * Checking battery state... [ok] Thanks for the fast response!

[Daniel Grothe]

It now displays: "lightdm start/running, process 1470", but no GUI.

[sameetandpotatoes]

Try these two: sudo startx, sudo gdm.

[Daniel Grothe]

"sudo gdm" is an unrecognized command and "sudo startx" does not put me in my own account, nor can I change to it, nor run any apps. What do I do next?

[sameetandpotatoes]

Looking at this link, I found that this answer helped someone. Maybe you can try it? "I was able to fix this myself by removing the file ~/.Xauthority. For the record, you can find startup logs for LightDM under /var/log/lightdm - from there I was able to see that LightDM was getting stuck on something in that file, so I renamed it and was able to successfully log in."

[Daniel Grothe]

"~/.Xauthority"? I do not understand. I could find no reference to it in the LightDM log. :/

[sameetandpotatoes]

Go to /var/log/lightdm and open it up with nano. Then, can you post the log as an edit to your question?