gnome exits unexpectedly

Question

Here's the situation: Since I upgraded to 10.4 LTS, my gnome session unexpectedly ends: it logs off. This does not happen every time, but rather randomly. I've tried to force this event, suspecting it was some kind of unfortunate key-mapping thing: alt-enter, shift-enter, enter-end, etc. But no, I cant reproduce it.

Does this happen to anyone? I've googled around, but haven't found any solution.

Update: Here's the last part of my .xsession-errors file

error 0 (Success) on X server :1.0.

error 0 (Success) on X server :1.0.> MADPlug-Message: Rejecting
> file:///media/KINGSTON/somesong.mp3:
> out of data.
> 
> ** (update-notifier:3110): DEBUG: fire up the crashreport tool
> 
> gnome-session: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0.
> 
> gnome-settings-daemon: Fatal IO error
> 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable)
> on X server :1.0.
> 
> Window manager warning: Fatal IO error
> 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable)
> on display ':1.0'.
> 
> gnome-screensaver: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0.
> 
> polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:
> Fatal IO error 11 (Resource
> temporarily unavailable) on X server
> :1.0.
> 
> evolution-alarm-notify: Fatal IO error
> 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable)
> on X server :1.0.
> 
> tilda: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource
> temporarily unavailable) on X server
> :1.0.
> 
> audacious2: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0.
> 
> XIO:  fatal IO error 11 (Resource
> temporarily unavailable) on X server
> ":1.0"^M
> 
>       after 9917 requests (9916 known processed) with 0 events remaining.^M
> gsd-locate-pointer: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0.
> 
> gnome-terminal: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0.                        
> 
> 
> gdu-notification-daemon: Fatal IO
> error 11 (Resource temporarily
> unavailable) on X server :1.0.
> 
> update-notifier: Fatal IO error 11
> (Resource temporarily unavailable) on
> X server :1.0. nm-applet: Fatal IO
> error 0 (Success) on X server :1.0.error 0 (Success) on X server :1.0.

Thanks in advance.error 0 (Success) on X server :1.0.

Solution

Look in /var/crash to see if X or something crashed. Check dmesg for any kernel faults. Look at the last dozen lines or so of /var/log/Xorg.0.log for evidence of an X crash in the form of a backtrace. Check your /var/log/gdm/ logs as well for backtraces or error messages from X.

Comments

[msw]

the contents of your ~/.xsession-errors file is the first place to look for clues. edit them into your post if you'd like a second (or fifteenth) pair of eyes on them.

[Canastro]

Perhaps this has something to do with changing permissions of the /home/user/.ICEauthority file.

[msw]

It looks like gnome is dying because your Xserver died. Is there a reason you are running on DISPLAY :1.0? This could be relevant as it is an uncommon configuration. The next step is looking at /var/log/Xorg.1.log to see why the server dies (sorry to go step by step, but each step yields new hypotheses).

[Tom]

@msw No, no reason at all. I'll check out Xorg.1.log later today, thank you

[Jason Southwell]

this should be a comment.