[Bug 523639] [NEW] dueling window managers fill disk with logging flood

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: mythbuntu-gdm-theme

On Ubuntu 9.10 + mythbuntu on AMD64 with all current updates:

My disk is filling up with messages logged in /var/log/gdm/:0-greeter.log.  These messages are repeated:
 Window manager warning: Screen 0 on display ":0.0" already has a window manager; try using the --replace option to replace the current window manager.
 Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/1057e55ebdbfac9c126645249737304300000022070009.ms: Failed to open file '/var/lib/gdm/.config/metacity/sessions/1057e55ebdbfac9c126645249737304300000022070009.ms': No such file or directory

The infinite logging goes away once I log in, and stays away even when I
log out.  It seems to come back on reboot.

I think the problem is that two window managers are being started (xfwm4
and metacity).  I think that this is because both have files in
/usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow.

xfwm4 is started by mythbuntu-gdm-window-manager.desktop (it includes
the line Exec=xfwm4) which comes from mythbuntu-gdm-theme package.

metacity is started by metacity.desktop which comes from gdm package.

Does that mean these two packages conflict?

Why does metacity thing that it wants to open that saved session file?
Even the directory containing it does not exist.  Creating an empty file
at that path didn't fix things -- it just whined that the file was
empty.

Here's some output from "ps laxgwf" while this is going on.  Notice that
gnome-session has started both xfwm4 and metacity.

F   UID   PID  PPID PRI  NI    VSZ   RSS WCHAN  STAT TTY        TIME
COMMAND

4     0  1968     1  20   0  74936  3752 poll_s Ss   ?          0:00 gdm-binary
0     0  1977  1968  20   0  76864  3796 poll_s S    ?          0:00  \_ /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-simple-slave --display-id /org/gnome/DisplayManager/Display1
4     0  2001  1977  20   0 102476 21516 poll_s Ss+  tty7      12:22      \_ /usr/bin/X :0 -br -verbose -auth /var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-Vg1Vp3/database -nolisten tcp vt7
4   105  2207  1977  20   0 153776  6668 poll_s Ssl  ?          6:50      \_ /usr/bin/gnome-session --autostart=/usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/
0   105  2313  2207  20   0 186080 11256 poll_s S    ?          2:13      |   \_ gnome-power-manager
0   105  2316  2207  20   0 157448 11300 poll_s S    ?          2:21      |   \_ xfwm4
0   105  2319  2207  20   0 190356 17156 poll_s S    ?          2:07      |   \_ /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-simple-greeter
0   105  6339  2207  20   0 156072  5824 -      R    ?          0:00      |   \_ metacity
0     0  2327  1977  20   0  57716  2624 poll_s S    ?          0:00      \_ /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-session-worker

** Affects: mythbuntu-gdm-theme (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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dueling window managers fill disk with logging flood
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/523639
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