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Ubuntu version: 22.04 last I checked, never upgraded

I use XFCE on Ubuntu as my desktop environment but I have to enter my credentials through GNOME's login screen before I can use XFCE. Today I was browsing a pretty cpu intensive site on Firefox that caused it to crash, and then it wasn't launching again when I tried. Crash reporter couldn't get any details about the crash and so I rebooted my computer.

It got stuck on uefi booting screen (just the lenovo and ubuntu logos and a loading spinner) for a very long time and didn't boot. I pressed ESC to view the system logs stuff and this is the output: error messages about gnome display manager

It seems something happened to GNOME that prevents it from starting.

I have a live usb but I'm not sure what to do to fix the above.

Edit: As requested by @EdgarMagallon here is the output of:

  • sudo systemctl status gdm.service output from systemctl status of gdm

  • sudo journalctl -xeu gdm.service output from journalctl of gdm

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  • Try pressing ctrl+alt+f# where # is a number from 1 to 7 (or maybe you have more virtual consoles in activated state). For example, try ctrl+alt+f1 and let me know if you get a shell prompt. Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 6:36
  • @EdgarMagallon Ctrl + Alt + F5 brought up a shell which asked for my login info. I loginned and it lets me do bash commands. ls shows that it's running in the /home folder. Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 10:08
  • Then after you login run this command: sudo systemctl status gdm.service and check de the logs. Also if you didn't get any helpful output then run the command: sudo journalctl -xeu gdm.service and read the logs Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 18:19
  • @EdgarMagallon Added it to the question Commented Mar 16, 2023 at 13:43

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Had this issue with Ubuntu 24.04. Turns out that I installed fuse which removed ubuntu-session. All is well till you reboot and cant get past the stop plymouth start gdm part of boot.

CTRL-ALT-F2 login sudo apt remove fuse sudo apt install ubuntu-session reboot

If you do need fuse then you should install fuse3

apt install fuse3

No clue why fuse2 is still available and is the de

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  • Had the same issue following the install instructions for github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse. Confirm fix worked for the same Ubuntu version. Commented Oct 23, 2024 at 21:14
  • Could you elaborate about what actually happened originally. When you did sudo apt install fuse did apt ask to remove package ubuntu-session to allow package fuse to be installed, and you replies Y to question to continue? Commented Nov 8, 2024 at 10:40
  • Thank you so much for this answer. Won’t have figured that out without it. Commented Jan 27 at 12:22
  • Wow this was exactly what just happened to me. Spot on. And yes, apt did report it was removing ubuntu-session and fuse3 but that was not noticed at the time. Commented Jul 9 at 19:53
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There are 2 causes for this problem that ends with the message Starting Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen...:

  1. Too big log files in /var/log directory.
  2. Disk full

In the first case, in the /var/log folder, notice that some files are big and have the same size, for example,

  • messages.1: 1.8 GB
  • syslog.1: 1.8 GB
  • user.log.1: 1.8 GB.

In this case, even emptying the disk the problem continues. Some sources suggest not deleting these files, but just emptying it. This can be done in the terminal with the commands

$ > messages.1 $ > syslog.1 $ > user.log.1

If the disk is full, the fisrt case alone will not help, in this case you must access the disk through another partition or through an installer (bootable live USB) and empty the disk.

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  • 1
    Isn't "Starting Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen..." a completely normal message? Plymouth being the thing that does the fancy boot screen and hides kernel and systemd messages. Commented Jun 3, 2023 at 6:41
  • @OskarSkog It is just for specifying the problem Commented Jul 1, 2023 at 18:23
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Your system is booted and running, you can do anything. It's just the Desktop daemon that won't run. I recommend reinstalling Ubuntu Vanilla, with default configuration. Wipe your disk before you do so, and let the installer do the partitioning.

Use a local Drive to backup your data, or upload it to the cloud, for example gcsfuse.

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    Can't I reinstall the desktop daemon or reconfigure it to its default settings? I would rather not wipe my entire disk, there is too much data to backup online and no offline backup medium (~450GB). Commented Feb 28, 2023 at 12:01
  • 450 GB can fit to a very cheap SSD disk, and can be transferred over USB within an hour or so. Commented May 16, 2024 at 21:18
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Apparently the issue fixed itself. It might have something to do with me running startx from the shell but now it's working as expected.

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