Logging in to Unity gives errors

[L_J]

Hello,

i got a similar problem with the VirtualBox Service error. Logging in to Mate works, but logging in to Unity ends up with the mentioned error:

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/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
...
Failed to connect to the VirtualBox kernel service
Failed to connect to the VirtualBox kernel service
Failed to connect to the VirtualBox kernel service
Failed to connect to the VirtualBox kernel service

I know Unity is not the default desktop-manager and you now may ask why I'm not using Ubuntu instead. Well, I like Mint and the preinstalled software much more than the Ubuntu stuff (package manager, media-player, and other system programs). I also used to like Gnome2 and Mate does a good job to keep this alive, but by the time I miss some innovation. Unity is still not perfect, nevertheless with disabled global menu and some tweak tools it is not less usable than Mate but has some nice features as well. So the best compromise for me seems to be a Linux Mint with Unity. Additionally non of my previous Ubuntu installations were able to suspend or hibernate my machines, but Mint is always running as it should.

I added Unity to the session menu according to this guide: http://ubuntuportal.com/2012/09/how-to- ... -maya.html
This is the same login-script I could find on an Ubuntu machine. To fix the problem I already made an update, reinstalled Unity and even reinstalled the OS, all this with no result.
Prior to this installation I installed Unity on 3 other machines (all with Mint Maya) and there had been no problems at all.
Also I do not understand what the VirtualBox kernel has to do with this - there is no virtual machine running, nor did I install virtualbox by now. However some virtualbox packages seemed to be installed.
Does anyone know whats causing the problem and could explain my why a virtual kernel service is required or is there an other problem?
Inside the Mate environment Unity can be run without problems...

Thanks in advance
Greetings
LJ

[xenopeek]

Hi, I've split your post from http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=105824 and moved it here.

If you are not running Linux Mint on a virtual machine inside VirtualBox, you can remove the VirtualBox guest additions. And note that if you are using VirtualBox on Linux Mint to host other operating systems on virtual machines, then also for that you don't need the VirtualBox guest additions installed. Guest additions you need to install on the guest operating system, and you can do so from VirtualBox's Devices menu when running a virtual machine.

To remove the VirtualBox guest additions, run the following command from a terminal:

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sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-guest-*

[L_J]

Hello Vincent,

thanks for the explanation.
After removing the quest-additions the error message changed to:

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/etc/mdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
localuser:#### being added to access control list
Setting IM through im-switch for locale=en_US.
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/all_ALL linked to /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default.
/etc/mdm/Xsession: 45: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient: /usr/bin/VBoxClient: not found
/etc/mdm/Xsession: 46: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient: /usr/bin/VBoxClient: not found
/etc/mdm/Xsession: 48: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient: /usr/bin/VBoxClient: not found
/etc/mdm/Xsession: 50: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient: /usr/bin/VBoxClient: not found

[xenopeek]

That /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient file is installed from the package virtualbox-guest-x11. I think this may be a problem with the remove action having left some files behind (sorry, my mistake), which we can clear up with a purge and to be very sure I'll list the packages explicitly:

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sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11

Can you share the output of that command here? If it is resolved with this, fine. Else I'd like to see the output to figure out if something is blocking this.

[L_J]

there is the output:

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Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package virtualbox-guest-dkms is not installed, so not removed
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  virtualbox-guest-utils* virtualbox-guest-x11*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 277386 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing virtualbox-guest-utils ...
Purging configuration files for virtualbox-guest-utils ...
Removing virtualbox-guest-x11 ...
Purging configuration files for virtualbox-guest-x11 ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot

EDIT:
the virtual kernel service related errors are gone, but Unity still doesn't start.

Here is what the terminal shows when starting Unity within Mate - if this may be interesting... :

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unity --replace
unity-panel-service: no process found
Checking if settings need to be migrated ...no
Checking if internal files need to be migrated ...no
Backend     : gconf
Integration : true
Profile     : unity
Adding plugins
Initializing core options...done
Initializing composite options...done
Initializing opengl options...done
Initializing decor options...done
Initializing vpswitch options...done
Initializing snap options...done
Initializing mousepoll options...done
Initializing resize options...done
Initializing place options...done
Initializing move options...done
Initializing wall options...done
Initializing grid options...done
Initializing session options...done
Initializing gnomecompat options...done
Initializing animation options...done
Initializing fade options...done
Initializing unitymtgrabhandles options...done
Initializing workarounds options...done
Initializing scale options...done
compiz (expo) - Warn: failed to bind image to texture
Initializing expo options...done
Initializing ezoom options...done

(compiz:2719): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_client_add_dir: assertion `gconf_valid_key (dirname, NULL)' failed
Initializing unityshell options...done
Couldn't find a perfect decorator match; trying all decorators
Starting gtk-window-decorator
WARN  2012-10-26 13:18:25 unity.libindicator <unknown>:0 Desktop file '/usr/share/applications/libreoffice-writer.desktop' is using a deprecated format for its actions that will be dropped soon.
WARN  2012-10-26 13:18:25 unity.libindicator <unknown>:0 Desktop file '/usr/share/applications/libreoffice-calc.desktop' is using a deprecated format for its actions that will be dropped soon.
WARN  2012-10-26 13:18:26 unity.libindicator <unknown>:0 Desktop file '/usr/share/applications/libreoffice-impress.desktop' is using a deprecated format for its actions that will be dropped soon.
Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita

WARN  2012-10-26 13:18:26 unity <unknown>:0 Failed to fetch type: No such interface `org.ayatana.bamf.window' on object at path /org/ayatana/bamf/window54525956
ERROR 2012-10-26 13:18:26 unity.glib-gobject <unknown>:0 g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Setting Update "main_menu_key"
Setting Update "run_key"

Some warnings, but it seems to run well within the Mate-session...

[xenopeek]

So Unity is working now? The relevant bit from the log would perhaps be:

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ERROR 2012-10-26 13:18:26 unity.glib-gobject <unknown>:0 g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

I'm not sure what to do about that.

[L_J]

I still can't log in to a Unity-session on startup. I am now logged in to a Mate-Session and started Unity from the terminal and what I get than is a more or less smooth running Unity as some kind of overlay on the Mate Desktop.

Is this code from http://ubuntuportal.com/2012/09/how-to- ... -maya.html correct?

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=Ubuntu
Comment=This session logs you into Ubuntu
Exec=gnome-session --session=ubuntu
TryExec=unity
Icon=
Type=Application
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-session-3.0

[xenopeek]

Sorry, I haven't done any Unity installation or configuration. So if we've moved past the problem caused by the VirtualBox guest additions, then I'm out of my comfort zone here also

[L_J]

ok; thanks a lot for solving the virtualbox errors.


Is here someone who installed Unity on Mint 13
-or does it make sense to start a topic in an Ubuntu forum?

[L_J]

Finally I got Unity work - but I believe the system is more ubuntu than Mint now;)

Here is what I did - as far as I can reconstruct it: First I thought it had something to do with the mdm (I'm not sure if this true but just did some try and error). Switching to lightdm resulted in loosing the GUI with the comment mdm not started because it's not the default.
In a howto I used to install myunity on Mint if finally found the advice to install Unity by installing "ubuntu-desktop" -> http://www.howtoforge.com/install-myuni ... nt-13-maya. This in turn installed lightdm correctly so that it starts now.
The loginscreen changed its appearance to what it looked like with gnome 2.x and a second session entry named Ubuntu was listed. This entry starts Unity correctly, my previous entry does not work.
I didn't take a look in the new file, but there seems to be a difference ( I will provide that info in the next days - now I'm just happy to have my Mint/Unity/Ubuntu mix running stable and fast.

EDIT
too happy too soon - after restarting I get an error :
your screen, graphic card and input device settings could not be detected correctly. You will have to configuree this yourself
Any advice how to fix this?

EDIT2 - hopefully the last one:

Its running again, just a bug in LightDM:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/141606/h ... mode-error
I changed the line to greeter-session=unity-greeter, than select the ubuntu session in the gui and could see my desktop again.