gnome-shell won't start

[Stephen Berg (Contractor)]

On 02/04/2014 06:48 AM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> One thing you could try is to switch from using GDM to KDM.
>
Tried that this morning and get pretty much the same results.  I can log 
into KDE no problem, gnome-shell from KDM just gets me a cursor and a 
background image instead of the black screen I got from GDM.

> One thing that does puzzle me is you said you created a new "local" 
> account and it work.  You then moved your home directory out of the 
> way, created a new home, and it still failed.  Seems like would have 
> also worked.....
I created a local account (/etc/passwd|group|shadow) that worked. All 
our accounts here are on NIS, usually with a home directory served via 
NFS and autofs from a file server.  I've also tried with a local home 
directory and NFS home directory without success.

> Now, another thing you can do....since you have a copy of your home 
> directory....would be to make note of your UID/GID of your old account 
> and then delete it.  Create a new account and specify the UID/GID as 
> before and you should have a "new local account" as you've done before 
> and tested...and it should work.  Then, copy back your home directory 
> in bits and pieces while logging in/out to see if the problem comes back.

My UID/GID match my Common Access Card's EDIPI #, so it's a 32-bit 
number and that account is defined on NIS.  We've got more than a few 
accounts set up this way and are migrating all of them slowly. It hasn't 
caused any problems so far.  I'd be real interested to find out that the 
32-bit UID/GID might be causing an issue.  It hadn't until just recently 
if it is an issue.  I know that things were working just fine since I 
changed my UID to the 32-bit EDIPI # on February 8th, 2011, which would 
have been under Fedora 13 I think.  I've changed to new hardware and 
kept up to date with Fedora releases the whole time and this issue is 
new just this week.

I also did a fresh install of Fedora 20 yesterday.  Over the last 2 or 3 
years my system has gone through a couple of fedup's and I used yum to 
get to F20 since fedup doesn't seem to like /boot on RAID1. Figured it 
was a good time to clean up any kruft that those upgrades might have 
left behind.  I only have a few Fedora systems here, we're primarily a 
Scientific Linux shop.  I try to keep mine current with Fedora to have 
an idea of what RHEL/Centos/SL will be looking like down the road.

-- 
Stephen Berg
Systems Administrator
NRL Code: 7320
Office: 228-688-5738
stephen.berg.ctr at nrlssc.navy.mil