Login loop with RHEL 7.4 after update

Latest response

As I have mentioned in the title. I cannot login with the GUI after update. I am, however, able to log in after pressing ctrl-alt-f2 and going in that route.

Respectfully,

James

Responses

I will run the same process on a VM and see if I can duplicate the issue.

James, perhaps install vmware tools (manually)? I've seen oddball things when upgrades are done and vmware tools is not concurrently updated, occasionally. What form of system is this? vmware? Is this a server or workstateion? How long ago did you do the yum update, like in the last 2 days? (or a week ago from today, because Red Hat 7.5 was released this week) Is your update source Redhat directly, or do you have a Red Hat Satellite server?

Are you able to access the logs? Is the system Red Hat Server or Red Hat Workstation? Does the system use a graphics driver for a graphics card (maybe nvidia)?

When you reply, imagine you are reading this attempting to help someone else who has no idea of the specifics except what is provided and keep in mind what details the person helping you would require - and tailor your reply with sufficient details so someone cold to your situation will have sufficient information to provide viable help.

Regards, - let us know some more so we can help you out.

RJ

The system in question is a laptop, Dell E6520, running RHEL 7.4. So, it's bare metal. Unfortunately, since it's in a restricted lab, I can't take it home. I am going to try the same steps on the VM, under Virtualbox, to see if the issue repeats itself.

I really have no issues blowing away the install on the Dell with version 7.5.

Respectfully,

James

Hi RJ ! :)

What you mentioned in the last paragraph is so true, in shorter words this means : Please help us to help you !
Valid for everybody who is searching for answers or seeking for solutions of course, not limited to this thread. :)

Cheers :)
Christian

I thought I had made a mistake by earlier doing yum update --skip-broken as to keep the version at 7.4. I had earlier run yum upgrade --skip-broken.

Same issue with a login loop.

I will try 7.5 next and then run update.

The problem is, what will happen if 7.6 comes out, will the login loop return after I run yum update?

James

Well James, who knows ?

Nobody can predict what will happen when a new edition gets released - not for RHEL and not for any other distro. :)

Regards,
Christian

Looks like the 7.5 version updated without issue as I was able to login through the gui. I will test of the physical laptop on Monday. I'll update the progress then.

James

Hi James,

As I can see in the DELL Latitude E6520 Tech Specs, the notebook shipped with NVIDIA NVSTM 4200M Discrete Graphics with Optimus. This means that it has a hybrid graphics solution built in and hence the hint from RJ (R. Hinton) might lead to the root cause. This also would be the explanation why it works properly in a VM.

Please check whether the proprietary NVIDIA drivers are installed on the laptop. Uninstall all NVIDIA related software, reboot the system - reinstall the drivers and reboot again. Please check if there are settings related to the dedicated graphics adapter which would possibly have to be adjusted in the BIOS settings of the notebook.

Regards,
Christian

Here's the problem with that: the very same issue appeared with the VM... So far, 7.5 has been working without issue.

I'll be running the 7.5 install and upgrade on the laptop on Monday.

James

Sorry James, I don't understand - you said "Looks like the 7.5 version updated without issue as I was able to login through the gui" ... and now you say : "Here's the problem with that: the very same issue appeared with the VM" ...

Regards,
Christian

Hey there!

Laptop and VM had RHEL 7.4. Each was updated and after the update and rebooting, I was unable to log in thru the GUI. It would be stuck in a login loop. But, but pressing ctrl-alt-f2 and entering console mode, I am able to log in.

My response that the VM had the same issues was a reply to this statement: "As I can see in the DELL Latitude E6520 Tech Specs, the notebook shipped with NVIDIA NVSTM 4200M Discrete Graphics with Optimus. This means that it has a hybrid graphics solution built in and hence the hint from RJ (R. Hinton) might lead to the root cause. This also would be the explanation why it works properly in a VM.

Please check whether the proprietary NVIDIA drivers are installed on the laptop. Uninstall all NVIDIA related software, reboot the system - reinstall the drivers and reboot again. Please check if there are settings related to the dedicated graphics adapter which would possibly have to be adjusted in the BIOS settings of the notebook."

I decided to try RHEL 7.5 on the VM and after it's update I had no issue logging in thru the gui.

James

Thanks for this information, James ! :) When I understand you correctly, the behavior of the VM was as expected after you've performed a fresh installation of RHEL 7.5 - is this correct ? And if it is, then try the same on the laptop. Hope it works there too, please report back the results. I wish you good luck !

Regards,
Christian

Yes, it was. Will try the same on Monday with the laptop!

Very respectfully,

James

Hi James,

I'm pretty confident that it will work out fine there as well ... nevertheless - good luck (again) ! :)

Regards,
Christian

Updating the 7.5 version on the laptop had no issues just like the VM.

Overall, very strange experience.

Respectfully,

James

Great James, I'm glad that you've got the system properly installed on the laptop too. But it's not that strange at all, a bunch of users are having problems when trying to upgrade their systems, simply because it very much depends of what is installed on top (which is individually different in each case). Exactly that is the reason why I generally recommend clean (fresh) installations. As I use to say, it takes less time than trying to fix possible issues (at least for not very experienced users).

Cheers :)
Christian

Agreed,

Christian, if you would be so kind as to point me to a knowledgebase article about locking my repos down so this problem doesn't reoccur?

Respectfully,

James

Hi James,

Not sure what you mean with locking the repos, but when you are only using the Red Hat repos, you won't have to expect many problems. When you install something from external sources, then you might have to care about dependency issues. Anyway, you can check if you find something in the knowledgebase by using the Knowledgebase filter. Before I lead you to something with wrong relevance, you'd better search yourself - and by the way, I would need to search there too. :)

Regards,
Christian

Hello James,

This seems to me not an issue related to the upgrade to RHEL 7.y, but a generic issue with the nVidia graphics drivers not being provided to Red Hat. So you will encounter this issue with each kernel update. I have a Lenovo Thinkstation E30 where I added a nVidia Geforce 730 graphics card running RHEL 6.9. After each kernel update I need to switch to runlevel 3, run the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64....run program and which back to runlevel 5.

Regards,

Jan Gerrit

Hi Jan Gerrit,

I do not know whether James has the proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed, but he had the same issue also in his VM and there these drivers won't be the culprit. When he uses the drivers from RPM Fusion, he doesn't have to reinstall them (akmod version) after a kernel update, this is mainly valid for the NVIDIA drivers (run file) installation method. When he uses the open source drivers - it also should work without problems ... meant to be just an information ... :)

Regards,
Christian

Hi Christian,

I quote James: "I decided to try RHEL 7.5 on the VM and after it's update I had no issue logging in thru the gui."

So it seems related to the hypervisor, not the VMs.

Regards,

Jan Gerrit

Hi Jan Gerrit,

Yes I know, it sounds a bit strange, but with "update" he meant a fresh install of RHEL 7.5 in the VM.

Quote (question) Christian : "When I understand you correctly, the behavior of the VM was as expected after you've performed a fresh installation of RHEL 7.5 - is this correct ?"

Quote (answer) James : "Yes, it was. Will try the same on Monday with the laptop!"

Anyway, most important is that RHEL 7.5 runs properly on both machines now - on the physical and on the virtual one. :)

Regards,
Christian

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