Gnome Desktop Error: should I just run headless, forget about Gnome?

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson AGX Orin
1

My Jetson AGX Orin was just flashed to 6.1, with no real issues.

I am able to run Ollama in containers, use the CLI via ssh for everything. The Gnome desktop was usable with local display/KB/mouse.

We had a brief power failure. Afterwards, I am no longer able to login to Gnome locally. I am still able to login via SSH, run containers, etc. I check logs in /var/log, and one error that jumps out is:

Jan 14 11:32:51 ubuntu /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2407]: (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-1): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
Jan 14 11:32:51 ubuntu /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2407]: (EE) NVIDIA(G0): Failing initialization of X screen
Jan 14 11:32:51 ubuntu /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2407]: (II) UnloadModule: “nvidia”

I tried a few obvious things to address this, but don’t want to go to hell and back on this issue, as I primarily run headless.
Any thoughts on this error and how to correct would be appreciated.

I may try an alternate VNC server approach to get a desktop working.

Have run Ubuntu Linux forever, never seen an error like this.
Kind Regards
William

2

Hi,
Here are some suggestions for the common issues:

1. Performance

Please run the below command before benchmarking deep learning use case:

$ sudo nvpmodel -m 0
$ sudo jetson_clocks

2. Installation

Installation guide of deep learning frameworks on Jetson:

3. Tutorial

Startup deep learning tutorial:

4. Report issue

If these suggestions don’t help and you want to report an issue to us, please attach the model, command/step, and the customized app (if any) with us to reproduce locally.

Thanks!

3

Thank you for your response. If you read my post I am able to run deep learning frameworks in containers. Hence I can run headless, possibly and just forget about solving this. Most enterprise environments work like this… I realize the Orin is NOT meant to be used in this capacity.

My issue is related to the a graphics driver failure with the Nvidia Orin AGX 64.

This has been experienced by others described at this link: No Display after upgrading to Jetpack 6.1

This is show-stopper for Jetpack 6.1 on the Orin. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a fix for this.
Thanks again for your efforts,
Kind regards,
William

5

Hi,
If you don’t need Ubunut desktop, you can consider use this rootfs:

Root File System — NVIDIA Jetson Linux Developer Guide 1 documentation

To base on the rootfs to developer your use-case.

6

I don’t know that following will help but it might give you some ideas.

Try a different displayport cable and/or if your monitor is hdmi, try a displayport monitor if you’ve got one.

systemctl status gdm.service
to see if gnome-display-manager is running.

dpkg -S gdm-x-session
shows that file is in the gdm3 package.
you could try
sudo apt reinstall gdm3

And looking on my agx orin 32gb
sudo apt search nvidia|grep -i display|grep installed

shows these two packages that you could reinstall
nvidia-l4t-display-kernel xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

Additionally, nvidia-l4t-wayland could be reinstalled.

lsmod|grep -i drm
to check the Direct Rendering Manager
kernel modules are installed.
Here is the results of that command on my agx orin:

nvidia_drm 94208 1

nvidia_modeset 1261568 6 nvidia_drm

tegra_drm 344064 12

nvhwpm 106496 4
mc_hwpm,tegra_drm,nvhost_nvdla,nvhost_pva

cec 53248 1 tegra_drm

drm_kms_helper 278528 4 tegra_drm,nvidia_drm

host1x 180224 9
host1x_nvhost,host1x_fence,tegra_se,nvgpu,tegra_drm,nvhost_nvdla,nvidia_drm,nvhost_pva,nvidia_modeset

drm 602112 18 drm_kms_helper,nvidia,tegra_drm,nvidia_drm

7

Thanks for your response. Based on the tests you mention, I am seeing that nvidia display drivers are loaded and DRM is also alive. Not sure what to do at this point, besides just use the system without a GUI. I can still SSH into the Orin, run containers, etc. These driver issues are a persistent issue for all of the Jetson products based on my read thru of the forums. In some cases, Jetson customers canceled projects due to this instability. The team assigned to assist with these issues never seems to have a solution.

9

Hi,
There is a known issue on Jetpack 6.1:

Jetson/L4T/r36.4.x patches - eLinux.org
[Orin NX 8G]display blank and with GPU error when resume

Would be great if you can apply the solution for a try.

11

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