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Lately, I keep getting booted into low graphics mode (using Intel, I don't have a xorg.conf) and when viewing startup errors it says "Fatal server error: Server is already active for display 0"

This forces me to manually do "sudo gdm" from console, which works and loads my desktop.

This is my boot-up log (http://wrttn.in/676285) as you can see in bold, GDM seems to start once OK, then a FAIL... why is it starting twice?

I've purged and re-downloaded/re-installed GDM and no luck same error... also tried LightDM but that doesn't load at all.

Any ideas?

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Your problem is that GDM is starting twice from the console. GDM is a heavier login display manager than LightDM (which is why it's called LightDM), so it might solve your problem of GDM starting twice from the console if at the console you ran:

sudo start lightdm

Even if you are using GDM by default you still have LightDM installed, so this command should work.

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Thanks, I switched to lightdm, it didn't work at first so I purged and reinstalled it, now lightdm shows... i guess GDM has a bug. –  TKing Jun 13 '13 at 17:56
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