This is pop!os 20.04 running under X.
According to this issue https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/-/issues/222 once upon a time gnome kept open two gnome shells, one for the user and one for the greeter (running under user gdm). Then it was changed so that after login the greeter's gnome shell was 'torn down'.
But I have a pop!os 20.04 where this isn't happening, and the gdm gnome-shell grows to use lots of resident ram (e.g. > 3GB after five days of uptime).
I can sudo kill -9 the process, and there seems to be no adverse effect. Howeve, these messages then appear repeatedly:
journalctl _UID=110
gnome-shell-x11.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 31.
Sep 14 08:13:48 indigo systemd[1392]: Stopped GNOME Shell on X11.
Sep 14 08:13:48 indigo systemd[1392]: Starting GNOME Shell on X11...
Sep 14 08:15:18 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: Killing process 36912 (gnome-shell) with signal SIGKILL.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: Killing process 36917 (dconf worker) with signal SIGKILL.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: Failed to start GNOME Shell on X11.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: gnome-shell-x11.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 32.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: Stopped GNOME Shell on X11.
Sep 14 08:15:23 indigo systemd[1392]: Starting GNOME Shell on X11...
I have the same version of pop running in a VM, also under X11, and in the VM there are no processes running under gdm at ll.
This is what I have on my host pop!os (my real desktop): Note there is another gnome-shell process running under gdm; there are always two. Only one of them becomes a run-away consumer of resident memory (and I killed that one).
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
gdm 1392 1 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /lib/systemd/systemd --user
gdm 1399 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 (sd-pam)
gdm 1444 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/appimagelauncherd
gdm 1445 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/appimagelauncherfs
gdm 1449 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no --log-target=journal
gdm 1451 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs
gdm 1458 1379 0 Sep13 tty1 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session gnome-session --autostart /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
gdm 1460 1458 0 Sep13 tty1 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg vt1 -displayfd 3 -auth /run/user/110/gdm/Xauthority -background none -noreset -keeptty -verbose 3
gdm 1463 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
gdm 1485 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfsd
gdm 1514 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfsd-fuse /run/user/110/gvfs -f -o big_writes
gdm 1522 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
gdm 1528 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
gdm 1532 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/goa-daemon
gdm 1608 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/goa-identity-service
gdm 1643 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
gdm 1651 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
gdm 1656 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
gdm 1698 1458 0 Sep13 tty1 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gnome-session-binary --systemd --autostart /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart
gdm 1745 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/at-spi-bus-launcher
gdm 1753 1745 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --config-file=/usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf --nofork --print-address 3
gdm 1811 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gnome-session-ctl --monitor
gdm 1824 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent -D -a /run/user/110/openssh_agent
gdm 1829 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gnome-session-binary --systemd-service --session=gnome-login
gdm 1955 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/at-spi2-registryd --use-gnome-session
gdm 1962 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/xdg-permission-store
gdm 1997 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-a11y-settings
gdm 1998 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-color
gdm 1999 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-keyboard
gdm 2001 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-media-keys
gdm 2003 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-power
gdm 2005 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-print-notifications
gdm 2009 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-rfkill
gdm 2010 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-smartcard
gdm 2011 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-sound
gdm 2014 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-usb-protection
gdm 2016 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-wacom
gdm 2020 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-wwan
gdm 2022 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-xsettings
gdm 2058 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gsd-printer
gdm 2269 1392 0 Sep13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/dconf-service
gdm 37465 1392 0 08:18 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/gnome-shell
On my virtual instance:
$ ps -f -u gdm
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
so this is weird.
I don't know how to work out why I have basically an entire gdm session running.
