Whenever Ubunbtu attempts to launch XServer i get this error:

"There already appears to be an X server running on display :0."

And it asks if it sould try restarting X or sugesting using a different console. If I tell it to restart, same error. What happeWhenever Ubunbtu attempts to launch XServer i get this error:

"There already appears to be an X server running on display :0."

And it asks if it sould try restarting X or sugesting using a different console. If I tell it to restart, same error. What happens is that a black X comes in the middle of the screen, and when I move the mouse it dies and I get the error.

I found a user with a similar error, except his was on a new install and was fixed by installing GDM. I have been running Ubuntu for a few days (after a clean install) when I got this error.

Before the error I has installed mail-notification, firefox-1.0 (from the Hoary reps, I changed back the sources list after), mozilla-mplayer, and the video codecs. MPlayer didnt work (I'm using a celeron processor) and xine died when I tried to view a quicktime movie in firefox. That about what I was doing the day and night before i started having the XServer problem.

I am able to kill the X server process and startx manually and it works ok, but returns me to the console on log-out from Gnome.

I have tried purging my recent installs. I have also re-installed gdm. Nothing has worked so far.

I have posted my XFree86 logs after this post.

Thanks for the help.

Last portion of first log: (only portion with warnings)

(II) Keyboard "Generic Keyboard" handled by legacy driver
(**) Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
(**) Configured Mouse: Protocol: "ImPS/2"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Configured Mouse: Core Pointer
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
(**) Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
(**) Configured Mouse: Emulate3Buttons, Emulate3Timeout: 50
(**) Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
(**) Configured Mouse: ZAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
(**) Configured Mouse: Buttons: 5
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Configured Mouse" (type: MOUSE)
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pmf" already registered at priority 0
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 0
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 1
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
(==) I810(0): Write-combining range (0xf8000000,0x4000000)
(II) I810(0): vgaHWGetIOBase: hwp->IOBase is 0x03d0, hwp->PIOOffset is 0x0000
(II) I810(0): Setting dot clock to 108.0 MHz [ 0x10 0x2 0x20 ] [ 18 4 2 ]
(II) I810(0): chose watermark 0x22418000: (tab.freq 108.0)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 0 at 0x00000000 (pgoffset 0)
(WW) I810(0): xf86AllocateGARTMemory: allocation of 1024 pages failed
(Cannot allocate memory)
(II) I810(0): No physical memory available for 4194304 bytes of DCACHE
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 1 at 0x00800000 (pgoffset 2048)
(II) I810(0): Adding 256 scanlines for pixmap caching
(II) I810(0): Allocated Scratch Memory
(**) I810(0): DPMS enabled
(==) I810(0): Direct rendering disabled
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 0
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 1
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 0 at 0x00000000 (pgoffset 0)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 1 at 0x00800000 (pgoffset 2048)
(II) I810(0): Setting dot clock to 108.0 MHz [ 0x10 0x2 0x20 ] [ 18 4 2 ]
(II) I810(0): chose watermark 0x22418000: (tab.freq 108.0)
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 0
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 1

This is a log for a sucessful start after killing X and restarting it from a console:

(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
(II) Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
(II) Initializing built-in extension XTEST
(II) Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
(II) Initializing built-in extension LBX
(II) Initializing built-in extension XC-APPGROUP
(II) Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
(II) Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
(II) Initializing built-in extension XFree86-Bigfont
(II) Initializing built-in extension RENDER
(II) Initializing built-in extension RANDR
(II) Keyboard "Generic Keyboard" handled by legacy driver
(**) Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
(**) Configured Mouse: Protocol: "ImPS/2"
(**) Option "CorePointer"
(**) Configured Mouse: Core Pointer
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
(**) Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
(**) Configured Mouse: Emulate3Buttons, Emulate3Timeout: 50
(**) Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
(**) Configured Mouse: ZAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
(**) Configured Mouse: Buttons: 5
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Configured Mouse" (type: MOUSE)
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pcf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".snf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.Z" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".bdf.gz" already registered at priority 0
Warning: font renderer for ".pmf" already registered at priority 0
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 2
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 3
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
(==) I810(0): Write-combining range (0xf8000000,0x4000000)
(II) I810(0): vgaHWGetIOBase: hwp->IOBase is 0x03d0, hwp->PIOOffset is 0x0000
(II) I810(0): Setting dot clock to 108.0 MHz [ 0x10 0x2 0x20 ] [ 18 4 2 ]
(II) I810(0): chose watermark 0x22418000: (tab.freq 108.0)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 2 at 0x00000000 (pgoffset 0)
(WW) I810(0): xf86AllocateGARTMemory: allocation of 1024 pages failed
(Cannot allocate memory)
(II) I810(0): No physical memory available for 4194304 bytes of DCACHE
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 3 at 0x00800000 (pgoffset 2048)
(II) I810(0): Adding 256 scanlines for pixmap caching
(II) I810(0): Allocated Scratch Memory
(**) I810(0): DPMS enabled
(==) I810(0): Direct rendering disabled
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
Could not init font path element unix/:7100, removing from list!
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 2
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 3
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 2 at 0x00000000 (pgoffset 0)
(II) I810(0): xf86BindGARTMemory: bind key 3 at 0x00800000 (pgoffset 2048)
(II) I810(0): Setting dot clock to 108.0 MHz [ 0x10 0x2 0x20 ] [ 18 4 2 ]
(II) I810(0): chose watermark 0x22418000: (tab.freq 108.0)
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 2
(II) I810(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 3

I fixed the problem by installing xserver-xorg, gdm and their dependencies from hoary.

Most people should use warty backports when possible. If using hoary is necessary, one should try pinning it.