Re: linux-image from backport cause debian hang on boot with gdm3 or takes more than 4 minute with lightdm

Seems to be the same issue as https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=898021 - Might want to read through that bug, though some of the entries on it are probably not that relevant.

It's all due to the kernel not having enough entropy for the RNG, which causes gdm3 or gnome to stall till the default entropy mechanisms provide enough entropy to the RNG for these tasks to continue. This seems to be present more often with machines using SSD's than physical hard drives, as they boot faster.

Installing haveged or rng-tools5 (which you decide is better depends on your system) is a known work-around.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2018 at 23:00, <luca.mp@gmx.com> wrote:

Dear backports maintainers,

I have Debian Stretch and linux-image-amd64 installed from backports
(4.18+98~bpo9+1), kernel 4.14+ is required by my wifi card Intel 9260.
After updating linux-image to backports versions (every versions is the
same) I have boot issues with:

GDM3 - graphical login do not appears, after entering a console (ALT+F2)
the system could reacts after a while and the graphical interface starts
or, if not, I can start in manually (sudo service gdm3 restart)

LIGHTDM - graphical interface always starts but it takes 5 minutes to
load the main Gnome interface

Booting with linux-image-amd64 from stable (4.9+80+deb9u6) is fine and
the system starts up in less than 1 minute, but of course the wifi card
Intel 9260 is not supported (removing this card do not helps with
booting issues on backports kernels).

For reasons I do not know installing the packaged haveged solve my issue
with GDM3 and Lightdm and the PC starts as usual. Hope this helps others
as it took me lot of time to find this solution and if anyone are more
informed about it please let me know

cheers

Luca Mina