I have been using gnome with enlightenment ever since I upgraded to 6.1, and occasionally (but not often), gnome spontaneously shutdown and log me out, switches the screen to text mode, and then flips back to a graphical gdm screen for logging in. I don't think the runlevel has changed, since I don't see the "shutting down..." and "starting..." messages. I can't figure out any common events that lead to these exits. I have seen the following in my /var/log/messages when this happens (user and machine names changed for security reasons): Dec 18 18:41:36 host gnome-name-server[665]: input condition is: 0x10, exiting Dec 18 18:41:38 host PAM_pwdb[585]: (gdm) session closed for user user1 Dec 18 18:41:39 host PAM_pwdb[585]: (gdm) session closed for user user1 Also, in my .xsession-errors: SESSION_MANAGER=local/host:/tmp/.ICE-unix/628,tcp/host:1025 Audio File Library: error 5: Unix read failed esd: Esound sound daemon already running or stale UNIX socket /tmp/.esd/socket This socket already exists indicating esd is already running. Exiting... subshell.c: couldn't get terminal settings: Inappropriate ioctl for device rm: cannot remove `/home/user1/.gnome//gmc-epbBJn': No such file or directory Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). Gdk-ERROR **: X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown). The first few lines about ESD is always there (is this a bug? I don't seem to have any problems, though), but the rest are only present when gnome spontaneously exits. I am using the latest gnome packages from the errata. This happens before and after I upgraded the gnome packages. I don't know what else to report. If anyone wants more info, I'll be pleased to provide them. Just let me know what I have to do to collect the info.
This is most likely your X server crashing. Can you look in /var/gdm/:0.log for any relevant error messages?
Possibly a hardware problem or X server bug.
I don't know if it's a hardware problem...but I know this never happened before I switched to 6.1 (but then again, I was using only fvwm2). I can't see /var/gdm/:0.log now because it only has the normal messages. I'll have to wait for it to die again so I can look at the message.