I found the reason for this behavior. It is a bug in teh upstart script
/etc/init/gdm.conf
Inside the script there is a test which dm should be started. If not gdm
it exits, but it exits with EXIT_STATUS=1, which then triggers the start
of the failsafe session.
I append a patch for gdm.conf which
Here is the companion patch for /etc/init/kdm.conf
** Attachment added: "kdm.conf.patch"
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/36567706/kdm.conf.patch
--
[Karmic] X server starts randomly in failsafe when starting from cold boot
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/459639
You received this bug notificatio
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 491483 ***
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/491483
Yes, that's true, and the solution is the same
** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 491483
Since failsafe-x was enabled in karmic it starts if gdm is disabled and kdm
is used. (low graphics mode