The "Permission denied" error suggests the apparmor profile, or whatever else lightdm is doing special to the guest session, is the reason for this failure.
Can you check in syslog if you have a DENIED message from apparmor? ** Also affects: lightdm (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: unity8 (Ubuntu) Status: New => Incomplete -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to unity8 in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1644237 Title: unity8 fails to start as guest user Status in lightdm package in Ubuntu: New Status in unity8 package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Status in unity8-desktop-session package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: This is shown in unity8.log: [2016-11-23 15:59:25.820868] mirserver: Starting ERROR: /build/mir-JY573_/mir-0.24.1+16.10.20160928/src/server/graphics/default_configuration.cpp(132): Throw in function mir::DefaultServerConfiguration::the_graphics_platform()::<lambda()> Dynamic exception type: boost::exception_detail::clone_impl<boost::exception_detail::error_info_injector<std::runtime_error> > std::exception::what: Exception while creating graphics platform ERROR: /build/mir-JY573_/mir-0.24.1+16.10.20160928/src/server/graphics/nested/mir_client_host_connection.cpp(245): Throw in function mir::graphics::nested::MirClientHostConnection::MirClientHostConnection(const string&, const string&, const std::shared_ptr<mir::shell::HostLifecycleEventListener>&) Dynamic exception type: boost::exception_detail::clone_impl<boost::exception_detail::error_info_injector<std::runtime_error> > std::exception::what: Nested Mir Platform Connection Error: Failed to connect to server socket: Permission denied [2016-11-23:15:59:35.820] ERROR: QMirServer - Mir failed to start initctl: No such variable: UNITY_MIR_SOCKET running current zesty, but I had the same problem on yakkety too. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/1644237/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp