Blank user accounts selection login screen (not the black ttyl login screen)

ubuntu version: 22.04.3

NOTE: I do not want to reinstall Ubuntu. Any possible fix without reinstallation would be appreciated.

I am able to LogIn as I usually do even though the screen is blank by blindly entering the passwo5rd and hitting enter. So, the display manager works. Could it be plymouth, but as i understand, the greeting screen comes after plymouth hands it over to display manager. I'm not sure buts the answer is somewhere between these two. I never touched any grub related things or attempt any cosmetic changes, all i did was as mentioned below:

I had no audio in my Ubuntu desktop, so I was trying to fix the issue by Google searching possible solutions and did the following :

1. Removed and reinstalled alsa
2. Removed and reinstalled pipewire

Turns out gdm3 and ubuntu-desktop (among others) was a dependency and were removed along with those packages.

Things I've tried:

• sudo apt update
• sudo apt dist-upgrade
• purged and reinstalled gdm3, gnome, ubuntu-desktop and ubuntu-desktop-minimal
• purged and reinstalled pipewire.
• reinstalled jammy version of all the dependent packages to pipewire. sudo apt instal --reinstall gdm3/jammy ubuntu-desktop/jammy gnome/jammy gnome-... etc.

After reboot still get a blank gray screen which is the user accounts selection login screen but there is no user accounts visible, I can move the mouse around and that's it.

Switched to terminal screen with CTRL+ALT+F5 and then I restarted gdm3 which takes me back to the accounts login screen but I still don't see any user accounts, it's just a blank gray screen. I can move mouse the cursor around.

User Status

Display Manager Status

Looking the the display-manager logs, there's an error:

GLib: g_propagate_error: assertion 'src != NULL' failed

sudo getent passwd:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:bin/bashdaemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologinbin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologinsys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologinsync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/syncgames:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologinman:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologinlp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologinmail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologinnews:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologinuucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologinproxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologinwww-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologinbackup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologinlist:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologinirc:x:39:39:ircd:/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologingnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologinnobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinsystemd-network:x:100:102:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologinsystemd-resolve:x:101:103:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologinsystemd-timesync:x:102:104:systemd Time Synchronization,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologinmessagebus:x:103:106::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinsyslog:x:104:110::/home/syslog:/usr/sbin/nologin_apt:x:105:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologintss:x:106:111:TPM software stack,,,:/var/lib/tpm:/bin/falseuuidd:x:107:114::/run/uuidd:/usr/sbin/nologintcpdump:x:108:115::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinavahi-autoipd:x:109:116:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/usr/sbin/nologinusbmux:x:110:46:usbmux daemon,,,:/var/lib/usbmux:/usr/sbin/nologinrtkit:x:111:117:RealtimeKit,,,:/proc:/usr/sbin/nologindnsmasq:x:112:65534:dnsmasq,,,:/var/lib/misc:/usr/sbin/nologincups-pk-helper:x:113:120:user for cups-pk-helper service,,,:/home/cups-pk-helper:/usr/sbin/nologinspeech-dispatcher:x:114:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,:/run/speech-dispatcher:/bin/falseavahi:x:115:121:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/usr/sbin/nologinkernoops:x:116:65534:Kernel Oops Tracking Daemon,,,:/:/usr/sbin/nologinsaned:x:117:123::/var/lib/saned:/usr/sbin/nologinnm-openvpn:x:118:124:NetworkManager OpenVPN,,,:/var/lib/openvpn/chroot:/usr/sbin/nologinhplip:x:119:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/run/hplip:/bin/falsewhoopsie:x:120:125::/nonexistent:/bin/falsecolord:x:121:126:colord colour management daemon,,,:/var/lib/colord:/usr/sbin/nologingeoclue:x:122:127::/var/lib/geoclue:/usr/sbin/nologinpulse:x:123:128:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/usr/sbin/nologingnome-initial-setup:x:124:65534::/run/gnome-initial-setup/:/bin/falsecocdingarcade:x:1000:1000:Web Dev:/home/cocdingarcade:/usr/bin/bashsystemd-coredump:x:999:999:systemd Core Dumper:/:/usr/sbin/nologingitlog:x:126:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologingitdaemon:x:127:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin_flatpak:x:128:134:Flatpak system-wide installation helper,,,:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinstunnel4:x:129:135::/var/run/stunnel4:/usr/sbin/nologinopenvpn:x:130:136::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinpostgres:x:131:137:PostgreSQL administrator,,,:/var/lib/postgresql:/bin/bashmysql:x:132:138:MySQL Server,,,:/nonexistent:/bin/falsebind:x:133:139::/var/cache/bind:/usr/sbin/nologinejabberd:x:1001:1002:,,,:/home/ejabberd:/bin/bashrunit-log:x:998:997:Created by dh-sysuser for runit:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin_runit-log:x:997:996:Created by dh-sysuser for runit:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologinmongodb:x:134:65534::/home/mongodb:/usr/sbin/nologinsnapd-range-524288-root:x:524288:524288::/nonexistent:/usr/bin/falsesnap_daemon:x:584788:584788::/nonexistent:/usr/bin/falsefwupd-refresh:x:135:142:fwupd-refresh user,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologinsystemd-oom:x:125:130:systemd Userspace OOM Killer,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologinsssd:x:136:143:SSSD system user,,,:/var/lib/sss:/usr/sbin/nologinollama:x:996:995::/usr/share/ollama:/bin/falsegdm:x:137:144:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm3:/bin/falsetest:x:1002:1003:,,,:/home/test:/bin/bashtest1:x:1003:1004:,,,:/home/test1:/bin/bash