John Jason Jordan | 24 Nov 05:26
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Lost metacity and gnome panel

I have a brand new installation of Debian testing amd64. After spending
a day and a half installing apps and configuring stuff, I rebooted.
After logging in I had no window manager and no gnome panel.

Faced with a blank screen, I can open a terminal and start them both
manually, and then everything is fine. 

I created a new user. Logging in as the new user I have the window
manager and gnome panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my
config files.

I copied my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files to the new user's
home folder, then logged back in as the new user. The new user still
has metacity and gnome-panel. I also deleted
my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files so they would be recreated
on logging in. They were recreated as expected, but I still had no
metacity or gnome-panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my
configuration, but not in .gconf, .gnome2 or .gnome2_private.

Using Synaptic I did a complete removal of gnome-panel and metacity and
all their dependencies and related files. Then I reinstalled them.
After logging out and back in again I still have no metacity or
gnome-panel.

I have spent hours googling trying to figure out exactly what script or
config file launches metacity and gnome-panel after a user logs in.
That information must be a state secret.

[Frustration_Mode:on]
I sure hope someone can offer some suggestions. Else I'll have no
choice but to give up on Gnome and go to KDE or something else. I just
can't spend the rest of my life trying to fix Gnome.
[Frustration_mode:off]
Mark Phillips | 24 Nov 06:23
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Re: Lost metacity and gnome panel

John,
 
I had a similar situation a while back, but with my 32 bit Debian testing. Not sure if any if my investigations will help, but here are two email threads that may give you some direction.
 
http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20090817.130411.d7e52ab0.en.html

http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20090621.001933.dc58f1d7.en.html
 
Sorry, it is late here and I have to be gone early in the am, or I would have done a better job of summarizing the information for you....
 
Mark

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:26 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj <at> comcast.net> wrote:
I have a brand new installation of Debian testing amd64. After spending
a day and a half installing apps and configuring stuff, I rebooted.
After logging in I had no window manager and no gnome panel.

Faced with a blank screen, I can open a terminal and start them both
manually, and then everything is fine.

I created a new user. Logging in as the new user I have the window
manager and gnome panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my
config files.

I copied my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files to the new user's
home folder, then logged back in as the new user. The new user still
has metacity and gnome-panel. I also deleted
my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files so they would be recreated
on logging in. They were recreated as expected, but I still had no
metacity or gnome-panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my
configuration, but not in .gconf, .gnome2 or .gnome2_private.

Using Synaptic I did a complete removal of gnome-panel and metacity and
all their dependencies and related files. Then I reinstalled them.
After logging out and back in again I still have no metacity or
gnome-panel.

I have spent hours googling trying to figure out exactly what script or
config file launches metacity and gnome-panel after a user logs in.
That information must be a state secret.

[Frustration_Mode:on]
I sure hope someone can offer some suggestions. Else I'll have no
choice but to give up on Gnome and go to KDE or something else. I just
can't spend the rest of my life trying to fix Gnome.
[Frustration_mode:off]
_______________________________________________
gnome-list mailing list
gnome-list <at> gnome.org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list

_______________________________________________
gnome-list mailing list
gnome-list <at> gnome.org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list
John Jason Jordan | 24 Nov 07:48
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Re: Lost metacity and gnome panel

Mark,

Thanks for the links to the e-mails. You have given me a great many
clues to follow up on, which I will do tomorrow or the next day.

Aside: I am also a member of PLUG -- except my PLUG is the Portland
Linux Unix Group, aka the Portland Linux Users Group. We are an
amorphous assemblage of people, but there are ~600 people subscribed to
our e-list, including people from all over the world. Our perennially
out of date web site is:

http://www.pdxlinux.org/

It is fun to run into another PLUGger. :)

On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:23:34 -0700
Mark Phillips <mark <at> phillipsmarketing.biz> dijo:


> John, > > I had a similar situation a while back, but with my 32 bit Debian testing. > Not sure if any if my investigations will help, but here are two email > threads that may give you some direction. > > http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20090817.130411.d7e52ab0.en.html > > http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20090621.001933.dc58f1d7.en.html > > Sorry, it is late here and I have to be gone early in the am, or I would > have done a better job of summarizing the information for you.... > > Mark > > On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:26 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj <at> comcast.net>wrote: > > > I have a brand new installation of Debian testing amd64. After spending > > a day and a half installing apps and configuring stuff, I rebooted. > > After logging in I had no window manager and no gnome panel. > > > > Faced with a blank screen, I can open a terminal and start them both > > manually, and then everything is fine. > > > > I created a new user. Logging in as the new user I have the window > > manager and gnome panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my > > config files. > > > > I copied my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files to the new user's > > home folder, then logged back in as the new user. The new user still > > has metacity and gnome-panel. I also deleted > > my .gnome2, .gnome2_private and .gconf files so they would be recreated > > on logging in. They were recreated as expected, but I still had no > > metacity or gnome-panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my > > configuration, but not in .gconf, .gnome2 or .gnome2_private. > > > > Using Synaptic I did a complete removal of gnome-panel and metacity and > > all their dependencies and related files. Then I reinstalled them. > > After logging out and back in again I still have no metacity or > > gnome-panel. > > > > I have spent hours googling trying to figure out exactly what script or > > config file launches metacity and gnome-panel after a user logs in. > > That information must be a state secret. > > > > [Frustration_Mode:on] > > I sure hope someone can offer some suggestions. Else I'll have no > > choice but to give up on Gnome and go to KDE or something else. I just > > can't spend the rest of my life trying to fix Gnome. > > [Frustration_mode:off] > > _______________________________________________ > > gnome-list mailing list > > gnome-list <at> gnome.org > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list > >
Klistvud | 24 Nov 10:54
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Re: Lost metacity and gnome panel

Dne, 24. 11. 2009 05:26:10 je John Jason Jordan napisal(a):


> I created a new user. Logging in as the new user I have the window > manager and gnome panel. Conclusion: The problem is somewhere in my > config files.
Not necessarily. Just a while ago I hade a weird keymap problem on a Lenny box which looked as if it was due to user configurations: newly created users behaved differently than some older user accounts, which, in turn, behaved differently than the default account created during Lenny installation. In the end, however, the culprit turned out to be a missing line in xorg.conf! Anyway, here's how I would proceed (but your situation may be different of course): I'd create myself a new account, keeping the old non-working account as backup only. Then, instead of copying over the config files, I'd just manually reconfigure my new account to my liking. I know, it can be tedious, but ... Then, at my leisure, I'd copy over a config file from the old account to the new one and test it thoroughly (wait for a week or so, log in and out, preferably even reboot a couple of times). After thorough testing, I'd copy over another config file. And so on. Hopefully, you only have a couple of config files complex enough to be worth copying over; as for the rest, you may be better off recreating them from scratch. P.S. Your ~/.config subtree is also worth checking out (besides .gconf, .gconfd,.gnome, .gnome2 and so on) -- -- Regards, Klistvud Certifiable Loonix User #481801 http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com

Gmane