[K12OSN] IceWM, Gnome & Nautilus FRUSTRATIONS

David Trask dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
Mon May 2 14:01:33 UTC 2005


"Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn at redhat.com> on
Monday, May 2, 2005 at 9:21 AM +0000 wrote:
>One machine: "wLAB" serves as a classroom server AND
>it exports /home out to the other classroom servers
>(because it has a SCSI drive).  The other classroom
>servers "rLAB" and "mLAB" used to work just fine
>mounting /home from "wLAB" when it was a Red Hat 8
>box.  BUT after the fresh install of FC3, users can
>log in, but they get NOTHING... only a blank desktop. 
>None of the apps work ... nothing.

This is suspect to another issue....you may have bigger issues than simple
desktop woes....but let's troubleshoot....
>
>
>No LDAP. Just exporting /home and mounting via NFS. 
>This used to work!  What happened with FC3?

Don't blame FC3....what you describe works fine...and no differently for
the most part.  On one of the classroom servers...if you run   mount -av 
does everything check out?  If you get any access errors....then this is
problem #1.  If not...let's proceed....
>

Next question....if you log on as a user on the main server do you get a
desktop there?  Ok....so you have FC3 on all the servers?  wLAB, rLAB, and
mLAB?  If not...that may be the first problem as the contents of /etc/skel
on the FC3 machine will be quite different than the RH8 machines.  Am I
correct in assuming these are all K12LTSP machines serving to terminals? 
Have you actually populated the home directories?  Are you using old data?
 Did you copy the home dirs to another server or whatever...do the upgrade
and then move it back?  If so you need to overwrite the stale data from
/etc/skel in the users home dir (profile info).  In other words when you
created the users did the user creation script actually copy the contents
of /etc/skel to the users home dirs?  First....with all users logged
off.....delete the contents of the /tmp directory.  I've found that often
stale entries in this directory can screw things up.  Next...verify that
home is indeed mounted on the other servers....on the main server copy
something unique into a users home directory and then go to the other
servers and see if you can see that unique item (filename).  If not...then
home from the main server is not mounted.  If so....on the main server
pick a user....we'll call him jdoe for the purpose of this example:

cd /etc/skel
cp -Rf * /home/jdoe
cp -Rf .* /home/jdoe

this copies all the hidden and non-hidden files in /etc/skel to the users
home directory.  Then...log on as that user at the server....see if you
get a desktop....if so....move out to the terminals connected to that
server....desktop?  If so move out to a classroom server and so forth
verifying as you go.

Report your findings and we'll go from there.

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100




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