Gnome FC5 Error

[Rick Stevens]

On Mon, 2006-05-01 at 21:44 -0600, karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
<major snippage...this is getting really long> 
> >> > That's really not normal.  The last time I saw that sort of error was
> >> > when the user's ~/.gnome* directories got whacked.
> >>
> >> I started having problems with the KDE panels, plus the background image
> >> wouldn't change. I removed kdesktoprc and that solved both issues.
> >
> > Both the gnome-terminal and the KDE panels?
> 
> No, apparently the panel problem persists. I'm able to run gnome-terminal
> without a hitch in KDE, but the KDE panels are locked up. No text-tips, no
> highlighting when mouse-over happens, nothing... It's pretty unstable right
> now... Other issues have popped up I'll have to document later and see how
> things go for solutions.

Hmmmm.  This is fully updated, right?

> >> >> I'm wondering if this is why gnome-panel dies, too, after gnome-terminal
> >> >> fails to come up. I've CTRL-ALT F1 and logged in as root and killed
> >> >> gnome-panel with no success. It starts back up, as it should, but
> >> >> doesn't get displayed in X.
> >> >
> >> > Probably.
> >>
> >> I'll give gnome a re-try after removing .gnome2 (?) Could gconf.d have any
> >> issues?
> >
> > Well, it could if you saved a weird session.  Try deleting the
> > ~/.gconfd/saved-state file for the user in question, log in as that user
> > and save the session.
> 
> I'm the only user on this system. You know, I shouldn't have to remove that
> file, except that gnome auto-saves and I can't find an option to check to undo
> that 'feature'... I'm bugged with gnome in that it's no where near as
> customizable as it used to be.

You should squawk it to the Gnome people.  They've already changed a
number of things due to complaints.  Gnome's just as customizable as it
ever was, there just isn't the super-simple GUI stuff to do it anymore.
However, to turn automatic session save off, go to

System->Preferences->More Preferences->Sessions

Uncheck "Automatically save changes to sessions" and check "Ask on
logout".

> > BTW, you had mentioned earlier that you didn't know how to save a
> > session when you wanted to.  The command is "gnome-session-save".  It's
> > not on the menus as it once was.  You can "gnome-session-save --gui" and
> > it'll pop up a dialog box regarding the state of the save.
> 
> That would be nice sometimes, but not if I save bogus sessions WITHOUT knowing
> I'm doing it, just by exiting.
> 
> >
> >> >> This is a show-stopper for me. I can't use FC5 without gnome-terminal
> >> >> and other gnome apps. I have specific programming needs at work which
> >> >> gnome-terminal meets flawlessly, when working. konsole is a poor
> >> >> substitute, but can be used. xterm is preferrable but I've not learned
> >> >> how to control CTRL-H vs DEL, etc.
> >> >
> >> > CTRL-H -> DEL is simple, "stty erase <press del key>"
> >>
> >> Yes, that doesn't work... It's not that part of controlling Xterm that's a
> >> problem. I run a program on login. I'd just like NOT to have to do that...
> >> It's a minor issue, but having to run it everytime is annoying.
> >
> > I can grok that.  Of course, you could add something to the bash login
> > (or whatever shell you're using) to determine if you're in a gnome-term
> > or regular xterm and tweak things accordingly.
> 
> The issue is knowing which term I'm using when I ssh or telnet to an AIX
> server at work. That's the rub... Our business app, a very fast, clean
> green-screen app, uses smoke and mirrors to look a bit 'windowy' with line
> characters, etc. Since it's not ncurses, the emulation has to be exact. We've
> been WY50 for centuries (okay, not that long) and I made the switch to
> 'vt100/ansi' like emulators, and I had to twiddle around with the termtype
> settings to get xterms to work in a DBMS-specific terminal type.

Ah.  Well, if you're in gnome-terminal, there is an environment
variable, $COLORTERM that's set.  In other words, in just an xterm,
$TERM will be set to "xterm" and $COLORTERM won't be defined.  In gnome-
terminal, $TERM will be "xterm" and $COLORTERM will be "gnome-terminal".

> >> >> I hope this solveable Fedora folks listening? I'm on too many lists and
> >> >> don't need another one, so don't plan to cross-post this to a fedora
> >> list.
> >> >
> >> > I don't recall, but was this an upgrade or a fresh install?  I now have
> >> > two machines up on FC5, an Athlon-64 laptop with ATI graphics and an
> >> > Athlon with nVidia (the nvidia thing was a right bitch to get working)
> >> > but neither exhibit that problem.  Note that they were both fresh
> >> > installs--not upgrades.  The laptop/ATI seems quite stable, the
> >> > Athlon/nVidia hasn't been up long enough nor flogged hard enough for me
> >> > to determine its stability yet.  It's running washing machine tests
> >> > right now and I should know more tomorrow.
> >>
> >> Tomorrow never comes, but let us know. This was a fresh install. I prefer
> >> fresh installs, however usually save off the subdirectories in my home
> >> directory, such as docs, media, pics, palm, etc.
> >
> > Yup.  Actually, due to some weirdness I inflicted on it, my machine ate
> > the LVM config and I had to start over.
> >
> > I will warn people wanting to use the nVidia drivers...before you even
> > start, make sure you have the following RPMs installed:
> >
> > 	kernel-devel OR the kernel source itself
> > 	xorg-x11-server-sdk
> > 	pkgconfig
> >
> > Also be aware that there are some, uhm, "issues" with SELinux and the
> > nVidia driver.  They don't set the contexts correctly--even if you
> > run the installer with "--force-selinux=yes".  I haven't built up the
> > correct changes yet, but until you set them correctly you have to run in
> > permissive mode.
> 
> Also, it's nice to use ATI cards as they come closer to working with dual head.

Once the stability checks are done on the Athlon, I'll get to work on
the dual-head nature of the beast (the nVidia chipset supports it).  My
laptop's ATI chipset says it supports dual head, but I'm not sure I
believe it...there's the external monitor port on the back, but I think
it simply mirrors what's on the main screen when it's enabled.  Worth a
try, I guess.

> Man this thread has been all over the place... I get confused writing back and
> I started the dang thing.

It has, indeed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        God is real...........unless declared integer or long       -
----------------------------------------------------------------------