LMDE BREAKAGES - tracking TESTING

[GeneC]

Will we be seeing a new spin of LMDE Gnome edition after Gnome 3 is finally settled and stable? I know its just 2 months since one came out, but this change is breaking a lot of things.

Very good point.
There is also a lot of Gnome 2 stuff left behind that is now useless, and not sure what all of it can be safely deleted.

[zerozero]

Will we be seeing a new spin of LMDE Gnome edition after Gnome 3 is finally settled and stable? I know its just 2 months since one came out, but this change is breaking a lot of things.

it all depends of your definition of breakage: gnome-shell is a new desktop, a lot of things have changed, some of the things that we were used to in gnome2.x are not there anymore, but new ones were introduced;

- now, if you didn't dist-upgrade as you should, than yes, probably you have a broken system, but that is something that you have to tell us, so that we can help you.

[mockturtl]

Will we be seeing a new spin of LMDE Gnome edition after Gnome 3 is finally settled and stable? I know its just 2 months since one came out, but this change is breaking a lot of things.

Check out the Lisa RC. GTK+ 3.2 is in the ubuntu oneiric repos, but hasn't made it out of debian experimental yet.

I'm guessing a KDE spin of LMDE is next on the roadmap, and curious to see whether Mate will eventually break off. I'm sure you'll see a new update pack in the coming weeks. Remember tracking testing is risky!

Try avant-window-navigator; it's not a perfect replacement for the bottom panel, but I think it's a little more comfortable to use than the hotspot corner.

[narendra.d]

- now, if you didn't dist-upgrade as you should, than yes, probably you have a broken system, but that is something that you have to tell us, so that we can help you.

Thanks zero. Yes, I do have a broken system at the moment in terms of it not having a desktop/WM, probably ever Xorg.
This is what I did.
I wanted a fall back before dist-upgrading to Gnome 3, so installed XFCE4. Didn't look carefully what it was removing, but ended up with a system without a desktop. Later, did do a dist-update as well, but still no desktop. I think XFCE removed quite a lot of things relating to Xorg/Xserver.
Am not good with command line, so can't trouble shoot on my own. Will need a lot of handholding on this, preferably clear commands from terminal.

I have a LMDE 64 bit on a AMD Desktop and have left most things as default as they came. Other than a few apps installed everything is as it came in the default install. No PPA's or changes to the sources list. I don't have a direct connection to the internet and what I have is a slow connection using a mobile phone which i used to access using network manager. Without a desktop, I can't connect. I am accessing this forum from Ubuntu installed as multiboot on the same system.

Any help will be appreciated.

[mockturtl]

- now, if you didn't dist-upgrade as you should, than yes, probably you have a broken system, but that is something that you have to tell us, so that we can help you.

Thanks zero. Yes, I do have a broken system at the moment in terms of it not having a desktop/WM, probably ever Xorg.
This is what I did.
I wanted a fall back before dist-upgrading to Gnome 3, so installed XFCE4. Didn't look carefully what it was removing, but ended up with a system without a desktop. Later, did do a dist-update as well, but still no desktop. I think XFCE removed quite a lot of things relating to Xorg/Xserver.

Don't do that. I had the same problem.

apt removed xorg based on dependency precedence -- temporarily comment out the mint repos (/etc/apt/sources.list), or increase the o=Debian pin-priority to 700 (/etc/apt/preferences). You should be able to reinstall xorg and get your desktop back.
viewtopic.php?f=198&t=67502&start=1440#p494030

I don't have a direct connection to the internet and what I have is a slow connection using a mobile phone which i used to access using network manager. Without a desktop, I can't connect.

This a separate problem. If you can find one, a wired connection will just work from the console.

[narendra.d]

Wow, that looks like it is something that might work. If I can a way to connect to the internet.

Thanks for those links. I am sure I can get this to work.

[viking777]

@narendra.d

You say,

I don't have a direct connection to the internet and what I have is a slow connection using a mobile phone which i used to access using network manager. Without a desktop, I can't connect.

wvdial works from the terminal, and providing you know the correct settings to put into the conf file (/etc/wvdial.conf) it should be fully capable of connecting to your mobile phone without a desktop.

As an example this is what my wvdial looks like:

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init4 = AT+CSQ
Init5 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","three.co.uk"
Modem Type = USB Modem
Baud = 460800
Stupid Mode = 1
New PPPD = yes
Dial Command = ATDT
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
ISDN = 0
Phone = *99#
Password = ' '
Username = ' '

The bits in red are the bits you will definitely need to change, the bits in green are the bits you might need to change. You may need to search the internet for settings that are relevant to your phone provider in your country.

I would obviously install it and configure it whilst you have a desktop around and then switch to a virtual terminal (ctl/alt/f1) to try it without the desktop. You launch it with the simple command:

Code: Select all

wvdial

[viking777]

I think I should perhaps warn people that after this mornings update (13 Nov) I am no longer able to start gnome-shell. The update appeared to be quite OK until I rebooted and now all I get is fallback mode. If I try to start gnome-shell manually I get:

Code: Select all

gnome-shell --replace
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(gnome-shell:2895): Clutter-CRITICAL **: Unable to initialize Clutter: Unable to select the newly created GLX context
Window manager error: Unable to initialize Clutter.

The update consisted of:

Upgraded the following packages:
enchant (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libenchant1c2a (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libjasper1 (1.900.1-10) to 1.900.1-11
libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libmono-addins0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-1.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libyelp0 (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1
rsyslog (5.8.5-1) to 5.8.6-1
xnest (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-common (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xephyr (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xorg-core (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
yelp (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1

Installed the following packages:
libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0 (1.6.1-5)

[Elmacus]

@mockturtl
Thanks for links to solution, but i found out already by reading posts from my debian guru: ZEROZERO

Other strange things is font sizes, icons not matching Gnome3 etc etc.
Thunderbird was also gone, but easy fixed.
I guess when Clem is done in Ubuntuland, he will fix KDE and after that its LMDE turn to get the love, so my guess is late dec or jan before we see some design fixes.
I am good at fixing hardware/software failiures, but i truly suck at design stuff.

I did also install XFCE before i installed Gnome-shell, just in case, but Gnome-shell is working solid, no major breakage yet.
I suspect Gnome 3.2 is coming soon:
http://www.0d.be/debian/debian-gnome-3.2-status.html

Will install everything that dist-upgrade suggests and report if anything breaks.

[Elmacus]

@viking777
I also did these, but no errors yet.
I have Intel graphics (i5, 915) in my laptop, so its usually safe on these Xorg updates.

[GeneC]

I think I should perhaps warn people that after this mornings update (13 Nov) I am no longer able to start gnome-shell. The update appeared to be quite OK until I rebooted and now all I get is fallback mode. If I try to start gnome-shell manually I get:

Code: Select all

gnome-shell --replace
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(gnome-shell:2895): Clutter-CRITICAL **: Unable to initialize Clutter: Unable to select the newly created GLX context
Window manager error: Unable to initialize Clutter.

The update consisted of:

Upgraded the following packages:
enchant (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libenchant1c2a (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libjasper1 (1.900.1-10) to 1.900.1-11
libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libmono-addins0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-1.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libyelp0 (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1
rsyslog (5.8.5-1) to 5.8.6-1
xnest (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-common (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xephyr (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xorg-core (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
yelp (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1

Installed the following packages:
libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0 (1.6.1-5)

Viking

I dont know if you use Nvidia.
The packages above in red (xorg) completely removed all traces of Nvidia drivers on my system, a while back while tracking SID, may be the same for you. Ihad to re install Nvidia and all was fine.

[viking777]

I think I should perhaps warn people that after this mornings update (13 Nov) I am no longer able to start gnome-shell. The update appeared to be quite OK until I rebooted and now all I get is fallback mode. If I try to start gnome-shell manually I get:

Code: Select all

gnome-shell --replace
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(gnome-shell:2895): Clutter-CRITICAL **: Unable to initialize Clutter: Unable to select the newly created GLX context
Window manager error: Unable to initialize Clutter.

The update consisted of:

Upgraded the following packages:
enchant (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libenchant1c2a (1.6.0-4) to 1.6.0-6
libjasper1 (1.900.1-10) to 1.900.1-11
libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libmono-addins0.2-cil (0.6.1-2) to 0.6.2-1
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-1.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libwebkitgtk-3.0-common (1.4.2-2) to 1.6.1-5
libyelp0 (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1
rsyslog (5.8.5-1) to 5.8.6-1
xnest (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-common (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xephyr (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
xserver-xorg-core (2:1.11.1.901-2) to 2:1.11.1.902-1
yelp (3.2.1+dfsg-1) to 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1

Installed the following packages:
libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0 (1.6.1-5)

Viking

I dont know if you use Nvidia.
The packages above in red (xorg) completely removed all traces of Nvidia drivers on my system, a while back while tracking SID, may be the same for you. Ihad to re install Nvidia and all was fine.

That is interesting Gene. Yes I do use Nvidia. I decided to try it the other way around, I did the update without those 4 packages (since they were the obvious candidates) and I am just about to reboot and see if I still have gnome-shell. If I do then I will do yet another clonezilla image before trying out your solution. Thanks for the tip.

[GeneC]

Check synaptic.
You may find no traces of any Nvidia install.

From SID a few weeks back.
viewtopic.php?f=198&t=70230&start=300#p484367

---------------------------------------------------

Yes, the same just happened to me with todays updates in Testing.
Xorg updates removed all traces of Nvidia.
I had to reinstall Nvidia.
All is fine.

We may find several xorg updates to testing in the next few weeks will do the same, if my experiences in SID are a correct measure.
Just be aware that you will have to reinstall Nvidia each time.

[zerozero]

this is my history.log from today

Start-Date: 2011-11-13 12:19:08
Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade
Install: libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0:amd64 (1.6.1-5, automatic), libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0:amd64 (1.6.1-5, automatic), gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-3.0:amd64 (1.6.1-5, automatic)
Upgrade: libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil:amd64 (0.6.1-2, 0.6.2-1), libyelp0:amd64 (3.2.1+dfsg-1, 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1), enchant:amd64 (1.6.0-4, 1.6.0-6), xserver-xorg-core:amd64 (1.11.1.901-2, 1.11.1.902-1), xserver-common:amd64 (1.11.1.901-2, 1.11.1.902-1), libwebkitgtk-1.0-common:amd64 (1.4.2-2, 1.6.1-5), libmono-addins0.2-cil:amd64 (0.6.1-2, 0.6.2-1), libwebkitgtk-3.0-0:amd64 (1.4.2-2, 1.6.1-5), libenchant1c2a:amd64 (1.6.0-4, 1.6.0-6), xserver-xephyr:amd64 (1.11.1.901-2, 1.11.1.902-1), libjasper1:amd64 (1.900.1-10, 1.900.1-11), yelp:amd64 (3.2.1+dfsg-1, 3.2.1+dfsg-1+b1), libwebkitgtk-1.0-0:amd64 (1.4.2-2, 1.6.1-5), rsyslog:amd64 (5.8.5-1, 5.8.6-1), gir1.2-webkit-3.0:amd64 (1.4.2-2, 1.6.1-5), libwebkitgtk-3.0-common:amd64 (1.4.2-2, 1.6.1-5)
End-Date: 2011-11-13 12:19:54

and the shell loads with nvidia 209.03-1

[viking777]

Check synaptic.
You may find no traces of any Nvidia install.

From SID a few weeks back.
viewtopic.php?f=198&t=70230&start=300#p484367

---------------------------------------------------

Yes, the same just happened to me with todays updates in Testing.
Xorg updates removed all traces of Nvidia.
I had to reinstall Nvidia.
All is fine.

We may find several xorg updates to testing in the next few weeks will do the same, if my experiences in SID are a correct measure.
Just be aware that you will have to reinstall Nvidia each time.

I am going to try that right now Gene thanks. And I will bear it in mind for the future. What annoys me is why these faulty updates are handed 'down the line' so to speak. Somebody using debian experimantal repos is bound to have an Nvidia card and it must have broken it, but it gets passed on to Sid and it breaks your system, that is certainly as far as it should have gone without being rectified but no, it is handed to testing and it breaks my system. When do they do something about it?

It is not as if they can play the old "Nvidia is not open source" card because as far as I know gnome-shell doesn't work on open source drivers.

[viking777]

@Gene - You are 100% correct - had to reinstall nvidia driver now all is OK.
@zerozero - Reboot and see what happens.

Back to Clonezilla!

[narendra.d]

viking777 and others: Thanks for the help so far.
I have been able to connect thru a mobile phone using wvdial and was able to do a apt-get update.

Now, I need help to repair things. I had installed XFCE on a gnome system that caused this trouble, so I think this is what i need to do (correct me if I am wrong):
Remove XFCE and all other associated with it that borked my system. apt-get remove xfce4 removes just a small package?
Install Xorg/Xserver or any other packaged that got affected during the XFCE install. I don't use NVidia/any proprietary drivers so that hopefully should not be too much trouble.
Any other steps that may be necessary to get my desktop back.

How to go about it in simple terminal commands please. That would be helpfull

[zerozero]

viking, for safe measure, i installed the updates, shutdown the computer and power on again (there's a urban myth about cold boot and warm boot and i in these xorg/drivers/kernel related stuff prefer to play safe).

now, how did you installed in the first place nvidia? the debian way, with dkms or with smxi? might the difference be here? dunno

[viking777]

viking, for safe measure, i installed the updates, shutdown the computer and power on again (there's a urban myth about cold boot and warm boot and i in these xorg/drivers/kernel related stuff prefer to play safe).

now, how did you installed in the first place nvidia? the debian way, with dkms or with smxi? might the difference be here? dunno

I use sgfxi now, it is so easy. I used to do it manually but that is such a pain, and dkms only offers the latest stable drivers rather than the beta driver I am using to get gnome-shell going.

I guess we should ask GeneC the same question to confirm your theory or otherwise.

[zerozero]

Gene uses sgfxi (i stand corrected in the name ) as well afaik