LMDE BREAKAGES - (Tracking SID!) -{CLOSED}

[TheGreatSudoku]

There is something borked with Gnome-Panel that goes under the radar (should be in listbugs as a GRAVE/SERIOUS bug). I confirmed this by creating a new user account and logging into gnome. Same thing. Nautilus draws the desktop but the gnome-panel never apepars. Kill -HUP the gnome-panel process just brings up a blank and unusable gnome-panel. I may just re-install when the respin comes out, assuming this new respin actually HAS reiserFS support. ext4 corrupted on my home partition uber-fast and I am NOT using that excuse for a file-system again.

LifeInTheGrey, did you ever file a bug report against gnome/gnome-panel? This needs to be brought to the maintainer's attention.

[NeoMint]

I second that. My latest sid, with Gnone, upgrade also has no gnome panel, and the computers fans are kicking on high(CPU?), where it's usually silent.

What to do? What to do? Rolling up my sleeves.

ADD: It is suggested that the sid libgtk2.0-0 is the problem. However, my attempts at pulling the testing version, libgtk2.0-0=2.24.4-3, into sid, would remove half (or a bunch) of my system, so that's a big NO! Anyone know how to do it?

Meanwhile, I am using KDE , Fluxbox, or other DM, till a fix comes through. HELP!!! How do we do the workaround, for Gnome, till then?

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=633864

[TheGreatSudoku]

I e-mailed 633864@bugs.debian.org , adding that the severity should be bumped higher as the loss of Gnome-Panel makes Gnome itself unusable. I'd encourage anyone else affected to do the same

[TheGreatSudoku]

Users on the #633864 Mailing list are reporting that the following patch fixes the libgtk issue

http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/commit ... a9fa5df973

My problem is, I am unfamiliar with patching. I stare at the code and go "uhh that's nice, how do I apply it"?"

[craigevil]

Gnome has always broken quite often in sid, which is why Debian derivatives like sidux/aptosid and others have never had a Gnome release.

[TheGreatSudoku]

Gnome has always broken quite often in sid, which is why Debian derivatives like sidux/aptosid and others have never had a Gnome release.

Which is one of many reasons why I don't use aptosid. Granted, It has more to do with their snobby devs and their archaic reliance on cli tools, but not having freedom of choice certainly factors into the equation as well.

[NeoMint]

OK, I'll bite. Why should KDE break less than gnome, with sid upgrades?

Thanks for any info about getting gnome fixed. Don't we have any workarounds(for running gnome, and not alternatives), till the patch comes through?

I've noted that one can

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killall gnome-panel

several times, and free up your CPU to do your work, but still with no gnome-panel. Alt-F2, gnome-terminal, and Alt-Tab, are your friends.

[NeoMint]

=================SOLUTION ====================

In trying all manner of default settings, I have found setting panel (Right-click) Properties > Background > None (Use System Theme), fixes (gnome-panel gone; CPU high) problem!

Then you may restart (quicker) by going to console, Ctrl-Alt-F1, and as root,

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service gdm3 restart

I had "solid color", and with transparency (slider) on, which may be at issue.

Yep, CPU usage of gnome-panel and related, have tamed down! So here's a fix, for now. The panel is up!

[TheGreatSudoku]

=================SOLUTION ====================

In trying all manner of default settings, I have found setting panel (Right-click) Properties > Background > None (Use System Theme), fixes (gnome-panel gone; CPU high) problem!

I'm a bit confused by this solution. My problem is that gnome-panel never appears. Right-clicking the panel to get into it's properties is dependent upon the panel actually showing up in the first place. Is there a way to set panel properties (i.e. via editing gconf, or through Gnome's control center) that can be done when the panel isn't showing up at all, and hence can't be right-clicked?

[wayne128]

This is from Debian forum,
perhaps try it and see if it works for your installation

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 15#p383098

[NeoMint]

=================SOLUTION ====================

In trying all manner of default settings, I have found setting panel (Right-click) Properties > Background > None (Use System Theme), fixes (gnome-panel gone; CPU high) problem!

I'm a bit confused by this solution. My problem is that gnome-panel never appears. Right-clicking the panel to get into it's properties is dependent upon the panel actually showing up in the first place. Is there a way to set panel properties (i.e. via editing gconf, or through Gnome's control center) that can be done when the panel isn't showing up at all, and hence can't be right-clicked?

I would restart (gdm3, over and over); using the method I posted above, until I could temporarily get the gnome-panel (that soon would crash). Good point. Sometimes, it does not show at all. For me, a few times, would get it going; so you can change settings.

I've found, once I turned it back on, to "Solid color"/transparency, and the CPU for gnome-panel spikes-up (till the fix comes through), as viewed in the gnome-system-monitor, if you then turn it back to "None", it doesn't change to no transparency, until you kill gnome-panel. Then, it will re-spawn, and work correctly (With panel, and no CPU spiking, but no transparency), as set to "None".

[wayne128]

Gnome has always broken quite often in sid, which is why Debian derivatives like sidux/aptosid and others have never had a Gnome release.

Interesting note.

I should clone another Debian Sid partition.

How could I change from Debian sid gnome ( fully upgraded) to Debian sid kde?

Edit:

Got it done, so thought to record here for my future reference.

Two places provided me with the procedure
1. craigevil's Debian forum post

by craigevil » 2011-07-19 20:36
If you go the aptosid route, install aptosid, install Debian kernel, remove aptosid from sources.list, remove aptosid cruft, be happy running Debian sid. This would be the quickest route to having a running Debian sid KDE system.

2. Tech Patterns forum post by

techAdmin
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Posted: Apr 23, 11, 9:01
I've done this, it's not as easy as you think.

Step one, remove all aptosid packages,

:: Code ::
apt-get purge $(dpkg -l | grep -E '(aptosid|sidux)' | awk '{print $2}' )


Then remove the apt sources for aptosid.

Then change the sid sources to testing, or, alternately, add testing sources and pin the system to testing in apt preferences file.

This latter option lets you install individual packages from sid while retaining a testing base.

Now you want to downgrade all the core packages to testing versions.

What happens over time is that you will get consistent apt-get dist-upgrade failures that are resolved by installing explicitly the packages that caused the break, often things like mysql, any server, any core utilities, etc.

I found it took about one year before the previously sid system was comfortably testing, though you could force it by looping through all the packages and reinstalling them from testing.

So my steps are
3. Download aptosid kde iso, prepare USB flash, install in one partition.
4. Boot to aptosid installation
5. In order to add Debian kernel, I install synaptic
apt-get install synaptic
then search for Linux-image
from there I found Debian kernel. Select it, install it.
6. Just to be sure I do update-grub so that Debian kernel is in grub menu
7. Reboot, select to run from Debian kernel
8. Use synaptic, search for Linux-image and found the aptosid kernel, select all, uninstall them
9. apt-get purge $(dpkg -l | grep -E '(aptosid|sidux)' | awk '{print $2}' )
10. remove aptosid sources.list

OK now I have Debian Sid Kde.. for play-learning

[TheGreatSudoku]

I'm glad the bug FINALLY got marked as serious. No thanks to the inept and apathetic package maintainer who obviously could care less, but cheers to #debian-gnome and Stefano for FINALLY giving this bug the severity it deserves so that apt-listbugs now catches it.

[TheGreatSudoku]

=================SOLUTION ====================

In trying all manner of default settings, I have found setting panel (Right-click) Properties > Background > None (Use System Theme), fixes (gnome-panel gone; CPU high) problem!

Oddly enough, after downgrading to the gtk/gdk packages from testing mentioned in this thread, I decided to try your sugguestion, only to find that my gnome-panel was already set to "None (Use System Theme).

Even after the downgrade I was still running into the issue of the login screen never appearing (I oddly get a console cursor in the upper left of my screen with a moveable mouse, but no login screen. I even ditched GDM in favor of KDM and the behavior still happens more times than not.

So my Gnome issue is now fixed. When the welcome screen decides to show up I can get into a working Gnome session just fine. My problem now is with the welcome screen not wanting to show up.

[wayne128]

This bug is fixed, with libgtk2.0-0: version 2.24.5-3

Read Debian forum below
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 1f#p383630

from my Debian Sid gnome,
root@debian:/home/wayne# apt-cache policy libgtk2.0-0
libgtk2.0-0:
Installed: 2.24.5-3
Candidate: 2.24.5-3
Version table:
*** 2.24.5-3 0
500 http://ftp.jp.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[NeoMint]

I hadn't had any issue, since my workaround. Until, just a minute ago, gnome-panel disappeared, but not with any CPU surge. A simple kill re-spawned it.

When I do, turn back "on" Solid/transparency, windows would only be movable with a huge delay. Back to "none" and they freed up. Something to do with composite, I guess.

libgtk2.0-0 is coming through now; for me, and my sid, amd64. 183 upgraded!

UPDATE: Works without panel delay, and with Solid=transparency now. Solved/patched.

[Roken]

Anyone using burg instead of grub is likely to find that grub has taken over the bootloader after today's updates owing to a grub update. I understand that removing grub is not recommended right now, though the fix is simple. To restore burg, boot and enter the following in a terminal:

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sudo burg-install --alt /dev/sda

Replace /dev/sda with wherever your bootloader is installed.

[wayne128]

OK now I have Debian Sid Kde..

DU and running on kernel3
~$ uname -r
3.0.0-1-686-pae

[NeoMint]

OK, preferences are just that and this question is not to start a holy war, of your favorite DM. Yet, dear sid experts:

Why is KDE said to be easier to manage, in sid, meaning historically and likely, as we go along? Why is gnome more problematic, with sid? Why is ones, unstable progression, better or worse than the other. I'm asking humbly, and to learn. I am not trying to make a point. I'm learning how to manage sid, without wasting too much time, doing so. I bow, to your expert experience.

Plus, whats my absolute best Internet resource, for better learning to manage sid?

[TheGreatSudoku]

My latest upgrade nuisance:
When I attempt to upgrade the dummy package gnome-utils it wants to REMOVE the package gnome-control-center. This is quite confusing to me as all the packages gnome-utils references have themselves been updated on my system. And I use the everything-in-one-place gnome-control-center quite often, and don't want it removed form my system. Is this worthy of filing a bug report for? Technically speaking a dummy package should not CONFLICT with anything, right?

Also, has anyone upgraded gedit to version 3.0.6-2? It has a serious bug listed which seems to be based on gedit's plugin system being overhauled and making that transition from Sid to Testing a smooth one. I can't make heads or tails of if the bug affects functionality or not, so I've been hesitant to upgrade.