Gnome-terminal settings won't stay

[Altoid]

Hello:

I'm running Mint 17 Cinnamon 32bit.
Something has happened (no idea how or why) but I am not able to make the terminal settings 'stick', so to speak.

For example:
Right click -> Show Menubar will work. But when I close it and open it again, the setting has not been saved, menu bar is not visible.

Edit -> Profiles -> Default Profile -> Edit
I set 'Use custom default terminal size' to 140 x 50 but on closing and opening again, it's back to 120 x 45.

There's the %gconf.xml file at ~ /.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/default but the settings don't change.
I tried editing the file but it does not work.

Would gnome-terminal be using another %gconf.xml file located somewhere else?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

A.

Edit: I tried using SPM to do a 'reisntall' (á la Windows) but with no luck.

[Cosmo.]

I tried editing the file but it does not work.

"Does not work" is not an information, which helps. What does it mean? You cannot save changes? Or the y do not get applied?

Possible cause can be a permission problem. To find that out do the following:
Mark the following command and press ctrl-c

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

open a terminal and press ctrl-shift-V
Mark the complete result inclusive the command with the mouse and press ctrl-shift-C
In the forum click the Code-button above the text box, than press ctrl-v.

Report in case, that there is no output.

[Altoid]

Good morning:

"Does not work" is not an information ...

Quite right.
Please excuse my lack of precision.

What does it mean? You cannot save changes? Or they do not get applied?

It meant that the changes were saved to the file but they did not get applied.

Possible cause can be a permission problem.

I see.

To find that out do the following ...

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find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

OK.
Here it is:

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groucho@groucho ~ $ find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f
/home/groucho/backup.log
find: ‘/home/groucho/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied
find: ‘/home/groucho/.gconf/apps/gnome-settings’: Permission denied

Yes, seems it 'is' a permission problem.
Never thought of that as I'm the only user/owner on this rig.
Why doesn't the 'Authenticate' pop-up show up on screen?

Thanks in advance.

A.

[Cosmo.]

Why doesn't the 'Authenticate' pop-up show up on screen?

I don't know, what you mean.

But I think, that the most important part for you is to solve the problem.
Her you go:
Mark the following command completely and make sure, that you do not miss any sign, than press ctrl-c

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find /home/$SUDO_USER ! -user $SUDO_USER -exec chown $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER '{}' \;

Open a terminal and enter

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sudo -i

and press the Enter-key; you get promped for your password, enter it.
Now still in the same terminal press ctrl-shift-V
Run this command and wait until it has finished.
Press twice ctrl-d
Immediately log off and back into your account.

[Altoid]

Hello again:

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Why doesn't the 'Authenticate' pop-up show up on screen?

I don't know, what you mean.

I am refering to the pop-up that says:
"Authentication is required to run the [whatever app requires privileges]" and asks for your password.
I'm the only user, so shouldn't it be that I 'own' the rig?.

Mark the following command completely and make sure, that you do not miss any sign, than press ctrl-c

Code: Select all

find /home/$SUDO_USER ! -user $SUDO_USER -exec chown $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER '{}' \;

Open a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

sudo -i

and press the Enter-key; you get promped for your password, enter it.
Now still in the same terminal press ctrl-shift-V
Run this command and wait until it has finished.
Press twice ctrl-d
Immediately log off and back into your account.

Done.
Unfortunately, the problem persists.

I did ...

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

... again.

But this time I got no output at all, just the command prompt again.

Thanks in advance.

A.

[Cosmo.]

The last part of your post means:
The wrong ownership has been resolved.
The cause of your problem is somewhere else.
One word more about the wrong ownership problem:
Such problem happens more or less regularly, if a user makes the mistake, to run a graphical program (this includes also the terminal via sudo command. As a general rule, which has no exception at all: Never run a graphical with sudo (if elevated rights are needed at all), but only via gksudo. Otherwise you create the problem anew.

Why doesn't the 'Authenticate' pop-up show up on screen?

I don't know, what you mean.

I am refering to the pop-up that says:
"Authentication is required to run the [whatever app requires privileges]" and asks for your password.
I'm the only user, so shouldn't it be that I 'own' the rig?.

Why do you think, that the password request should show? As long as you start a usual application normally (= without gksudo), this will not happen and why should it happen. With "usual application" I mean all but system relevant programs like the package manager, driver manager and such.

For digging into the question, where the origin of your problem is founded, create a new user account and check the behavior of the terminal settings there.

[Altoid]

Hello again:

The last part of your post means:
The wrong ownership has been resolved.
The cause of your problem is somewhere else.

I see ...

One word more ...:
... happens more or less regularly, if a user makes the mistake, to run a graphical program (this includes also the terminal via sudo command.

Didn't know that.

.. general rule, which has no exception at all: Never run a graphical with sudo (if elevated rights are needed at all), but only via gksudo. Otherwise you create the problem anew.

Didn't know that either.

Why do you think, that the password request should show?

Because it being an 'ownership' problem I assumed it could be resolved with the rights.
I was obviously mistaking 'ownership' with 'elevated rights' (which you need whether you 'own' or not).

As long as you start a usual application normally (= without gksudo), this will not happen and why should it happen. With "usual application" I mean all but system relevant programs like the package manager, driver manager and such.

I see ...
I must have done that at some time or another.
I'm sure of it.

For digging into the question ... ... create a new user account and check the behavior of the terminal settings there.

The new account does not have this problem.

BTW: I see that the folder /.config/dconf has two 'user' files:

user 16.1 kB -> modified today.
and
user.4ZFE9X 8.2 kB -> modified Sun 13 Dec 2015

Anything else I can do?

Thanks in advance.

A.

[Cosmo.]

Go into the folder .gconf/apps and rename the subfolder gnome-terminal to gnome-terminal bck. No promise, that this will solve the problem; this is just the most likely culprit.

[Altoid]

Hello again:

Go into the folder .gconf/apps and rename the subfolder gnome-terminal to gnome-terminal bck.
...just the most likely culprit.

Done.
But it did not work.

Being just the Terminal and seeing that there are other packages that can be installed in lieu of it, I decided to try the M$ route.
Not my favourite way out, mind you.

In any case, I brought up Synaptic and did a 'complete removal' and restarted Mint.
I then opened up Synaptic and reinstalled 'gnome-terminal' and while at it realised that, curiously enough, the package 'gnome-terminal-data' had not been removed. I had expected it to be removed ('complete removal') as it would seem that it is linked to Terminal and nothing else (?)

Now it works correctly and to my surprise, when I brought it up, it opened up with the settings I had not been able to make 'stick'.
ie: use custom default terminal size - 150 * 50.

Maybe the package 'gnome-terminal-data' holds some configuration information?

Hoping not to impose, when you have a minute, could you briefly explain ...

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

and

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find /home/$SUDO_USER ! -user $SUDO_USER -exec chown $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER '{}' \;

Thanks so much for your input.

A.

[Cosmo.]

I admit, that I have no idea, what has happened. Your test with the second account proved, that this was an account problem.
So let us take simply the fact, that you was able to solve your problem.

Regarding my 2 commands:

The first one looks inside of your home, whether there are files and folders, which do not belong to your account. This should not happen, otherwise you made the mistake with sudo as already explained. This command can get executed with user permissions.

The second command searches for all files and folders with wrong ownership inside of our home and corrects them.
When you run the first command after the second another time, the empty output showed, that no objects with wrong ownership has been found - as expected. The second command needs root permissions, therefore the command sudo -i, which you applied before, created a root-shell.

[Altoid]

Hello again:

I admit, that I have no idea, what has happened.

You have a universe more ideas than I have.

Your test with the second account proved, that this was an account problem.

Quite so.

So let us take simply the fact, that you was able to solve your problem.

OK.

Regarding my 2 commands:
The first one looks inside of your home, whether there are files and folders, which do not belong to your account. This should not happen, otherwise you made the mistake with sudo as already explained. This command can get executed with user permissions.

The second command searches for all files and folders with wrong ownership inside of our home and corrects them.
When you run the first command after the second another time, the empty output showed, that no objects with wrong ownership has been found - as expected. The second command needs root permissions, therefore the command sudo -i, which you applied before, created a root-shell.

I see.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to help me and answer my questions.

Cheers,

A.

[Cosmo.]

You're welcome.

[rickrich]

I had the same thing happen using VirtualBox, FreeBSD 11.1 guest. Nothing I could do to save the gnome-terminal settings under FreeBSD 11.1 except to rmuser (BSD) the user and then adduser (BSD) using a *different UID* !!!

When I did this, then I could save again.

Woohoo! (haunting noise)

[Cosmo.]

Reviving a 2 years old thread brings no advantage for anybody - and it violates the forum rules.