LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-daem

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brjoon1021
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LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-daem

Post by brjoon1021 »

I just installed LMDE and then updated the packages. On reboot, I get an error message if I try to change the wallpaper or anything else related to the appearance of the desktop, plus the whole desktop, FF and toolbars looks kind of Windows 2000 since the update.

error is: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-daemon". Without Gnome settings manager running, some preferences may not take effect. This could indicate a problem with DBus, or a non-Gnome (e.g. KDE) setting manager may already be active and conflicting with the gnome settings manager.

Any ideas how to fix this ? I probably made a bad choice when answering one of those package manager update questions such as keeping or changing to developer's configuration file, etc...

Thanks,
b
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
viking777

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by viking777 »

Two options and two tips I can think of, nothing very scientific though.

1)Open Synaptic Package Manager and go to File/History and look or search through there for updates that relate to dbus or gnome-settings then locate those in the main window of Synaptic, right click them and mark for reinstallation.


2) As you have only just installed LMDE then presumably you haven't made too many changes to it - so install it again.

Tip 1) Download and learn how to use Clonezilla to create a backup disk image before you make any major changes to any installation. That way if it goes wrong you just roll back to where you started in the case of failures. Doesn't really help you just now though and with a fresh install it is not all that necessary as reinstalling amounts to the same thing.

Tip 2) If you do reinstall, you can save having to download all your updates again by making a copy of /var/cache/apt/archives somewhere safe then copying its contents back to the same location in your new install. You will need a root file manager or terminal to do this though.
orrebo
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Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by orrebo »

I have the exact same problem with themes.

I will test this later :)

Sent from my U8100 using Tapatalk
GeneC

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by GeneC »

Try going to startup applications
menu>preferences> startup applications. check to see if "gnome settings daemon helper" is still checked to startup on boot. :?:
brjoon1021
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Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:09 am

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by brjoon1021 »

Thanks guys. Still problem, though.

gnome setting helper is checked for startup.

Synaptic package changes only had gnome-core, nothing about helper or anything else like it. dbus had no entries in the synaptic history.

* I turned of the Gnome-settings daemon helper on a lark. No error, at least, now. I don't see any detrimental effect to having it off. I still think that the themes look different than when I first installed LMDE though. Can someone confirm that by turning the daemon off, rebooting and taking a look on a known good system ? Unless someone comes up with a fix, I am going to leave this daemon off because it doesn't seem to be needed for anything. I can change themes, settings just fine without it.

B
viking777

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by viking777 »

brjoon1021 wrote:Thanks guys. Still problem, though.

gnome setting helper is checked for startup.

Synaptic package changes only had gnome-core, nothing about helper or anything else like it. dbus had no entries in the synaptic history.

* I turned of the Gnome-settings daemon helper on a lark. No error, at least, now. I don't see any detrimental effect to having it off. I still think that the themes look different than when I first installed LMDE though. Can someone confirm that by turning the daemon off, rebooting and taking a look on a known good system ? Unless someone comes up with a fix, I am going to leave this daemon off because it doesn't seem to be needed for anything. I can change themes, settings just fine without it.

B
OK I just did that for you and I can see no immediately noticeable difference. I even changed wallpapers and although I got the same warning you did the wallpaper changed without problem. I am pretty sure that if you mess about long enough there will be something that doesn't work, but I am darned if I know what it is at the moment - looks to me like you found your own solution.

EDIT. This is what Synaptic has to say about gnome-settings-daemon:
This package contains the daemon which is responsible for setting the
various parameters of a GNOME session and the applications that run
under it. It handles the following kinds of settings:

* Keyboard: layout, accessibility options, shortcuts, media keys
* Clipboard management
* Theming: background, icons, GTK+ applications
* Cleanup of unused files
* Mouse: cursors, speed, accessibility options
* Startup of other daemons: screensaver, sound daemon
* Typing break

It also sets various application settings through X resources and
freedesktop.org XSETTINGS.
So if you notice any problems in any of those areas you will have an idea what it is all about - checked out sound on my system and it is fine.
quikquak

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by quikquak »

Me too had this problem once.
But after restarting everything was ok and until now it did not come up again.
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

It's just too bad this problem -- that started for me yesterday -- does not seem to magically disappear again... Tried reboot, tried switching it off/on in the auto-start apps, tried reïnstalling it...

What I do notice is in the Process Manager task list there is a process gnome-appearanc listed as Zombie and I cannot Terminate or Destroy it.

And when I try to start the gnome-settings-daemon in a terminal it does start (and gives me back the Mint Metal theme) but with the following error:

Code: Select all

~$ /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon
** (gnome-settings-daemon:3848): WARNING **: Invalid value for /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/rgba_order: 'rgba'
ravanhagen@packard-bell:~$ 
** (gnome-settings-daemon:3848): WARNING **: Grab failed for some keys, another application may already have access the them.
... Weird stuff like this keeps happening and I have the impression LMDE is not quite ready to be called stable :(
TBABill
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Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by TBABill »

RavanH wrote:Weird stuff like this keeps happening and I have the impression LMDE is not quite ready to be called stable :(
LMDE will never be stable, or of the stability of a stable Debian version. Since it is based on testing, many new files just dumped into the repos after Debian Squeeze (formerly Debian Testing until 2 days ago) became stable. One of those new files in testing may be the factor causing the difference on your machine.

If you want to test that theory you could reinstall but do NOT do any updates. Change all mentions of "testing" in your /etc/apt/sources.list to "squeeze" instead and you will have a Debian stable-based install, then run updates. If that works then you know something in the testing repos borks your gnome settings, at least till the cause is figured out.
viking777

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by viking777 »

There are threads on this topic in Launchpad. I read one suggested workround which you could try if you wish (it was a Ubuntu workround but it may work in LMDE as well). The fix was to edit the file /usr/share/gnome/autostart/gnome-settings-daemon.desktop in the following manner:

Change the line

Exec=/usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon

to this:

Exec=bash -c "sleep 2; /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon"

You will need a root text editor to do this (sudo gedit) and make a backup of the file before you mess with it.

I repeat that this is a Ubuntu fix not an LMDE one, and I cannot test it for you because I do not have the error anyway, so it is done at your own risk.

My other reading on this matter suggests it may have something to do with the proprietary Nvidia driver or possibly very fast drives (like solid state ones). If the above fix does not work for you, you can test the Nvidia theory (and it is only a theory) by renaming /etc/X11/xorg.conf to, for example, xorg.conf.old then rebooting. This will force the default Nouveau driver to start instead and you can see if that does anything. (Although you may think the Nouveau driver is worse than the original error :lol: )

Like I said I can't test any of this because I don't have the error.
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

And... hop! There is was again this morning. Out of the blue: same problem, same error.

TBAbill and viking777, thanks for the tips. I'm going to try editing in that Ubuntu fix and see if the problem comes back again before I decide to do a full reinstall.
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

Bah :( that 2 second timout is either not enough or it's not the way to go. Pumped it up to 4 seconds and see what happens for a while...

If not, I'll have to re-install ... or... i'll just have to live with this issue (that keeps popping up out of the blue once in a while)
amina

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by amina »

Not sure if this makes sense, maybe only coincidence, but let me share my observations.

I installed LMDE from the 201101 32 bit ISO and only did the 1-3 level updates (I am aware of the ongoing discussions about the correct method of updating LMDE and that general consensus is one should apply all "levels", but in the coming couple of weeks I need stability over all, and then I'll install all the updates).

I was experimenting with the video settings for a game and realized there is an update for xserver-xorg-video-intel. I installed only that update, it did not change any other packages. It only upgraded xserver-xorg-video-intel from 2:2.13.0-2 to 2:2.13.0-5.

As I was testing other things, I did several reboots and suspends in the coming two days. Things seemed a bit less stable to me and it happened for the first time that after one boot I received the exact same error message (both the GUI one and the terminal one) described in the first post. Next day I again received this error after resuming from suspend. Also had two GUI freezes in those two days so I decided to reinstall the old version 2:2.13.0-2.

I did this on the 3rd March and have been intensively rebooting and suspending since then to test. I have not received this error again (and no freezes either).

I checked and the 2:2.13.0-5 version is the official one on Squeeze as well so I do not think there was a problem with it but somehow my system does not seem to like it.
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

Hi amina, thanks for sharing here... Since I'm on a completely different graphics chipset, the only comparison I see is the use of suspend instead normal(re)boots... I use hybernation a lot if I'm working on a long project and I have the impression this problem pops up around those days.

Did anyone notice this?

NOTE: this is not a one-on-one correlation but I just have the impression this thing happens more when I'm using suspend and hybernate more...
amina

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by amina »

Just one more short remark on this:
I finally updated everything but xserver-xorg-video-intel and soon again received the same error after a suspend.
As terminal was complaining about "Invalid value for /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/rgba_order: 'rgba'" I set the corresponding value in gconf-editor to just 'rgb'.
The terminal message is gone for sure, and so far the error has not come up again (though I do not see how the two things could be related).
rufong

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by rufong »

amina wrote:As terminal was complaining about "Invalid value for /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/rgba_order: 'rgba'" I set the corresponding value in gconf-editor to just 'rgb'.
The terminal message is gone for sure, and so far the error has not come up again (though I do not see how the two things could be related).
i ran gconf-editor via terminal

Code: Select all

sudo gconf-editor
went through the tree to font_rendering, clicked on rgba_order, this came up under Long description:
The order of subpixel elements on an LCD screen;
only used when antialiasing is set to "rgba". Possible values are:
"rgb" for red on left (most common),
"bgr" for blue on left,
"vrgb" for red on top,
"vbgr" for red on bottom.
does that provide an explanation?

update 1: now i get the font_rendering error message if i try to run gnome-settings-daemon without sudo
i am unable to change my desktop theme.
i believe the source of my problem was installing 2.6.37-5.dmz.1-liquorix-686 via smxi and not making sure i updated my xorg or video driver.. bleh
amina

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by amina »

rufong, sorry, I do not understand what you did. Did you change the value from rgba to one of the possible values?
And your problem started after that??
For me, the problem seems to be gone, at least it never happened since my last post.
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

It strikes me as funny that - as rufong points out - that /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/rgba_order has a default value (rgba) that is not listed as a possible value (rgb/bgr/vrgb/vbgr) ...

I've changed the value to rgb no too so let's see if I run into this problem again some day :roll:
amina

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by amina »

Let us know after some time how it goes!

Maybe in the end we find that the actual solution is what the error message always suggested :D
RavanH

Re: LMDE: "unable to start settings manager "gnome-settings-

Post by RavanH »

amina wrote:Maybe in the end we find that the actual solution is what the error message always suggested :D
Hey, there would be a novelty! :wink:
Locked

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