Re: off topic; HELP! I cannot create a terminal window in gnome.

[Zoran Rilak <zoran rilak gmail com>]

Hi Ralph,

  I assume the answer to your question might be of some use to less experienced GNOME users / new developers as well, so I am CCing it to the list.

  Most likely you have set the custom command to something that returns immediately and forgot to set the option to keep the terminal window open when the command exits.  Unless I am grossly mistaken, you can try the following command:

$ gconftool-2 --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/use_custom_command --type=bool false

to reset your setting on that key.  Of course, in your current predicament, you would either switch to a text console using Ctrl-Alt-F1 (getting back to X via Alt-F7), or else hit Alt-F2 and paste the command there.  It may help, but the main issue is about where gnome-terminal keeps its preferences.  Those are stored (as are many other applications' preferences) in GConf tree, which is akin to Windows registry: a central repository for small bits of data that together make up your desktop configuration.  Given your inclination towards poking around I am reluctant to tell you about GConf editing tool, but I guess you can not be stopped either way ;)  so might as well let you in on it sooner rather than later:  gconf-editor is its name.  If the above command does not solve your issue with the terminal, launch gconf-editor (either via menus or Alt-F2), navigate to /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default and play around with the switches.  All changes take place immediately so do be careful.

  GConf is an integral part of GNOME.  All desktop developers must at least be aware of its existence. :)

Cheers,
Zoran

On Sun, 2008-05-25 at 20:26 -0600, Ralph Boland wrote:
>     Sorry for not being a development issue unless you consider modifying gnome
>     so those stupid enough to do what  I have done can't do it anymore.
>     
>     What I did was experiment with terminal window profiles to learn how useful
>     they were.  I somehow set up my only terminal window profile to close
>     immediately upon opening.  Thus I cannot open any terminal windows.
>     Since I use them all the time this is a major pain.  For now I just
>     created a new user for myself (on ubuntu) but this is not acceptable.
>     This has happened on my work machine so I need my original name
>     back.
>     
>     
> _______________________________________________
> desktop-devel-list mailing list
> desktop-devel-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list