Possible kde44 conflict breaking gnome - need help finding out

["David C. Rankin" <drankinatty suddenlinkmail com>]

Listmates,

  I need your help figuring out what is killing my gnome 2.2 install on openSuSE
11.0 (x86_64). There appears to be some part of kde4 that was installed that is
breaking gnome's ability to run the gnome setting daemon, and many common
widgets (like gvolume-control, tomboy, etc.) crash immediately upon startup. For
example, the volume control in gnome is completely broken, the error for the
volume crash offers to "Reload" the volume for you, but when you click "Reload"
the volume control immediately crashes again. (sound works, you just can't
change the volume)

  I have gone back and collected all the symptoms I can in hope somebody can
help me connect-the-dots and figure out how to fix gnome. (I have saved the
xsession-error file is somebody can make heads or tails out of them) Gnome was
working perfectly immediately before kde44 install. After the install, it looks
like it has lost the ability to set any of its appearance setting (it can't even
change the background wallpaper). What is very strange is that the fonts are
huge even though they are set at the same 8pt as in kde. They look like they are
12-14pt without the gnome settings daemon running.

  Opposite to what is broken in gnome, all the gtk setting work fine in kde44.
You gnome appearance setting like theme, colors, font size, font, etc. all are
properly displayed with gimp, firefox, etc. run in kde, but all are completely
broken in Gnome??? Go figure.

  I don't know how this could be happening. Gnome settings are supposed to work
in gnome -- you could expect problems in kde -- but not the opposite.

  The symptoms and broken apps in gnome are:

    - tomboy crashes on start and every attempted reload.

    - volume control crashes on start and every attempt to reload.

    - gnome settings daemon crashes and will not run.

    - all theme elements (font-size, colors, background, etc..) cannot be changed.
      (helluva deal when you can't even change the background)

    - compiz - blackscreens. You can spin the cube, but the cube faces are black
      (probably related to not being able to set the background)


  Here is what happens when I try to start gnome:

    Immediately after typing in my username/password and selecting gnome, the
following error is received during gnome start:
	
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.

  Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work
  correctly.
  The last error message was:
    Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)
    GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Then, the first thing you notice on login - No background (the splash screen
is left as the bg). The Lower and Upper Panels are Present and work, it just
looks strange against the splash background.

    So I open Gnome Control Panel. It opens just fine, but like everything else
is completely bland without any settings applied. I then try and click
appearance to see if I can adjust any settings.

    Immediately Upon Clicking Appearance, the following occurs:

    (1) the proper window color and decorations appear for ~1 second, then:

    (2) gnome-settings-daemon crash. Error:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Unable to start the settings manager 'gnome-settings-daemon'.
  Without the GNOME settings manager running, some preferences may not take
  effect. This could indicate a problem with Bonobo, or a non-GNOME (e.g. KDE)
  settings manager may already be active and conflicting with the GNOME
  settings manager.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The error is repeatable every time. The appearance daemon will ultimately
open after ~15-20 seconds, however it is non-functional. Meaning you can click
the button, but nothing changes.


The Fonts:

    In Gnome, the fonts are 4-5 points larger in appearance than they are set.
Currently I have them set at 8pt and they look more like 12 or 14pt. Probably
some xdpy stuff that the gnome-settings-daemon does?

    Compiz will start, but it starts with a Black Screen. The only way to get
your desktop back is the switch back to metacity. (probably related)


Log Files - .xsession-errors:

22:15 alchemy:~> cat .xsession-errors
    /etc/X11/xim: Checking whether an input method should be started.
    /etc/X11/xim: user environment variable LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    sourcing /etc/sysconfig/language to get the value of INPUT_METHOD
    INPUT_METHOD is not set or empty (no user selected input method).
    Trying to start a default input method for the locale en_US.UTF-8 ...
    There is no default input method for the current locale.
    Warning:          No symbols defined for <SYRQ> (keycode 92)
    <snip all other keys>
    Warning:          No symbols defined for <I7F> (keycode 255)

SESSION_MANAGER=local/alchemy:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/22313,unix/alchemy:/tmp/.ICE-unix/22313
    ** Message: another SSH agent is running at: /tmp/ssh-bNbV22313/agent.22313
    Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file
    /home/david/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms: Failed to open file
    '/home/david/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms': No such file or directory
    INFO (main:38) No docking station detected, exiting...

    <snip printer config>

    Unknown parameter CoastingSpeedThreshold
    Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension
    seahorse nautilus module initialized
    Initializing nautilus-sound-converter extension

    ERROR: Caught a segmentation fault while loading plugin file:
    /usr/lib64/gstreamer-0.10/libgstlv2.so

(Note: I have downgraded and upgraded gstreamer to see if that woule help -- it
didn't make a difference)

    Please either:
    - remove it and restart.
    - run with --gst-disable-segtrap and debug.
    Could not initialize GStreamer: Error re-scanning registry , child terminated by
    signal

(Did that too -- no help)

    (gnome-panel:22520): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to
    allocate widget with width -2 and height 27

    (gpk-update-icon:22536): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Window manager warning: Log level 8: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
    (object)' failed

    (parcellite:22530): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (bluetooth-applet:22525): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (gnome-panel:22520): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Window manager warning: Log level 8: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
    (object)' failed

    (gpk-update-icon:22536): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (parcellite:22530): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (bluetooth-applet:22525): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Failed to load gnome-fs-desktop: Icon 'gnome-fs-desktop' not present in theme

    (gnome-panel:22520): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Failed to load gnome-fs-desktop: Icon 'gnome-fs-desktop' not present in theme

    (parcellite:22530): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Window manager warning: Log level 8: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
    (object)' failed

    (bluetooth-applet:22525): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (gpk-update-icon:22536): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (gnome-panel:22520): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Failed to load gnome-fs-desktop: Icon 'gnome-fs-desktop' not present in theme
    Window manager warning: Log level 8: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
    (object)' failed

    (gnome-panel:22520): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Failed to load gnome-fs-desktop: Icon 'gnome-fs-desktop' not present in theme

    (gpk-update-icon:22536): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (bluetooth-applet:22525): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

    (parcellite:22530): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
    `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed


    I need help figuring out what in kde44 is causing this problems. I know the
gnome settings daemon crash is related to a lot of it, but why should that kill
volume control? What else can I post that might help? I would really like to get
gnome back up and running. What are your thoughts on how to fix this? What tests
to try? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. The full links follow:

    Command line output from attemptng to start and use the crashed apps:
    (199k)
    http://www.3111skyline.com/download/bugs/gnome/comp/cli-test.txt.bz2


    strace of gnome appearance
    (65k)
    http://www.3111skyline.com/download/bugs/gnome/cli-gnome-app-prop.strace.txt


    volume control cli output
    (186k)

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/bugs/gnome/comp/cli-gvolumecont.debug.txt.bz2

    xsession-errors gstreamer segfault
    (9k)
    http://www.3111skyline.com/download/bugs/gnome/xseserr0215.txt

    I will swear that the root cause of the errors is the kde install, but I may
be wrong, it may be a gnome part that broke. That where I need you smart guys
help. I can't figure out what broke :p

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com