Re: Very Nasty Gnome bug

[Michael Rogers <m rogers cs ucl ac uk>]

Vidiot wrote:
> 
> While attempting to reset GNOME so that it doesn't use that damn X cursor, gnome
> managed to screw itself royally.

Actually, it sounds like you screwed it royally by deleting your config
files. But carry on.  :)
 
> In order to see if the dredded X cursor was caused by a gnome config problem,
> I removed all of my home .gnome* directories.  That wasn't it.  Guess it must
> be an enlightment thing, so I'll have to blow away the .enlightenment
> directory next.  After reconfiguring the panel to put back the stuff that was
> removed :-(, I got out of gnome because of other stuff I was working on.
> When I restarted X, gnome complained about another panel running and did I
> still want to start it.  I said no.  Bad choice.  Now I had no panel at all.
> OK, so I'll just get out of gnome and restart it.
> 
> Here comes the gnome configuration fuckup...  if you have no panel, you have
> no way to log out of gnome.  No menu option with the middle or right buttons.
> No place at all in which the user can get out of gnome.  Oops, dumb, real
> dumb.  The default configuration of gnome MUST have another way to get out
> if the panel is not there, or a menu option to restart the panel.  Either
> way, the user is fucked.

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace should kill your X server in an emergency. However,
if you still have the Gnome root menu it's not an emergency yet. Pull up
a new terminal and type "save-session --kill". This tells the Gnome
session manager to tidy everything up and exit. It's the same command
that the Log Out menu option uses.

BTW, to solve your X cursor problem, first try a different Enlightenment
theme and see if that helps.

> If there is a way to get out (without doing ctl-alt-F1 and killing the jobs),
> I couldn't find it.  That means newbies to gnome aren't going to know how to
> either.  I'm a newbie to gnome and its many problems.

I agree, this should be documented if it isn't already. These are the
things newbies want to know - how to save yourself in an emergency,
without making things worse by pulling the plug out of the wall...
 
> I'm almost ready to spend the time getting OpenWindows working again.

Wow, it's serious.  :)

> The main reason why...  I can't configure the desktop the way I want when it starts.
> With olvwm, I could tell it, via a couple of files, to start certain
> applications and position them in a particular virtual area of the desktop
> and exactly where within that virtual area. Yes, you are supposed to be able
> to tell gnome to remember the locations when you log out of gnome.  I've done
> the Remember States->All Attributes for each of the applications, and did a
> save current setup when logging out.  But when I restart gnome, all of the
> applications pile into virtual area 0 and place themselves top center.  Not
> only were the applications not put back in the virtual area from whence they
> came, they weren't even placed in the right area of the virtual area.  This
> feature just plain does not work.

You might want to try a different window manager. Has anyone else got
this feature working with E and multiple desktop areas?

> If a gnome programmer has gotten it to work,
> I'd sure like to know how and I'm sure every other user of gnome would like
> to know as well.

I'm working on a simple Gnome window manager which will remember window
positions. Any offers of help gladly received.  :)


Michael Rogers