Re: Starting a gnome-shell session using .desktop file?

[Giovanni Campagna <scampa giovanni gmail com>]

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Mads Villadsen <maxx krakoa dk> wrote:
> For many months now I have had a symlink in .config/autostart pointing
> to gnome-shell/install/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop
>
> This has caused me to have a nice gnome-shell session when I log in.
> However after a recent update it no longer works.
>
> I get the following error:
>
> /home/maxx/gnome-shell/install/libexec/dconf-service: symbol lookup
> error: /home/maxx/gnome-shell/install/libexec/dconf-service: undefined
> symbol: g_bus_own_name
>
> I get the same error when following the instructions found here:
>
> http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/#Running
>
> When I run this command it works:
>
> jhbuild run gnome-shell --replace
>
> However I get the following errors (and I am stuck with the standard X
> mouse cursors):
>
> Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "pk-gtk-module": libpk-gtk-module.so:
> cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
> Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module":
> libcanberra-gtk-module.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file
> or directory
>
> So what has changed? I can't see any significant changes to the
> gnome-shell python script.
>
> What is the recommended way of running a gnome-shell session without
> first going into "old" gnome?

You need to ensure that Gtk3 modules and libraries are loaded, as well
as the latest Glib, instead of Gtk2.
Jhbuild automatically sets all the environment variables for running
in a non default prefix (outside /usr), running manually instead
doesn't work (or it's not recommended).
The solution is to create an autostart desktop file launching "jhbuild
run gnome-shell", instead of gnome shell directly. You need to create
one manually because ${prefix}/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop,
included in tree, is meant for a native installation.

Btw, the message on jhbuild run is normal (packagekit and canberra are
not included in the default jhbuild, but are present in GTK_MODULES
for system Gtk2 apps), for cursor you should try using one from the
Gnome theme, as Gnome Shell will look where you installed it, not in
system directories.

Giovanni