Re: installing GTK+

["Richard Boaz" <riboaz xs4all nl>]

cue sergei and his ostensibly blatant self-promotion actually aimed at
trying to help the unwitting poor souls avoid such "disasters" (not my
moniker)...

nah, i'll do it:

to install gtk+ and avoid such disasters in the future, use this very
handy tool which will install gtk+ in its own directory separate from
system directories:

http://appsfromscratch.berlios.de/


On Sat, Jul 21, 2007 at 07:42:42PM +0200, Robert Kolozsi wrote:
> I am using Debian Sarge and I am not an expert of GNU/Linux. I wanted to
> install GTK+ 2.10.9 because I need it for inkscape 0.45. I downloaded
> the source of all dependencies and the GTK+ from 'www.gtk.org/'. Builded
> it succesfully with './configure --prefix=/usr'.

You overwrote lots of system libraries.  Unfortunately,
that's not a success, that's a disaster.

> I had no problems till
> I boot the machine.
> It is booting to the splash screen of 'nvidia' and
> then the whole screen becomes grey and mouse pointer looks like X. After
> a few seconds I get a window says to me:'There already appears to be a X
> server runing on display :0. Should I try another display number? If you
> answer no, I will attempt to start the server on :0 again.(You can
> change consoles by pressing Ctr+Alt plus a function key, such as
> Ctrl+Alt+F7 to go to conslole7. X servers usually run on consoles 7 and
> higher.)'
>
> Actualy I can not log in with graphic interface. There is no login
> window. I can not start gdm. How can I fix this problem? I do not know
> where I made a mistake. I do not know what information should I give more..
>
> Current GTK+ is default for Sarge. Should I uninstall it first and how?

Restore the system to the state before you started
overwriting things in /usr.  This involves finding files
that do not match their package checksums or do not belong
to any package at all, filtering out files that were
modified for valid reasons, making a list of affected
packages, reinstalling them and removal of the extra files.
It can be easier to backup and then reinstall the system
completely.

Then look for backports.  If you don't find what you need
there, install the Gtk+ stack into a ***non-system***
directory and compile Inkscape with that, following for
instance
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-list/2006-December/msg00113.html

It is probably possible to make X/gdm work again in the
current state, but (a) it can require a volunteer to break
his system according to your recipe and then figure out the
cause (b) you want your system in a sane state anyway as
even if you made it work, an upgrade of any affected library
package (which would be a downgrade wrt the manually compiled
stuff) would likely break it again.

(I have seen Ubuntu people having these problems, however,
they seemed to be due to broken packages and the resolution
generally was the reinstallation of the relevant packages --
X11, maybe others -- which does not reval much about the
cause.)

Yeti