Weblog entry #167 for simonw
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#167
Debian Unstable GNOME desktop glitch - April 2007
Posted by simonw on Sat 28 Apr 2007 at 08:47
For some reason Debian unstable decided that packages like gnome-panel weren't needed. Things had been going downhill for a bit with disappearing icons (I assumed that was me being out of diskspace again), and so last night I decided to restart my desktop, and discovered I couldn't login again.
Twm started fine, read me email (with reports from the computer in), but that just pointed to a file with the wrong permissions in /etc/gdm/PreSession left over from Bruce's "UserLinux" thing. The enlightenment came when I realized some GNOME apps were missing entirely, and when I tried to reinstall them aptitude (hey I'm switching from apt-get to aptitude today) suggested "gnome-panel" might be handy.
I should probably file a bug report, and if I had a succinct idea of what went wrong I would.
Perhaps I should be feeding this into an expert system, since this is the second time I've had a problem like this, and it took far longer than it should have done to fix the second time, when a computer program would have been just the thing to spot it again.
Twm started fine, read me email (with reports from the computer in), but that just pointed to a file with the wrong permissions in /etc/gdm/PreSession left over from Bruce's "UserLinux" thing. The enlightenment came when I realized some GNOME apps were missing entirely, and when I tried to reinstall them aptitude (hey I'm switching from apt-get to aptitude today) suggested "gnome-panel" might be handy.
I should probably file a bug report, and if I had a succinct idea of what went wrong I would.
Perhaps I should be feeding this into an expert system, since this is the second time I've had a problem like this, and it took far longer than it should have done to fix the second time, when a computer program would have been just the thing to spot it again.
Comments on this Entry
Posted by Steve (62.30.xx.xx) on Sat 28 Apr 2007 at 13:04
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I had similar problems a couple of days ago. First of all gnome-terminal disappeared. Then half of Gnome.
Thankfully after waiting a day it seemed to be resolving itself. I'm just waiting for "apt-get install gnome-panel" to complete - and bring with it many many new packages.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
That's why I always watch for "REMOVED" package when I run dist-upgrade :)
This happened a few month ago too. just the time for all packages to be upgraded.
This happened a few month ago too. just the time for all packages to be upgraded.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (216.153.xx.xx) on Mon 30 Apr 2007 at 21:21
If you're tracking "Unstable" you should expect instability. The only way around this is through conscious attention to whats being done to your system during an update. You do periodic package updates in an interactive mode, right?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Nope, did that once but I gave up, it is too time consuming for too little reward. Logs have a purpose.
The 53 packages removed on 27-4-2007 all depend on (directly or indirectly); avahi-daemon, which was upgraded on that date.
The issue could have been with a dependency of that package, but I think that pins it down as well as I can for now.
The 53 packages removed on 27-4-2007 all depend on (directly or indirectly); avahi-daemon, which was upgraded on that date.
The issue could have been with a dependency of that package, but I think that pins it down as well as I can for now.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]