Problems setting up gnome

phunni · 2011-09-15 12:43:49

I'm trying to set up gnome for my wife on her (fairly old (Dell Inspiron 5100)) laptop and I'm having problems getting Gnome up and running. If I try and mount a new filesystem device (USB etc.) then I am told permission denied.

A quick check on the wiki suggests that adding

exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch gnome-session

to her .xinitrc file should solve all my problems. The problem is that when I do that all the menus and application go dark. As in they become black and unusable.

Only returning the .xinitrc file to

exec gnome-session

fixes the visual problems - but then I can't mount devices as a normal user.

I did try starting gnome via gdm, but it fails. I'm not worried about that for though, using startx is an acceptable way to get gnome started for now.

Last edited by phunni (2011-09-15 13:08:31)

phunni · 2011-09-15 15:52:14

If it makes any difference, it looks like it might be gnome-shell that is the problem. Does it seem likely that would be started with the first command and not the second?

phunni · 2011-09-15 16:07:46

Yeah - I uninstalled gnome-shell and the problem went away. Presumably this means that my video card is simply not up to using gnome-shell.

the sad clown · 2011-09-15 16:51:59

I don't believe consolekit is intended for use without a display manager like gdm. I don't use one either, and this solved my permission issues:

Add a "<nameitwhatyouwant>.pkla" file to /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/ with this code:

[udisks]
Identity=unix-user:<yourusername>
Action=org.freedesktop.udisks.*
ResultAny=yes

This took care of my policykit issues and allowed me to continue using startx.

I do have

exec ck-launch-session <your dm/wm>

in my xinitrc, but I haven't tested whether this is actually necessary. I do know that it works without the dbus-launch.

Last edited by the sad clown (2011-09-15 16:54:30)

the sad clown · 2011-09-15 17:01:20

If you want to read up on it more, specifically about what the language means, check "man pklocalauthority". It describes in detail what the above is doing.

phunni · 2011-09-15 18:12:29

thanks for the help, I'm actually giving XFCE4 a go now - due to the gnome performance problems. I'm having the same issue, though, with automounting and tried your solution there, but to no effect.

I'll start a new thread about that though :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-15 12:43:49

Problems setting up gnome

#2 2011-09-15 15:52:14

Re: Problems setting up gnome

#3 2011-09-15 16:07:46

Re: Problems setting up gnome

#4 2011-09-15 16:51:59

Re: Problems setting up gnome

#5 2011-09-15 17:01:20

Re: Problems setting up gnome

#6 2011-09-15 18:12:29

Re: Problems setting up gnome

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