gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

slackhack · 2004-07-03 15:37:57

i like to use some gnome apps with xfce4 -- gedit, gftp, and so on -- but as soon as i try to install them on arch 0.6, all hell breaks loose.

i've probably installed arch somewhere between 10-15 times trying to get a functioning system, but it just doesn't seem to want to cooperate.

for a characteristic example:

1. full 0.6 install
2. update system with pacman (except bitstream vera, which conflicts with xfree86??? okay, remove)
3. install gedit & deps
4. "error loading shared libs" -- libXinerama.so.1
5. pacman -Rd xfree86
6. change /etc/pacman.conf to ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/testing
7. pacman -Syu x
8. targets: gcc.3-4.1_1t1 mozilla-1.7-1

but no x11. where the h3ll is it? (and where are the ttf-bitstream-vera fonts? have to install those manually after removal.)

the times i managed to get gedit, gftp, galeon, etc. to install (can't remember what configuration i had -- maybe just base system, installed xfree later from current, or i think that time i did a complete gnome install), the whole system breaks with library dependencies and "relocation errors." nothing i know of to do then fixes the system except a reinstall.

can someone help me, or is my mistake that gnome just is not compatible with arch? i thought it was, but maybe you need to do something special, or not have xfce4 installed? what am i doing wrong?

thanks for any help. i haven't been able to use my computer for days trying to get arch to work, and i am really behind on a bunch of stuff.

edit:
now when i try to reinstall xfree86, it lists about a hundred packages to install, and then fails:

error: the following file conflcts were found:
     /bin/su: exists in filesystem
     /etc/pam.d/su: exists in filesystem
     /usr/man/man1/su.1.gz: exists in filesystem

i tried forcing the install with pacman -Suf, but then su wouldn't work. <sigh> back to the CD. :cry:

iotc247 · 2004-07-03 17:04:54

hm... Do this.. Install just base system.. Then when you boot first time do pacman -Syu.. Then let it upgrad epacman first then rerun it.. Then do pacman -S gnome gnome-extra and then install any other apps.. Try that..

Xentac · 2004-07-03 17:24:23

if you use -Su it'll ignore everything afterwards, so the x package isn't being installed. You probably want to pacman -Sy x.

sarah31 · 2004-07-03 17:26:48

if you had read the front page you would have been aware of the coreutils/su issue. you could have logged as root to fix that.

libXinerama ---- i remember some sort of issues with respect to xfree4.4 and that library. check the forums or, if your system does not need Xinerama function recompile the offending package.

i don't know anything about x.org so maybe hit the forums and the news to learn of any issues.

running the nptl gcc without some companion nptl packages may get you into trouble.

most gnome packages should theoretically be able to run in an xfce4 environment. when i last used xfce4 i used one gnome app without issue.

you should do some search and before you tried past 2 or 3 times you should have asked some questions here to save yourself the frustration.

personally i would:

do a base install and get my inet connection runnign along with other based functions. then i would upgrade the base then install x or xfree86 then install xcfe4/gnome stuff

Xentac · 2004-07-03 17:29:35

sarah31 wrote:

running the nptl gcc without some companion nptl packages may get you into trouble.

Remember how the nptl repo was split out? That means that testing now contains stuff that's *not* nptl. The gcc version in there is just a new version that we're testing before release.

sarah31 · 2004-07-03 17:31:43

cool your jets boyo i didn't look to see if it was nptl or not. i don't use testing or nptl repos so i really don't pay attention to the packages since most of what was moved had a #t# i assumed it may have been from that batch of nptl crud.

lanrat · 2004-07-03 18:09:25

BTW Bitstream fonts are included in xfree package.

slackhack · 2004-07-03 18:21:36

okay, i've done base install (again ) and upgraded with pacman -Syu, which first upgraded pacman, as it should.

iotc247 says at this point i should install gnome and gnome-extra, and then xfree/xfce4.

sarah says install xfree first and then xfce4/gnome.

who wants to break the tie? my normal way of doing things would be to install xfree first, then xfce4, then gnome, so i probably already have tried that at one point. installing gnome and then x seems counterintuitive somehow. but maybe i should try it?

edit: and btw, i would like to use x.org if i could. xfree in arch is not using DPMS which i need for my LCD, so i'd like to see if x11 would correct that. so again, should i just do that from testing before doing anything else, or after gnome?

slackhack · 2004-07-03 18:30:19

Xentac wrote:

if you use -Su it'll ignore everything afterwards, so the x package isn't being installed. You probably want to pacman -Sy x.

d'oh! yes, obviously. must've had a brain lapse on that one.

slackhack · 2004-07-03 20:31:02

i decided to go with x.org, which installed after i went back to current a couple of times for freetype1 and fontconfig.

then i installed gnome and xfce4, but xfce4 won't even start, it just black-screens and then boots me back to the console.

during install of everything i kept getting chroot errors:

sh: line 1: chroot: command not found

i guess having to do with the /bin/su // coreutils thing, so i'm not even sure everything installed corrrectly.

it just seems like a lot of work to get a basic functioning system with a gui. i installed college linux on my other partition, and it installed and everything worked in about 30 minutes (and the fonts looked unbelievably good :shock: ).

i guess i'm just not ready for arch, and i sure don't have the time for all this low-level management just to end up with a non-working system. thanks for the help, but i think after all this hassle i am giving up on arch, which is really disappointing because it seemed to have so much promise. maybe when version 1 is out i can try it again, i really like the lightweight philosophy and the optimization and modularity. cheers.

edit: p.s., and the forum and the doc here are just the best, imho, even better than gentoo, though seemingly on a smaller scale. but everything is laid out and formatted great and very easy to find and read. kudos!

iotc247 · 2004-07-03 20:41:47

the chroot thing is because your not signed in as root.. Login as root not as su or sudo just as root and perform the install upgrade or whatever again.. And the reason i didnt mention installing xfree is because it would be a dep for gnome.. I dont like xorg so i didnt even bother to mention it.. xorg doesnt work well for me..

slackhack · 2004-07-03 21:07:27

okay... reinstalling as root...

iotc247 · 2004-07-03 21:10:51

dont give up.. If you have to im me on aim: iotcad or msn: iotc247@hotmail.com or email me with the same email for msn all day and night do so.. I will help you get arch running.. I dont like to see people give up like that.

slackhack · 2004-07-03 21:58:33

the uninstall/reinstall seemed to have caused massive problems -- which i guess is to be expected when dealing with those kinds of large packages: the classic (for my system at least) xfce4/gnome "error launching the panel" in xfce4, the console showing all sorts of gdk-pixbuf errors (installed, though), segmentation fault in the xfce4 xinitrc, and just lines and lines of stuff.

so this is what i mean. it's so screwed that i will just have to reinstall and try again. "i'll just try it one more time, and this time i will do xyz first, or i'll do abc first, or do 123 before either of those," etc. and then something else gets broken, and then something else the next time, and on and on. i can't keep doing this!

iotc247 · 2004-07-03 22:00:30

im me on msn or aim right now.. Ill tel you better instructions so that you do get it right.. and you will

slackhack · 2004-07-03 22:28:45

appreciate, but i don't use IM on windows, and i don't have a gui on my desktop while i'm working on arch.

right now i'm reinstalling the base system, plus all the library packages (just in case), and a few other misc packages that are no big deal to upgrade (nmap, etc.)

seeing the potential of arch, i guess i just can't give up.

-------------------
update:
so far so good this time. on top of the base install, i used pacman to install x11 (x.org), and xfce4. X is working fine, although the fonts are a little "thinner" and lighter than i prefer. i like a lot of antialiasing even at the smaller sizes; i'm using dpi 96 and i set the /opt/xfce4/xinitrc file for hintstyle: hintfull (and also moved the file into my ~/.xfce4 directory), but no difference.

alsa doesn't work, as usual -- "alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory" when i try to start alsamixer, no default libao driver available," w/ mgp321, etc. i've solved those before, but it's no big deal as i usually switch to OSS anyway when i recompile the kernel.

right now i am installing gnome, so this will tell the story. just to make a guess, i think there is an incompatability with gtk+2.4.x and the current xfce4. that is what always seems to mess things up, but it's needed for the new 2.6 gnome packages, so i'm not sure what to do to get both.

gentoo is a little messed up, with only the top row of buttons showing and the other ones "crammed" up underneath the top row. i guess i will remove it and reinstall it or abs it if that doesn't work.

is there anyway to use the slackware package management tools with arch? i have some packages (gentoo, for one) that i made on slackware that are i686 optimized, i would like to be able to use those if possible. i read in the documentation that it wasn't possible, but i thought there migtht be a "trick" or workaround that someone knew. appreciate.

luigi · 2004-07-04 21:06:44

slackhack wrote:

-------------------
update:
so far so good this time. on top of the base install, i used pacman to install x11 (x.org), and xfce4. X is working fine, although the fonts are a little

What's the exact command to install x.org?

pacman -Sy x
pacman -Sy x11

Are there any special repos to use?

Thanks.

iotc247 · 2004-07-04 21:08:22

i think the repo is testing.. And dont forget to use the new pacman and the new directory system... Because its ftp://archlinux.org/current/os/i686 or ftp://archlinux.org/testing/os/i686 I still dont get the change though..

luigi · 2004-07-04 21:12:12

iotc247 wrote:

i think the repo is testing.. And dont forget to use the new pacman and the new directory system... Because its ftp://archlinux.org/current/os/i686 or ftp://archlinux.org/testing/os/i686 I still dont get the change though..

Thanks. I just found this thread

noprob · 2004-07-09 04:50:40

bummer
As I recall this is NOT a newbie [n00b] flavor of linux.
also I feel your frustration & I also agree arch is the best linux distro I've ever used.
ok now the part where I fast forward from where you are at concerning the install of arch.
I plumb cheated,no ifs ands or butts.
I used the AMLUG Live CD hd-install option as I myself am totally ignorant concerning linux command line options & had no idea on configuring from said command line.
My desire is to get enough of an idea to be able to install a base install,update via ftp <pacman -Syu> go from there & do my best to get a gui up and running to have a true arch install.
I'm still learning & getting great info from this forum.
I sure hope you do not give up on arch as I myself am a total newbie and have never been inspired to do linux until arch.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-07-03 15:37:57

gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#2 2004-07-03 17:04:54

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#3 2004-07-03 17:24:23

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#4 2004-07-03 17:26:48

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#5 2004-07-03 17:29:35

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#6 2004-07-03 17:31:43

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#7 2004-07-03 18:09:25

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#8 2004-07-03 18:21:36

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#9 2004-07-03 18:30:19

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#10 2004-07-03 20:31:02

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#11 2004-07-03 20:41:47

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#12 2004-07-03 21:07:27

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#13 2004-07-03 21:10:51

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#14 2004-07-03 21:58:33

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#15 2004-07-03 22:00:30

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#16 2004-07-03 22:28:45

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#17 2004-07-04 21:06:44

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#18 2004-07-04 21:08:22

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#19 2004-07-04 21:12:12

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

#20 2004-07-09 04:50:40

Re: gnome incompatible with arch/xfce4? (and where is x.org?)

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