[NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

Battus · 2012-02-03 21:54:40

I'm editing this original message by way of summing up so that anyone coming here with a similar problem will know what to expect if they read further:
I believe the reason Gnome would not start on the machine in question was that it made too many demands on the available hardware (see desm0te's comments below).
For this reason I decided to switch to LXDE as Desktop Environment which works well on the restricted hardware. I did not investigate the Gnome related problem any further.
The original message follows:

After a successful installation of the basic command-line Arch according to the Beginner's Guide, I went on to install Gnome according to instructions in the Wiki.
I Did not want Gnome to start automatically but only when I type in the command startx.

This it does, but all I get is the nice blue "curtain" background - no black bar at top of screen with Actions, date , name etc...
and no cursor.

One funny thing was - this afternoon while I was concentrating on another machine - the black bar suddenly appeared (apparently for no reason) showing the date and my name but with the X cursor
from the X11 environment. However as soon as I moved this cursor to the bar and clicked, both dursor and bar disappeared never to return .

I decided to redirect the stderr of startx to a file in the hope that it would give a clue as to what was wrong.

X.Org X Server 1.11.4
Release Date: 2012-01-27
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 3.2.2-1-ARCH i686 
Current Operating System: Linux pdv 3.2.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 26 08:28:27 UTC 2012 i686
Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=773
Build Date: 29 January 2012  03:41:53PM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.24.2
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Feb  3 21:13:19 2012
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
    [10f] 320 x 200, 70Hz
    [134] 320 x 240, 72Hz
    [144] 400 x 300, 72Hz
    [154] 512 x 384, 70Hz
    [11e] 640 x 400, 70Hz
    [112] 640 x 480, 60Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 100Hz, 160Hz
    [115] 800 x 600, 60Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz
    [118] 1024 x 768, 60Hz, 70Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 100Hz, 130Hz
    [17b] 1280 x 768, 60Hz
    [16a] 1280 x 960, 60Hz, 85Hz
    [11b] 1280 x 1024, 60Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 100Hz
    [13e] 1400 x 1050, 60Hz, 75Hz
    [124] 1600 x 1200, 60Hz

(gnome-shell:770): Clutter-CRITICAL **: Unable to initialize Clutter: Unable to find suitable fbconfig for the GLX context: Failed to find any compatible fbconfigs
Window manager error: Unable to initialize Clutter.
Failed to play sound: File or data not found
Tracker-Message: Setting up monitor for changes to config file:'/home/dick/.config/tracker/tracker-miner-fs.cf** Message: applet now removed from the notification area

(nm-applet:789): libnotify-WARNING **: Failed to connect to proxy

** (nm-applet:789): WARNING **: get_all_cb: couldn't retrieve system settings properties: (25) Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1.

** (nm-applet:789): WARNING **: fetch_connections_done: error fetching connections: (25) Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1.

** (nm-applet:789): WARNING **: Failed to register as an agent: (25) Launch helper exited with unknown return code 1
Tracker-Message: Setting up monitor for changes to config file:'/home/dick/.config/tracker/tracker-store.cfg'

(tracker-store:791): Tracker-CRITICAL **: D-Bus service name:'org.freedesktop.Tracker1' is already taken, perhaps the daemon is already running?

(tracker-miner-fs:788): Tracker-CRITICAL **:   Empty locale file found at '/home/dick/.cache/tracker/miner-applications-locale.txt'

(gnome-settings-daemon:668): color-plugin-WARNING **: failed to get edid: unable to get EDID for output

(tracker-miner-fs:788): Tracker-WARNING **: Couldn't properly parse desktop file 'file:///usr/share/applications/brasero-nautilus.desktop': 'Desktop file doesn't contain type'

(tracker-miner-fs:788): Tracker-CRITICAL **:   Empty locale file found at '/home/dick/.cache/tracker/miner-applications-locale.txt'
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down gnome-session[655]: Gdk-WARNING: gnome-session: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.

Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

(tracker-miner-fs:788): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: Error while sending AddMatch() message: The connection is closed

(tracker-miner-fs:788): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: Error while sending AddMatch() message: The connection is closed

(tracker-miner-fs:788): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: Error while sending AddMatch() message: The connection is closed

(tracker-miner-fs:788): GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor-WARNING **: cannot remove match rule 'type='signal',interface='org.gtk.Private.RemoteVolumeMonitor',sender='org.gtk.Private.GduVolumeMonitor',': org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

(tracker-miner-fs:788): GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor-WARNING **: cannot remove match rule 'type='signal',interface='org.freedesktop.DBus',member='NameOwnerChanged',arg0='org.gtk.Private.GduVolumeMonitor'': org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Disconnected: Connection is closed

xinit: unexpected signal 2

If this gives clues could someone please point me in the right direction? Are the two EE messages significant (Failed to load modules "vesa" and "fbdev"). What is Clutter*? What should I do to get it initialized?

Thanks for any help.

Dick Summerfield (aka Battus).

* Sorry about that - it's an open source graphics library for creating hardware-accelerated user interfaces - but am I any the wiser for that

Last edited by Battus (2012-02-21 19:48:23)

desm0tes · 2012-02-04 01:08:24

VESA is the basic graphics driver, you should install the appropriate drivers for your GPU, for Gnome3 needs 3D rendering.

Seems like the WM or another part of your DE refuse to load because of this - though you should be able to use the Fallback Mode G3 for now (at least according to my knowledge of G3 - which is very little )

Battus · 2012-02-04 13:31:09

Thanks desm0tes.

I installed vesa (or rather xf86-video-vesa, as it's called). It didn't seem to
make any difference.
So I added xf86-video-fbdev as well to get rid of one more error message.
I suppose this has something to do with "framebuffer" (fb) but I'm not exactly
sure what that is. Still no apparent difference.

When I first installed I did an lspci for find out what sort of video I had in
the old laptop. It told me:
VGA compatible controller ... [ProSavage8 KM266/KL266] (whatever that means).

So I'd installed xf86-video-savage which I'd found by a pacman search. I now
removed this and Gnome3 started (!!!) but with the warning that it was in
fallback mode. This is fine with me as it is an ancient laptop and so this result
doesn't surprise me.

Unfortunately though, I'm still not home and dry because in whatever way I leave
the graphical environment I get into a blank screen and the computer goes dead.
(when I say blank screen - there is something on it which makes it look as if I'm
looking through a Venetian blind - i.e. horizontal bars).

The only way to get out is to hold the power button until the machine switches off.

So more research has to be done but if you or anyone has advice it would be most
welcome.

Thanks again,
Dick Summerfield (aka Battus)

Last edited by Battus (2012-02-04 13:52:30)

desm0tes · 2012-02-04 19:46:35

Ok, I guess I've not been clear enough: I didn't ask you to install VESA, but the drivers of your VGA, which would be the xf86-video-savage you alrdy mentioned.
It's hard to say, whether it works better with or without them (can't find a wiki on Savage cards ), I guess, you should reinstall them, cuz those are the ones designed for your VGA...(at least try, after reading the rest of this post)

I'd say you got a different problem: Gnome3 is quite heavy on ressources, especially on VGA, so I guess this is the true problem.
The Fallback Mode is what is launched, when there's no direct rendering available, but it's still Gnome3 and still almost as bloated.
On an old Laptop with a Savage-chip, I'd recommend a more lightweight approach, here are four suggestions:

1. XFCE: Some people call this a "gnome2"-like DE. It's more ligtweight than G3, but already quite "complete".

2. LXDE: Very lightweight DE, provides almost anything you need (until I tried →3, this was my primary choice).

3. Razor-QT: Another very lightweight DE, but unlike Gnome, XFCE and LXDE (all GTK), it is based on the QT-toolkit (like KDE). It provides only few additional software.
I updated and expanded the wiki article on it recently - it should now provide the necessary info.

4. A standalone windowmanager: The most lightweight approach, but it would only provide a window manager and you'd have to install EVERYTHING else (check the wiki for Openbox standalone, as it will provide info that will work for a windowmanager of your choice).

Addendum: When getting rid of Gnome3, the logoff-problem will most-probably disappear, too.

Last edited by desm0tes (2012-02-04 19:48:47)

Battus · 2012-02-05 20:00:47

Thanks again for your interest.

You could also say I misread what you wrote ;-). Though I also tried the "vesa" driver because X was explicitly asking for it (along with fbdev).

The funny thing is that when I first saw your latest reply, (it was late here) I had been messing about with Arch all evening and had already decided:
1. Gnome3 is too big I want something lighter.
2. The VGA driver xf86-video-savage seemed to make better sense than "vesa".
3. I would go for LXDE but Razor-Qt had caught my attention too!

After reading your answer I really wanted to go for Razor but as I have no experience of AUR, I thought I would stick with LXDE and as that is giving me a hard enough time this was probably a good decision for me. Maybe when I've got LXDE to my liking, I can think about trying Razor.

LXDE runs well enough but only when I start it as root. (because otherwise Openbox complains about things it can't do because of insufficient privileges) but surely I should be able to start LXDE from the command line of my "plain vanilla user"? (How did you start it?)

I'll continue messing about and put some more questions on the appropriate forum as and when necessary.

Thanks again,
(Yes the logoff problem has indeed disappeared)

Dick Summerfield (aka Battus)

desm0tes · 2012-02-05 20:39:54

1. LXDE is a good choice. Though I use Razor most of the time now (because it's new), that doesn't necessarily mean, I won't go back to LXDE in time, anyway, it's a matter of personal taste, what DE/WM you use (apart from the performance issues )
2. AUR is not as hard as it seems; some might disagree on this, but I'd say: Install yaourt, then you are able to use the AUR in the way you use pacman. (you'll have to install two packages manually as explained in the wiki, then you simply use [yaourt -S package_name]

3. How do you "start it as root"? And what are those insufficient privileges? Do you own your /home? Or did you for example copy the ~/.config/openbox files as root, so they don't belong to you? Then chown them.

4. I use SLiM - a quite good and simple (and very lightweight) login manager.
You edit /etc/slim.conf, .xinitrc and add the slim daemon to your rc.conf, that's it.

Last edited by desm0tes (2012-02-05 20:40:52)

Battus · 2012-02-06 17:19:34

desm0tes:
To take your points one by one:
1. I am now quite happy with LXDE too. The problems I mentioned last night seem to have gone (???!!!) and I can just start LXDE from my user account. Maybe later, I'll realize what I was doing wrong or rather what I did to make it work... . Now I just type:

 startx

having put:

 exec ck-launch-session startlxde

in .xinitrc.

2. Thanks for the tip about yaourt. I shall try that sooner or later.

3. Well as I said - I don't understand what I was doing wrong - which makes me feel a bit stupid and is rather annoying but looking on the bright side it's fine to be able to start-up, have a legible screen and logout successfully - which I couln't do before. I now have to figure out how to expand the contents of LXDE a bit but that's the fun of it!
LXDE starts up nicely with minimal possibilties but I can change look & feel and customize the panel settings.
"Menu" contains:
Accessories:
File Manager
Image Viewer
LXTerminal
Leafpad
Xarchiver
Internet:
Avahi SSH Server Browser
Avahi VNC Server Browser
Office:
ePDFViewer
System Tools:
Avahi Zerconf Browser
Task Manager
Preferences:
Customize Look and Feel
Monitor Settings
OPenbox Configuration Maanger
Preferred Applications
Run
Logout
All of these start up OK and work, on cursory examination, except the Avahi Browsers which I don't understand and which appear to do nothing as no window appears on screen.

4. I'm not quite sure I can yet see the use of a login manager such as SLiM, since I seem to get on quite nicely without it but since I've heard it mentioned a lot I'm sure I'm just missing the point.

Dick Summerfield (aka Battus)

Last edited by Battus (2012-02-06 19:56:30)

nomorewindows · 2012-02-06 18:18:53

Are you sure it's not the message on the board about libpng and cairo?
Are you using the video driver appropriate for your video card?

Last edited by nomorewindows (2012-02-06 18:20:41)

Battus · 2012-02-06 20:05:31

nomorewindows:

I had wondered about this when I saw a cairo-something flashing past on installing (I think) LXDE but on re-reading the note in Latest News, I noticed it says cairo-* modules from AUR and as I don't do AUR yet I figured I should be alright. Anyway - as I said above - everything seems to work well enough as far as I can judge. Thanks for the heads up.

Dick Summerfield (aka Battus)

desm0tes · 2012-02-07 00:22:07

1. Since the problems occurred BEFORE libng/libtiff went to official repositories, it's quite sure, it isn't caused by that

2. You could check the wiki for the apps you already have installed and you might want to install, especially Lightweight Applications.
(ssh is for remote logging into other computer)

3. That you "miss the point" might be just because you simply don't need it.
Login Managers are useful for example managing several sessions.
You might put lxde, xfce, compiz, razor, gnome, kde, dwm, openbox and lots of others into your .xinitrc and slim provides a graphical tool to enter accounf, password and session and then starts it, you might also enter a standard session, a standard login or even auto-login.
GDM or KDM even usually auto-detect all possible sessions...I'd say it's depending on personal taste and personal needs.

cfr · 2012-02-07 02:23:15

I believe the avahi stuff has to do with what apple called rendezvous or bonjour (and maybe they changed the name again? is zeroconf related?). Basically, local network services e.g. a printer could be advertised over a LAN. So you might not see anything because there are no e.g. printing or whatever services available on your LAN. If you're at home and you don't know what it is about, you probably haven't set up any such services!

Battus · 2012-02-08 20:25:45

desm0tes:

Point 1: Taken.
Point 2: I've started with Dillo for web-browsing and am getting on well enough with it (Just wish it didn't sound quite so much like dildo ). When you say: "ssh is for remote logging into other computer", I'm not really sure what you're talking about - (Avahi SSH Server Browser ?) - but that "remote logging into other computer" makes me think about telnet, which someone once explained to me , and that I have used from a Windows environment. Any connection?
Point 3: Understood. Perhaps I'll just try installing SLiM, to get a feel for it and - who knows - install some other DE(s) alongside LXDE.

Thanks for explaining...

desm0tes · 2012-02-08 20:44:21

Point 2:

wiki wrote:

Secure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers. Encryption provides confidentiality and integrity of data. SSH uses public-key cryptography to authenticate the remote computer and allow the remote computer to authenticate the user, if necessary.
SSH is typically used to log into a remote machine and execute commands, but it also supports tunneling, forwarding arbitrary TCP ports and X11 connections; file transfer can be accomplished using the associated SFTP or SCP protocols.

Point 3: I learned today, that SLiM ain't actively maintained anymore. It's still a good login manager, but you might want to consider LXDM instead.

Battus · 2012-02-08 20:53:06

cfr:

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately I know very little about Apple so the names you mention might just as well fall on deaf ears. I think I get your point about network printers though.
It could be a possibilty here: I have various machines coupled via router and on one of them hangs a printer but the Arch system is on a pretty old laptop which I want to use in the first instance to get used to CLI, bash etc. Printing will be for later (if ever).

Diolch yn fawr, beth bynnag

cfr · 2012-02-08 22:34:06

Croeso!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-03 21:54:40

[NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#2 2012-02-04 01:08:24

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#3 2012-02-04 13:31:09

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#4 2012-02-04 19:46:35

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#5 2012-02-05 20:00:47

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#6 2012-02-05 20:39:54

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#7 2012-02-06 17:19:34

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#8 2012-02-06 18:18:53

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#9 2012-02-06 20:05:31

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#10 2012-02-07 00:22:07

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#11 2012-02-07 02:23:15

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#12 2012-02-08 20:25:45

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#13 2012-02-08 20:44:21

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#14 2012-02-08 20:53:06

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

#15 2012-02-08 22:34:06

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Gnome will not start

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