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From: Folderol on 14 Feb 2010 03:29
Does anyone else find the Gnome desktop incredibly 'delicate' ?

On a number of occasions I've had the desktop and toolbars go stupid
for no apparent reason (on quite different machines). The only way I've
found of recovering this situation is to delete all the .gnome files
then reboot.

The latest is a case in point.

At work one of the secretaries let her 5yo lad play a web based game
for a while in firefox, on a fairly up-to-date ubuntu. After firefox
was closed the top toolbar was missing, which meant almost all the
controls were inaccessible - including shutdown. As this was late on
Friday, when called to sort it out I just switched off and said I'd
look at it on Monday.

I have *never* had this happen with KDE, nor with any other linux
desktop come to think of it.

--
Will J G
From: Robert Billing on 14 Feb 2010 05:05
As the bottle floated ashore we opened it and found the message that
Folderol had written:

> Does anyone else find the Gnome desktop incredibly 'delicate' ?
>
> On a number of occasions I've had the desktop and toolbars go stupid for
> no apparent reason (on quite different machines). The only way I've
> found of recovering this situation is to delete all the .gnome files
> then reboot.
>
> The latest is a case in point.
>
> At work one of the secretaries let her 5yo lad play a web based game for
> a while in firefox, on a fairly up-to-date ubuntu. After firefox was
> closed the top toolbar was missing, which meant almost all the controls
> were inaccessible - including shutdown. As this was late on Friday, when
> called to sort it out I just switched off and said I'd look at it on
> Monday.
>
> I have *never* had this happen with KDE, nor with any other linux
> desktop come to think of it.

I have seen this, and the cause has almost always been a directory such
as /tmp, which should be writable, ceasing to be, usually because the
drive was almost full. Maintaining about 1G of free space on the the
filesystems containing /tmp and /var seems to have fixed it for me.

YMMV.

--
I am Robert Billing, Christian, author, inventor, traveller, cook and
animal lover. "It burned me from within. It quickened; I was with book
as a woman is with child."
Quality e-books for portable readers: http://www.alex-library.com
From: Mike Scott on 14 Feb 2010 11:33
Robert Billing wrote:
> As the bottle floated ashore we opened it and found the message that
> Folderol had written:
>
>> Does anyone else find the Gnome desktop incredibly 'delicate' ?
>>
>> On a number of occasions I've had the desktop and toolbars go stupid for
>> no apparent reason (on quite different machines). The only way I've
>> found of recovering this situation is to delete all the .gnome files
>> then reboot.
>>
>> The latest is a case in point.
>>
>> At work one of the secretaries let her 5yo lad play a web based game for
>> a while in firefox, on a fairly up-to-date ubuntu. After firefox was
>> closed the top toolbar was missing, which meant almost all the controls
>> were inaccessible - including shutdown. As this was late on Friday, when
>> called to sort it out I just switched off and said I'd look at it on
>> Monday.
>>
>> I have *never* had this happen with KDE, nor with any other linux
>> desktop come to think of it.
>
> I have seen this, and the cause has almost always been a directory such
> as /tmp, which should be writable, ceasing to be, usually because the
> drive was almost full. Maintaining about 1G of free space on the the
> filesystems containing /tmp and /var seems to have fixed it for me.
>
> YMMV.
>
I've been irritated by both toolbars disappearing occasionally on
logging in. They seem to come back when they want (sometimes after
switching to xfce to see what's up.) Doesn't seem to be a file space
issue. Plus problems with window decorations that sometimes seem
somewhat reluctant to display; although I tentatively put that one down
to the video driver, life is more reliable with emerald.


--
Mike Scott (unet2 <at> [deletethis] scottsonline.org.uk)
Harlow Essex England
From: Mark Hobley on 14 Feb 2010 13:08
Robert Billing <unclebob(a)tnglwood.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> I have seen this, and the cause has almost always been a directory such
> as /tmp, which should be writable, ceasing to be, usually because the
> drive was almost full.

Right I have seen this on some livecd based distributions.

> Maintaining about 1G of free space on the the
> filesystems containing /tmp and /var seems to have fixed it for me.

Ok. That is not an option on a livecd, but it will be interesting to find out
if that is the cause.

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
Linux User: #370818 http://markhobley.yi.org/

From: Folderol on 15 Feb 2010 17:28
On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:08:02 GMT
markhobley(a)hotpop.donottypethisbit.com (Mark Hobley) wrote:

> Robert Billing <unclebob(a)tnglwood.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > I have seen this, and the cause has almost always been a directory such
> > as /tmp, which should be writable, ceasing to be, usually because the
> > drive was almost full.
>
> Right I have seen this on some livecd based distributions.
>
> > Maintaining about 1G of free space on the the
> > filesystems containing /tmp and /var seems to have fixed it for me.
>
> Ok. That is not an option on a livecd, but it will be interesting to find out
> if that is the cause.
>
> Mark.

Well it wasn't lack of space on this machine - there was still about
10G in the / directory and over 60G in /home!

Did the usual - deleted all the .gnome and .gconf stuff then rebooted.
It's just a pain in the backside having to put all the icons back as
the office staff expect to see them :(

--
Will J G
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