Gnome main menu blank

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#1

Hello,

When I click the “Computer” icon in the lower left hand corner, it has begun to bring up the slab main menu (Gnome) with only the option for “More Applications” and “Status”. The rest of the menu is blank, and now fills the entire left hand side of the computer screen.

I cannot confirm this is the case, but this began after I tried to load my entire music library (25GB) into Banshee, at which point it froze the computer and I had to manually stop it. After that point the menu has been whacky.

I have not been able to find a way to fix this, any ideas?

#2

Login as root and delete the hidden .gnome2 folders in your home directory.
When you login as yourself, gnome will recreate the default menus.

#3

whych wrote:
> Login as root and delete the hidden .gnome2 folders in your home
> directory.
> When you login as yourself, gnome will recreate the default menus.

no! never log into Gnome (or KDE) as root! never ever.
i do not know if removing the .gnome2 folder will help or not, but it
is certainly NOT required to log in as root to delete it.

–
platinum

#4

Platinum
If I delete the gnome, kde or whatever other window manager files, suse will recreate the basic profile again when I next login.
You cannot do this when you are logged in, so you have the choice of logging in as root or as yourself in runlevel 3.
I am not proposing you stay logged in as root permanently, only to do an admin task, which for many users is easier using a gui than from the command line.
Once you have done whatever admin, I implied the user should log out and login as himself again.
There are other ways of recreating the default menu, but this is probably the quickest and easiest.
If you want to make sure that you haven’t lost anything in the process, you could copy .gnome to .gnome.bak say and if it didn’t work, just restore the original.

#5

i hesitate to write because i do not want to be accused of spanking in
public…it is, of course, good to be helpful here…and, all
appreciate your willingness to help…however, it is not helpful to
pass on to even newer folks the idea that logging into Gnome (or KDE,
Xfce, etc etc) as root is something which is alright to do…

it is not ok…not even for a quick little admin task and then log
back in as yourself…

never do that…i can’t think of a single situation in which that is
the only way to solve a problem…can you think of one?

deleting one of your own hidden directories is certainly not such a
situation…so, it is best to NOT suggest breaking this ‘rule’:

Do not log into any Linux desktop (gnome, kde, etc) as root, ever.

cite: http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase-runtime/userguide/root.html
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
(and thousands of others)

it is common on some boards to give the quick/easy direction you gave,
so you are therefore NOT spanked, but rather encouraged to continue
helping but please give only helpful help…the direction to log in
as root which you gave could easily cause more damage than it fixes…

especially if the n00b you help gets the idea that step one on the
route to fixing problems in Linux is to log in as root…

oh, so to address each of your points:

> If I delete the gnome, kde or whatever other window manager files, suse
> will recreate the basic profile again when I next login.

yes, correct…

> You cannot do this when you are logged in,

are you sure? have you tried it? HINT: do NOT do as you told the OP to
and delete your .gnome2 as yourself…but, you might wanna try:

  • open a terminal (as yourself)
  • issue this command then press enter

mv /home/[you]/.gnome2 /home/[you]/.gnome2.saved
  • use your normal procedure to close Gnome and login again

when you do, you will see that you successfully renamed your old
…gnome2 directory and the system built a new one, and ALL of your
customizations were lost…but, since you didn’t actually delete it,
it can be reinstated…

so, there is one no root powers required way to get done what you
suggested doing…

> so you have the choice of
> logging in as root or as yourself in runlevel 3.

no! there is no choice…do not lot into Gnome (or KDE, Xfce, etc) as
root…ever!

from the two choices you give, you should always choose the NOT logged
into the GUI as root way…

in this case, you actually have other choices because you may
also add the one i gave above and: delete the directory as root, while
in runlevel 3 (since that runlevel is not in X it doesn’t violate the
rule)

> I am not proposing you stay logged in as root permanently, only to do
> an admin task,

only doing an admin task is not an option…
Do NOT log into Gnome (etc) as root ever. not for one second.

> which for many users is easier using a gui than from the
> command line.

easier is not an option…
Do NOT log into Gnome (etc) as root ever.
unless you are looking for an easy way to kill your system!

> Once you have done whatever admin, I implied the user should log out
> and login as himself again.

no, the user should never log into a *nix GUI as root, ever.

> There are other ways of recreating the default menu, but this is
> probably the quickest and easiest.

then always elect to give advice here which is correct and does not
open even the possibility of doing it the wrong way (need i say which
way is wrong, again?)…

> If you want to make sure that you haven’t lost anything in the process,
> you could copy .gnome to .gnome.bak say and if it didn’t work, just
> restore the original.

yes, that is the correct way and in my opinion is also the only
correct advice to give…

advising a new user (this was the first post of csuRAMpage here) to
delete all his previous customizations is not a nice thing to do…

all that said, i’m not sure that the only way (or even the best way)
to fix the poster’s problem is to kill .gnome2…(for all i know the
menu items in Gnome are the same as the menu items in KDE [if you
switch from one to the other] so, maybe they are kept somewhere
outside of .gnome2, i do not know…do you know for sure that your
prescription will solve the posters problem, and not cause more damage
than it fixes?

–
platinum

#6

platinum
OK, I get the point … but in all your long post, you haven’t proposed any solution to help the OP, so for all we know he may still have the problem.

#7

whych wrote:
> you haven’t proposed any solution to help the OP, so for all we
> know he may still have the problem.

i’ve not used Gnome for two or three years and don’t know the ins and
outs of its menu system, so i can’t propose a solution…

i only looked in on the thread to see if i could learn something…and,
when i did i saw what i know to not be a viable, helpful solution or
suggestion (logging into Gnome as root to delete a hidden directory)…

–
platinum

#8

> I cannot confirm this is the case, but this began after I tried to load
> my entire music library (25GB) into Banshee, at which point it froze the
> computer and I had to manually stop it. After that point the menu has
> been whacky.

when you say you tried to “load” your music collection to Banshee i
guess you were actually installing a full copy of your collection into
your Linux partition (from, i guess a Windows or Mac partition)…

which causes me to wonder how much space you had allocated to the
openSUSE partition, and if 25GB filled it up…if so, it is no wonder
it froze your machine…and, then when you “manually” stopped it (how
did you do that?) you probably damaged the file system somewhat…

next time you have a ‘freeze’ you may want to try Ctrl+Alt+F1, where
you can safely log in as you the user and investigate what is going on
(and if you find your partition FULL, you can delete some music in
this case)…and, if necessary you can safely su to root in that
command line environment and issue a shutdown, reboot, halt or
whatever is needed next…

if your partition is full, then the first thing to do is delete all
that music from your Linux partition…CAREFUL, if you don’t know how
find the music in your Linux partition i’d suggest you not roam around
and accidentally delete all your music in your Windows or Mac partition!

i’ve never used Banshee (that i recall) but i just cranked it up and
it offered to ‘import’ my music, and a peek at Banshee’s Edit >
Preferences reveals by default (here) it intends to ‘import’ to a
Music Library named “Music”…so, i can guess that in your /home you
will find a directory named /home/[you]/Music which is stuffed with
music…actually STUFFED exact copies of music files already taking
space somewhere else on your machine…

i’d guess if it were my machine i’d remove all those copies and
‘teach’ Banshee how to find already existing music files in mounted
Windows, Mac or other Linux distro partitions…surely that should be
possible via links if nothing else…(and you should be able to find
how to do that in the Banshee documentation, somewhere…i won’t be
finding that answer for you…)

then, by the time that is done maybe someone who knows what you
might have damaged in the gnome menu system will wander in and give
you the fix for that little problem…

-welcome-

Linux is not M$-Windows, and the old “Ctrl+Alt+Del” or hit the power
switch is very seldom (if ever) the correct/best way to solve any
problem…

–
platinum