Is it actually possible to fully reinstall Gnome?

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1

After a misguided attempt to upgrade Pango/Cairo etc. I am left with a Gnome desktop with no fonts and the Pango errors below. I have managed some partial repairs with the use of symlinks pointing back from /usr/local…

I’d really like to revert to the installed setup. Yast tells me I have the original installed versions. Despite that and having re-installed everything I still have the problem. I have searched high and low but although quite a few have suffered similarly I have not found any answers. Everyone tries uninstalling/reinstalling but it does not seem to help. Is there really no way to remove Gnome and associated packages and re-install them?

(gnome-session:8978): Pango-WARNING **: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type=‘PangoRenderFc’, script=‘latin’

(gnome-session:8978): Pango-CRITICAL **: pango_cairo_show_glyph_string: assertion `PANGO_IS_CAIRO_FONT (font)’ failed

2

Did you try uninstalling pango???

3

Does the problem persist if you create a new user an log in as that user?

4

NickHoare wrote:
> After a misguided attempt to upgrade Pango/Cairo etc. … Is there really no way to remove Gnome and associated packages
> and re-install them?

first: Linux is a relatively stable and predictable system…that
means that to fix a problem it it is VERY seldom necessary to
uninstall and reinstall because you are most likely to end up with
exactly the same problem you had…(same for some other systems
routine ‘fix it’ of just rebooting–get out of that habit also…)

it is always better to be able to undo what you did that broke your
system…

you said you had a “misguided” attempt…can you look at that guide
and back track to undo all you did?

i mean, if you used YaST to install a new version of Pango (whatever
that is) you should be able to go back into YaST and re-install the
old version…

if you can’t undo, the very best, dependable and proven way is to
restore from your backup…

that is, make a backup of your system prior to any potential
“misguided” experiments, trials, changes, upgrades, updates etc etc
etc…and, then if something goes wrong you can restore your
previous, working system from the backup…

i suppose you didn’t do a backup?

you might try to add a new user (using YaST) and then log out, and
log back in as the new user…if (and that is a BIG if) things work ok
again in Gnome you are very lucky because all that is broken is your
personal user settings for Gnome in /home/[you]/.gnome and you are
probably close to fixed…

–
palladium

5

Firstly than you for your helpful replies (particularly palladium - just the kind of answer I appreciate)

This is on a new, not live server. I have an (almost) exact copy that is still fine and running a little bit of Groupwise - the wonders of drbd.

I have tried another user - no luck.

A bit of background. As a Linux newbie I was trying to trace an odd networking issue and as I would on Windows I downloaded a tracing utility (Etherape) and installed it according to its instructions. It said it needed new library versions to work and so I downloaded, configured, make, make install these. I thought these were special graphics libraries and did not know that these were actually core GUI libraries. (My mindset is still Windows - it needs to go back to my VMS days)

Anyway I did look to undo what I did however neither rpm nor Yast see that anything has changed. They both report that the installed versions are still the original versions. So there appears to be no way to ‘undo’ as nothing has been done. Yet clearly it has.

You were right palladium. A wholesale uninstall/reinstall of the Gnome Desktop under ‘patterns’ brought me back to the same place.

And yes, whilst I have a backup, it is a little older than I am happy with but it looks like my only option?

What I am quite concerned about is how relatively easy it was to ‘trash’ the GUI. Though admittedly Groupwise continued to function.

6

NickHoare wrote:
> And yes, whilst I have a backup, it is a little older than I am happy
> with but it looks like my only option?

that may be the only option to repair your Gnome, however:

ok…so, you have a background with Redmond software and therefore a
tendency to run your servers with a GUI…that is understandable
however you might want to consider running Groupwise (or most any
other server without even installing X, much less Gnome or KDE on
top…instead let me suggest you investigate something like Webmin
<http://www.webmin.com/> to administer your server from afar (next
desk OR around the world) using a web browser running locally on your
own workstation (whether Linux, Unix, Mac or PlayStation…oh, and
even Windows95 or ‘better’)…

let me say that a different way: i’m not aware of any server software
which requires the server itself to either have or use a GUI…such
just soaks up CPU cycles, bus interrupts etc etc etc needless to the
job of serving…

of course, i don’t know much about Groupwise or anything else server
based (i’m a generalist, and generally a desktop user…so…)

now, on top of that let me GUESS that you are not actually using
openSUSE, are you? i guess you are using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
(SLES)…at least if i were running a high availability cluster to
support Groupwise (or anything) i’d not be subjecting myself to the
constant turnover of openSUSE releases (which currenly live only 18
months from birth to death (initial release to no more security
patches/updates) which means about every year you are forced to
rebuild ALL machines…

AND, if you understand the relationship of openSUSE to SLES you will
know that the free open software is best though of as a proving
grounds used to kill bugs and prep bleeding edge to eventually morph
into real, stable, dependable (ah yes) Enterprise ready software…

lets learn exactly what system you have, at a command line:

cat /etc/SuSE-release

because i think we will find you are using SLES and therefore need to
finish this discussion with the source of that software, Novell.com
where you PAY for support, and should therefore get it…

but, before you go let me agree that trashing Gnome is FAR too
easy…especially if you don’t dabble in the care and feeding of the
Linux desktop everyday…AND, if you make the mistake of thinking a
fancy flashy desktop dock is gonna make your job as a Linux
Administrator more meaningful or fun…well, its kinda like if you
drive a heavy duty, industrial strength earth mover all day long every
day i know on your way home it sure would be nice to have a sports
cars to get some excitement in your life and wind in your hair…but,
shiny trim on your earth mover is not gonna trip your trigger nor will
it help the get the work done…so, imho keep those two independent
(and run your servers in runlevel 3 with no X)

obviously, ymmv…do that cat and come back…(or seek real,
professional assistance over in forums.novell.com [professional there
whereas about 99.9% of here are volunteer users helping ‘misguided’
users and almost no one on a payroll])…

there or here you can investigate your networking issue which probably
does not need and will not benefit from a GUI based program…the
name “wireshark” springs to mind and though i’ve never used it i very
much doubt it is a GUI (as far as i know there is only one maker on
earth who ‘pushes’ servers with a GUI…)

let us know how you get on…please (and, there may even be someone
here who can eventually FORCE your Gnome to live again…if you are
running openSUSE)

–
palladium

7

I have managed to install KDE. Now I get a login screen I can read and KDE starts fine. I (already!) prefer it to Gnome. I thought I came across an application which showed no text but going back again I can’t find it. One or 2 things don’t work. E.g. hb_gui with a python/cairo/gtk library error and Acronis backup just doesn’t start. But these are minor issues that I hope to fix with new versions.

So how come KDE has fonts when Gnome hasn’t. Don’t they both use Pango?

I need Acronis to restore the backup. I’m not sure I trust the bootable version which lists drives as letters, does not read Linux file systems and so can only restore with CIFS from a Windows share! And so it goes on.

But hey, I’ve found KDE!

8

Automatic Updates is the one with no fonts

9

It sounds like you have a parallel install that is causing conflicts. As this was installed with the ‘/usr/local’ prefix, it may be as simple as as doing an uninstall in the source terminal. If you still have the source code intact, try

make uninstall

in the terminal in the source code directory, just as you did the install.

10

NickHoare wrote:

> But hey, I’ve found KDE!

did i post to a vacuum?

–
palladium

11

No palladium you did not post to a vacuum. You posted to someone who wears many hats (business consultant, software developer, IT manager, software sales etc etc) in a company with 10 staff who has to grab a couple of hours here and there in order to do system maintenance upgrades etc.

You made some very good points which I will think about.

I know I am on SLES but I hoped I would find someone with a deeper understanding of Gnome, over here. In my experience if you do something ‘unsupported’ and then ask for support to fix it you don’t get very far. I have also found that a good forum provides a much quicker response than the sort of support we can afford to pay for.

I see the GUI as a window into a system where I did’t have a clue where anything is. After several months of working with SLES and I can still see no logic as to whether something is in /etc /var /usr /opt /lib /var/lib /usr/lib. I don’t know whether something is a binary or a script, and there seem to be multiple options for performing functions that are mutually exclusive but there is no way of establishing that (hearbeat comes to mind). A GUI centralises all that and lets you see several things at the same time to help you see the relationships. I worked for a long time on systems with only terminal screens and it was hard work and usually only possible when surrounded by 3 or 4 terminals each with some timed dynamic script so you could see the log as you started the script and watched the status. Web admin is not quite there yet. It is slow to respond and difficult to know whether it is responding. It has many of the single view limitations of text screens. Worse and it has the big limitation that it often breaks and you have to spend as much time fixing the webadmin as you do tackling the main issue.

I did not know you could do ‘make uninstall’ and so I will be trying it.

Thanks

12

make uninstall. Why did no-one mention make uninstall before?? make uninstall fixed everything!

So simple and yet it was only suggested here (yes I admit to one or 2 posts elsewhere). A big thank you to cheaf-sealth. How much time would I have saved if only …:dont-know:

13

NickHoare wrote:
> make uninstall. Why did no-one mention make uninstall before?? make
> uninstall fixed everything!

my friend…please show me where you informed the folks here that your
troubles began after you installed from source…

i wrote:
"you said you had a “misguided” attempt…can you look at that guide
and back track to undo all you did?

i mean, if you used YaST to install a new version of Pango (whatever
that is) you should be able to go back into YaST and re-install the
old version…"

you cudda said: i didn’t use YaST i compiled from source…

sorry: chief_stealth is smart enough to know that that was the only
way since you had thing pointing to /usr/local…i didn’t, and
probably won’t recognize that the next time either…

happy you got it fixed: but don’t try to slide the delay off on
someone other than yourself…next time if someone suggests you to
“undo what you did” and you don’t know how, ask: How do i undo “make
install”?

–
palladium

14

^^^ Thats funny ^^^ I had the same thought lol

15

palladium, no need to get uptight (nothing to be sorry about either). Your input was much appreciated and your comments have me revising the way I tackle future stuff (even today).

I suppose what I am saying is that a question is simple if you know the answer. I mean can you use Yast to install anything, not just standard package features? I would not have even thought to try.

BTW:
What I said was: “It said it needed new library versions to work and so I downloaded, configured, make, make install these.” Isn’t that saying I installed it from source? At the time I thought that was the ‘normal’ way.

16

It sounds like you are ready for Gentoo… :wink:

17

NickHoare wrote:
> palladium, no need to get uptight

i’m a lot less “uptight” than my prose might make me appear…

> I mean can you use Yast to install anything, not just standard
> package features? I would not have even thought to try.

it won’t compile, no…but you take the random *.rpm and install it
with YaST…

http://en.opensuse.org/Yast

> What I said was: “It said it needed new library versions to work and so
> I downloaded, configured, make, make install these.” Isn’t that saying
> I installed it from source? At the time I thought that was the ‘normal’
> way.

NOW, i looked again (because i thought i had checked throughly prior
to my ‘uptight posting’) and so you did…i do wish i had had that
firmly in my sight, because had i, when i was giving my undo what you
did lines, instead of asking how you did it i coudda/wouldda given the
magic “make uninstall” elixer, and saved us both some time!

http://en.opensuse.org/Compiling_software
(but i just looked at it and see it doesn’t mention uninstall, but should!

–
palladium

18

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:06:01 GMT, NickHoare <NickHoare@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
>chief_sealth;2111924 Wrote:
>> It sounds like you have a parallel install that is causing conflicts. As
>> this was installed with the ‘/usr/local’ prefix, it may be as simple as
>> as doing an uninstall in the source terminal. If you still have the
>> source code intact, try
>>
>> -make uninstall-
>>
>> in the terminal in the source code directory, just as you did the
>> install.
>
>make uninstall. Why did no-one mention make uninstall before?? make
>uninstall fixed everything!
>
>So simple and yet it was only suggested here (yes I admit to one or 2
>posts elsewhere). A big thank you to cheaf-sealth. How much time would I
>have saved if only …:dont-know:

Kerbango! Sooo obvious. How in tarnation i missed that one for so long
astounds me :shame: