Problems Upgrading Debian Squeeze

[Mark Phillips]

On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 8:08 PM, Ryan Rix <phrkonaleash at gmail.com> wrote:

> gnome is a metapackage, an empty package depending on all the things
> the a full GNOME system requires[1]. try dpkg-reconfigure gnome*
>
> [1] http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/gnome
>
> Ryan
> (top posting because I don't have a real mail client, sorry.)
>
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 6:55 AM, Mark
> Phillips<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
> > I ran my usual apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade last night on my
> Debian
> > squeeze system. There were no errors, and when I rebooted, I was able to
> > login, but gnome (1) generated an error message and (2) I only got as far
> as
> > my wallpaper and items on the Desktop. No menu bar (just white band) and
> no
> > panel at the bottom of the screen. I tried dpkg-reconfigure gnome, but
> gnome
> > had been removed! So I reinstalled it, and still the same problem. Any
> > suggestions where to look for the problem or how to fix it? Right now my
> > main machine is no more than a paperweight!
> >
> > The gnome error message:
> >
> > There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.
> >
> > Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work
> > correctly.
> >
> > The last error message was:
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > P.S. Iupdated three other machines the same way. This same error message
> > appears sometimes on those machines, but gnome manages to get everthing
> > running in spite of it. This is the first failure to actually load the
> menu
> > bar and panel.
> >
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>
>
> --
> Thanks and best regards,
> Ryan Rix
> OnBoard-NG
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Ryan and James,

Thanks for your suggestions. I read through the ubuntu posts about this
problem, and tried all the recipes they suggested, and none of them fixed
the problem. This is what I did:

1. (ubuntu post) - removed all the .gnome directories in /home/mark, ran
dpkg-reconfigure gnome, and rebooted. Gnome made new .gnome files, but the
menu bar at the top of the screen is blank and the panel at the bottom is
missing. The dirs/files are .gnome, .gnome2, .gnome2_private, and
.gtkrc-1.2-gnome2.

2. (other ubuntu post) made sure my /etc/network/interfaces file had the
following,
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

and /etc/hosts had:
127.0.0.1 localhost lo narwhale

3. Created a new user fred, and I can login with user fred and everything
works correctly - menu bar is at the top, panel at the bottom, and I can use
the sysem.

Some more data about the problem:

1. Before the apt-get update/upgrade, I was able to remotely login with ssh
-X, but now I get the error message can't open display.

2. When I login is mark (the old user from before the
apt-get/update/upgrade), the system locks up after a few minutes. Three
processes take over 80% of the cpu - gnome-panel, Xorg, and metacity. (I
have attached a screenshot of top). This is not the case when I log in as
fred.

Any suggestions on how to fix this mess, short of moving all my files from
user mark to user fred?

Thanks!

Mark
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