Problems Upgrading Debian Squeeze

[Mark Phillips]

forgot to attach the screenshot from top (not sure if it will go through):


On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz>wrote:

>
> 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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