On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 6:33 AM, Austin Godber <godber@uberhip.com> wrote:

> Mark Phillips wrote:
> > Since I can't get gnome to work with my existing user directories,
> > what is the best way to remove all of gnome and then reinstall it on
> > Debian squeeze?
>
> I don't understand what you mean by "I can't get gnome to work with my
> existing user directories".  Is it just that you have some old gnome
> configuration in .gnome and .gnome2 in these home directories so that
> gnome crashes or is all munged up when it loads?
>
> I have found that when moving or syncing old home directories to
> machines with new versions of the software it takes a bit of management
> of the .files and .directories.  I would try with a new fresh user as
> Ted has suggested and then start whittling away any . directory/file in
> your home dir that might have gnome config info: .gconf .gconfd .gnome
> .gnome2 ... etc.  Or back the whole dir up and then blast all the .files
> and .dirs and see if it works.  Then if it works, just restore the files
> you KNOW you need and use to your live home dir.
>
> Austin
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Austin,

I ran an apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade, and I could no longer log
into my user account. I was able to ssh to the machine and create a new
user, which works just fine. However, I still get the gnome error message
when I log into the new account. I upgraded four machines last week, and all
of them now display the gnome error screen when existing users log in, but
they recover on their own and the users are able to work with their old
accounts. This one machine is having problems. I will try removing the
.gconf* files to see if that is the problem.

Mark