11.10 Gnome Classic: completely blank desktop!?

[brec]

I upgraded yesterday and today from 10.04 to 11.10 via 10.10 and 11.04 -- it was a long process!

I want Gnome Classic, so I installed gnome-session-fallback, rebooted, and chose Gnome Classic from the drop-down ("gear") menu on the login form. I was given a completely blank desktop -- no panel(s), nothing at any edge. All I could do was right-click anywhere to get the usual desktop right-click menu with choices of Create folder, etc. The last choice (Change desktop background or words to that effect) brought up the desktop background and theme dialog box, so I chose a pretty picture for my completely blank desktop. On reboot, I get a pretty picture and that's all.

So I can't do anything in Gnome Classic except Create folder, etc.

[brec]

Don't know whether it's related, but in Unity (since I can't use Gnome; see previous post) if the screensaver (locker) kicks in, the only way I've discovered to get my screen back from it is to hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get a console login, and then Ctrl-Alt-F7 to go back to the GUI.

[73ckn797]

Sounds like the updade could have messed things up. A clean install may fix the problem. I have only once performed an update from one version to another. It was problematic. Since then I have always created separate / and /home partitions. Subsequent upgrades are fresh installs and I can keep the /home partition and all of my data.

[brec]

Sounds like the updade could have messed things up. A clean install may fix the problem. I have only once performed an update from one version to another. It was problematic. Since then I have always created separate / and /home partitions. Subsequent upgrades are fresh installs and I can keep the /home partition and all of my data.

Maybe not completely fresh... If I look in my Home dir I see a lot of .files representing quite a bit of cruft that would come along for the ride:



.adobe
.aptitude
.bash_history
.bash_logout
.bashrc
.cache
.compiz-1
.config
.config.file.backup.tar
.dbus
.debtags
.dmrc
.esd_auth
.evolution
.fontconfig
.gconf
.gconfd
.gksu.lock
.gnome2
.gnome2_private
.gstreamer-0.10
.gtk-bookmarks
.gvfs
.htoprc
.ICEauthority
.icons
.lesshst
.local
.macromedia
.mission-control
.mozilla
.openoffice.org
.opera
.pki
.profile
.pulse-cookie
.qt
.ssh
.sudo_as_admin_successful
.sudoku
.synaptic
.themes
.thumbnails
.update-notifier
.usbcreator.log
.vnc
.Xauthority
.xsession-errors
.xsession-errors.old

[73ckn797]

There will be folders in the /home from most added programs. Things such as .thunderbird, .mozilla, .openoffice or other things would not be changed. Doing an update via the Synaptic Package Manager when there shows to be a version update will not be a clean install. If the /home folder was not a separate partition, those things would remain. There is a lot of stuff being added and over written and many other things not changed at all.

That is why you will find plenty of advice on the forums to do a fresh install. Many do not experience problems, those are, in my opinion, the exception.

[brec]

OK... Suppose I have a separate /home partition. Now I install, say, 11.10 all fresh and shiny. How do I connect the /home partition to the new 11.10?

[73ckn797]

OK... Suppose I have a separate /home partition. Now I install, say, 11.10 all fresh and shiny. How do I connect the /home partition to the new 11.10?
You have the option to designate that during the install. When presented with the screen to install alongside or over an existing installation you also have a choice to do something else (I do not recall the exact wording). From that you are taken to a screen where you can select the partition or make changes to the partition. You could resize the existing partition and create a separate partition and designate that as the /home partition. The data partition, which you resized, can be designated as /.

If you already have a /home partition you can still designate that but do not format it. When restarting after the installation process it will be the /home.

Look here: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-create-a-separate-home-partition-in-ubuntu.html

and here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving

[brec]

I now have a clean install of 11.10 with the prior contents of /home in a separate partition. It boots into Gnome Classic without problem.

[73ckn797]

Good deal.

[brec]

I now have a clean install of 11.10 with the prior contents of /home in a separate partition. It boots into Gnome Classic without problem.

Whoops, that conclusion was premature. After installing the latest proprietary ATI Radeon graphics driver, which was installed when I originally posted after upgrading (versus clean-installing) 11.10, the problems are back. The problems being: no Gnome Classic menus/panels, and screen-saver not dismissable except via Ctrl-Alt-F2 then Ctrl-Alt-F7.

I'm going to try falling back to the driver that is available in the "official" repositories. Stand by...

[brec]

Whoops, that conclusion was premature. After installing the latest proprietary ATI Radeon graphics driver, which was installed when I originally posted after upgrading (versus clean-installing) 11.10, the problems are back. The problems being: no Gnome Classic menus/panels, and screen-saver not dismissable except via Ctrl-Alt-F2 then Ctrl-Alt-F7.

I'm going to try falling back to the driver that is available in the "official" repositories. Stand by...

Didn't help. It looks like the presence of the fglrx (proprietary ATI Radeon) driver causes the problem. Unfortunately, I need that driver.