8.04LTS updates broke screen displays

[davebaldwin]

I have been running 8.04LTS on a Sony Pentium III with Intel 810 chipset as a desktop system but with the servers installed so I could prototype web sites. The updates two days ago (Feb 23) have broken my theme display and screensaver. I can't get the background image to display like it used to do and none of the Applications Menu icons are showing. I have a second 8.04LTS system on a P4 Intel motherboard that got the same updates and is working fine, nothing broke that I can see.

I tried to use the 'Screens and Graphic' application to set the screen back to what I wanted but it wouldn't 'stick'. I finally hand edited xorg.conf so that it would boot up in a screen that I could use. Still, the 'X' close and min/max icons in the window corners still don't show. This makes it inconvenient to use though it still works as a web server. I dont' know where to look from here.

[spcwingo]

Try this...With gnome up and running hold ALT and press F2. That should bring up a run prompt. In that run prompt enter:


metacity --replace

[davebaldwin]

Thanks, that did it!

[spcwingo]

If after a reboot it goes back to not displaying window borders let me know and I can write you a very small shell script that we can set to run that command every time you login...just let me know how it does after a reboot.

[davebaldwin]

Oops... that didn't do it. Wrong computer. On the 'bad' computer, Alt-F2 doesn't bring up anything. Running it in Terminal doesn't do anything either. Running 'metacity' by itself brings up a message saying that a Window manager is already running. Gnome version is 2.22.3

FWIW... none of the little graphics like the icons to min/max the window and the gradient background of the title bar of the window are working. No icons in the menus. Also, trying to change the appearance with the Appearance preferences has some effect but the screen goes back to what it was when I close the Appearances preference editor.

[spcwingo]

Try this...Hold CTRL+ALT and press F1. This should drop you to a terminal. From there login (you won't get any feedback when typing your password) and issue these commands:


sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

followed by:


sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

Then:


sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

EDIT: If that doesn't get it, I'll be back on here tomorrow evening...I have to go to bed now (6:30am comes mighty early). ;)

[davebaldwin]

I tried that and after rebooting, nothing had changed. If I try to right click on the top bar and select Help, it says "Could not display help document" "The default action does not support this protocol."

[davebaldwin]

I've put my old monitor back in service but that didn't make any difference. In addition to the display problems, several programs don't run uncluding Font Viewer and Theme Installer. In the Xorg log, it says something about not being able to allocate GARTmemory and no memory for DCACHE so maybe I need more ram. I only have 383MB in this computer. I'm going to get some more and see what happens then.

[spcwingo]

Try this...Hold CTRL+ALT and press F1. This should drop you to a terminal. From there login (you won't get any feedback when typing your password) and issue these commands:


sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

followed by:


sudo dpkg-reconfigure --phigh xserver-xorg

Finally:


sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

If this doesn't get, I'm all outta ideas. :(

[davebaldwin]

That didn't do it but thanks for your help. I don't think it is a screen and graphics problem at this point. I think something else is interfering. I have ordered some more memory and I'll try that next week.

[tgalati4]

Check your .xsession-errors file.

[davebaldwin]

Well, it tarts off with this:

Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /home/davidi/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms: Failed to open file '/home/davidi/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms': No such file or directory
No value set for `/desktop/gnome/applications/at/visual/exec'

I think that tells the 'what', now I need to figure out 'why'. How do I create that file?

There are also other messages about GLX and
(firefox:8550): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

[davebaldwin]

I just looked at my other 8.04LTS computer and it doesn't have that file either. But it's running Ok.

[tgalati4]

If you check the "save sessions after logout" then your open applications will reopen next time you log in or boot up. So a file gets created for this "default" session. If you don't check the box then the file doesn't get created.

The GLX error is probably some firefox rendering problem with myspace or other plastered site.

What errors show up in /var/log/xorg.0.log?

[davebaldwin]

I'm back. I upgraded the memory to 512MB. I did a 'recovery' boot and checked for broken packages, none found, went to root and removed some unused packages, and did the x-server repair and nothing has changed with the screen problems. At this point, keystrokes like Ctl-F1 and Alt-F2 don't do anything. If I right click on the top or bottom panels and select the Help symbol, I get a message that says "Could not display document." "The default action does not support this protocol". Also, the Screen Resolution and Appearance preferences don't stick or maybe not even affect operation. I've got Screens and Graphics under applications and it does appear to work though it doesn't 'stick' either.

/var/log/xorg.0.log doesn't list anything as an actual error and the things that are disabled seem to be disabled on working systems also. I have hand editted 'xorg.conf' because that has always been the only way to keep the screen from changing. But the log shows a lot of Modeline entries that I have deleted and that puzzles me. On this machine, I just want a 1024x768 screen but it would be nice to have the menus and the header on the windows working properly.

[davebaldwin]

If anyone is listening anymore, I found part of the problem with the screens. The 'Authorization' to change system settings had been turned off which explains why no changes were taking effect. I have some of the theme decorations back now but I still can't enable 'Desktop Effects' for some reason. And my computer can't spell so this took a lot more typing than you see.