spamhog
July 18th, 2010, 05:24 PM
This is not a fix but some tests that might help find a solution.
For a temporary workaround see e.g. here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1482575
If you already have the disappearing-panels problem,
please see if you can reproduce this behavior:
- A virgin, just-generated Linux user account, never logged into Gnome, will display panels ONCE and only once.
- I found 3 separate factors, each of which alone can make a virgin account incapable of displaying panels:
logging in and logging out, which puts Gnome config files in the virgin user's home directory
copying a just generated virgin, never logged-in user's home directory, deleting the original, and restoring it from the copy
renaming a just generated virgin, never logged-in user's home directory, and than renaming it back to the original name
Please try this and tell us what happens.
TEST 1
sudo adduser test1
# select a password
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Log into Gnome as user "test1".
Log out.
Log in again
You should see the panels the first time you login as test1, but not the second time. This is the commonly reported behavior.
TEST 2
sudo adduser test2
# select a password but DO NOT LOG IN as user "test2" now
sudo cp -a /home/test2 /root/test2
sudo rm -rf /home/test2
sudo cp -a /home/root/test2 /home/test2
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Now log into Gnome as user "test2".
This time you may not see the panels, even on the first login. I don't!
TEST 3
sudo adduser test3
# select a password but DO NOT LOG IN as user "test3" now
sudo mv /home/test3 /home/test3-renamed
sudo mv /home/test3-renamed /home/test3
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Now log into Gnome as user "test3".
Also this time you may not see the panels even on the first login. I don't!
If you see all this happen, then the bug might be related to meta-data recorded by the file system, or some other system-wide problem, not a necessarily a misconfiguration automatically generated the first time a given user is logged into Gnome.
I have reported this as a Gnome bug: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=624659
The disappearing panels from a previously logged-in user is a much reported problem. But the related issue with copying / renaming of a totally virgin user's directory was not noticed yet. If confirmed it might help find the bug, and needs confirmation.
Please help!
Thank you in advance.
Filippo / spamhog
To clean up after tests do this:
sudo deluser --remove-home test1
sudo deluser --remove-home test2
sudo deluser --remove-home test3
sudo rm -rf /root/test2
sudo rm -rf /home/test3-renamed
For a temporary workaround see e.g. here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1482575
If you already have the disappearing-panels problem,
please see if you can reproduce this behavior:
- A virgin, just-generated Linux user account, never logged into Gnome, will display panels ONCE and only once.
- I found 3 separate factors, each of which alone can make a virgin account incapable of displaying panels:
logging in and logging out, which puts Gnome config files in the virgin user's home directory
copying a just generated virgin, never logged-in user's home directory, deleting the original, and restoring it from the copy
renaming a just generated virgin, never logged-in user's home directory, and than renaming it back to the original name
Please try this and tell us what happens.
TEST 1
sudo adduser test1
# select a password
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Log into Gnome as user "test1".
Log out.
Log in again
You should see the panels the first time you login as test1, but not the second time. This is the commonly reported behavior.
TEST 2
sudo adduser test2
# select a password but DO NOT LOG IN as user "test2" now
sudo cp -a /home/test2 /root/test2
sudo rm -rf /home/test2
sudo cp -a /home/root/test2 /home/test2
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Now log into Gnome as user "test2".
This time you may not see the panels, even on the first login. I don't!
TEST 3
sudo adduser test3
# select a password but DO NOT LOG IN as user "test3" now
sudo mv /home/test3 /home/test3-renamed
sudo mv /home/test3-renamed /home/test3
Go to graphic login screen (easiest is to reboot).
Now log into Gnome as user "test3".
Also this time you may not see the panels even on the first login. I don't!
If you see all this happen, then the bug might be related to meta-data recorded by the file system, or some other system-wide problem, not a necessarily a misconfiguration automatically generated the first time a given user is logged into Gnome.
I have reported this as a Gnome bug: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=624659
The disappearing panels from a previously logged-in user is a much reported problem. But the related issue with copying / renaming of a totally virgin user's directory was not noticed yet. If confirmed it might help find the bug, and needs confirmation.
Please help!
Thank you in advance.
Filippo / spamhog
To clean up after tests do this:
sudo deluser --remove-home test1
sudo deluser --remove-home test2
sudo deluser --remove-home test3
sudo rm -rf /root/test2
sudo rm -rf /home/test3-renamed