esd woes (was: Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root)
Markus Schönhaber wrote: In the meantime I've noticed one thing: under the first user account I created on the machine, there are no problems at all. With other accounts, I experience random lockups (main menu doesn't respond anymore, desktop icons disappear, nautilus hangs etc.). The difference seems to be that for all accounts except the first, gnome-session starts an instance of esd. I did follow the Gnome 2.18 upgrade guide http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/gnome/howtos/gnome-2.18-upgrade.xml which states that one should start the esound service. This seems to work for the first account, i. e. no esd is spawned upon login but sound works nevertheless. For the other accounts, an instance of esd is started and if I experience a lockup, killing this esd process resolves the issue. I have yet to find out what the difference is between the accounts. The difference seems to be the content of ~/.esd_auth. Applications seem to use the value of this authentication cookie when connecting to the sound server, which decides upon this value whether or not it allows the connection. The cookie in the home directory of the user without problems obviously works. The cookies of the other users don't. ~/.esd_auth is automatically created if it doesn't exist - and the newly created cookie doesn't help authenticating at the sound server. Since the best documentation I was able to find is http://www.tux.org/~ricdude/dbdocs/design_docs148.html I don't have the slightest idea how to create a working cookie or how I managed to get the one working cookie in the one account that exhibits no problems. One workaround (short of disabling sound mixing) obviously is to copy the working cookie to the home dir of the account(s) with problems. But I don't like that. So I looked at the configuration of esd: /etc/conf.d/esound contains # Warning: To use global esound daemon, you must also set spawn_options # in /etc/esd/esd.conf to the same protocol (i. e. add -tcp) and unset # Enable sound server startup in gnome-sound-properties for all users # and optionally handle authentization. Great! I should handle authentization. Too bad that I still do not know how to do that. And I should disable sound server startup. Too bad that this effectively turns off system sounds - the only reason I enabled it in the first place. Further in /etc/conf.d/esound I had ESD_OPTIONS=-tcp -public I'm pretty sure I didn't set this manually since I never have had need for network sound. I changed that to ESD_OPTIONS=-promiscuous which causes esound-esd to use Unix domain sockets instead of tcp sockets and turns off authentication. Since I made this change, I have yet to encounter any lockups (or, for that matter, an additionally spawned esd). But esd -h says [...] -promiscuous start unlocked and owned (disable authenticaton) NOT RECOMMENDED [...] I want all my users to be able to use the sound daemon - does the above warning still apply in this case (because it imposes a risk I do not see)? Regards mks -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:00:17 -0400 Dan Cowsill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/14/07, Allan Gottlieb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:49:56 -0400 Dan Cowsill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An interesting development: I removed my user from the system and deleted his home folder. After that, I made the user again and tried logging in. I got a whole bunch of configuration errors... But I don't understand how this could be. I created ANOTHER user with a different name and logged in... perfectly. Everything seems to work with this user, and nothing seems to work with my user. Are user-based settings stored in some other place? I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb and it works. There must be something in my config (and yours) that is bad for the old user. I can balance my checkbook with the new user so the panic is gone, but something needs to be fixed somewhere. allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list Well, that's interesting because my test user has a different uid than my original... I used the same uid so that permissions would be the same (e.g. both users are in the same groups). I would presumably permit my new user to actually work on the real user's files (specifically, gnucash and evolution calendar), but I am not brave enough to try. So I copied the files to the new user and work there. allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:43:08 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Allan Gottlieb schrieb: At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:27:57 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Try moving ~/.gconfd out of the way. It helped in my case. Thanks. I tried it, but alas no effect. Same status (.gconfd had only the saved-state file). Yep, same for me. The difference is, for me, getting rid of it helped. If you're still interested in finding out what causes your problems, I'd start by moving ~/.gconf out of the way. You'll lose most of your settings but if that helps you could move the items from the backup to the automatically created new ~/.gconf one by one and eventually spot the bad one. And there's also ~/.gnome2 that could be screwed up. I am doing a similar thing in a different way. Instead of removing configuration files, I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb. I then copy config files from gottlieb to testgot, expecting breaking to eventually occur. So far testgot works much better than gottlieb even though it has copies of gottlieb's .gconfd, .gnome, .gnome_private, .gnome2, and .gnome2_private. I will continue to move more config files and report here when I find the culprit. thanks for helping, allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
Allan Gottlieb wrote: At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:43:08 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Allan Gottlieb schrieb: At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:27:57 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Try moving ~/.gconfd out of the way. It helped in my case. Thanks. I tried it, but alas no effect. Same status (.gconfd had only the saved-state file). Yep, same for me. The difference is, for me, getting rid of it helped. Wrong. It seemed to help, but it did so only temporarily. If you're still interested in finding out what causes your problems, I'd start by moving ~/.gconf out of the way. You'll lose most of your settings but if that helps you could move the items from the backup to the automatically created new ~/.gconf one by one and eventually spot the bad one. And there's also ~/.gnome2 that could be screwed up. I am doing a similar thing in a different way. Instead of removing configuration files, I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb. I then copy config files from gottlieb to testgot, expecting breaking to eventually occur. So far testgot works much better than gottlieb even though it has copies of gottlieb's .gconfd, .gnome, .gnome_private, .gnome2, and .gnome2_private. I will continue to move more config files and report here when I find the culprit. In the meantime I've noticed one thing: under the first user account I created on the machine, there are no problems at all. With other accounts, I experience random lockups (main menu doesn't respond anymore, desktop icons disappear, nautilus hangs etc.). The difference seems to be that for all accounts except the first, gnome-session starts an instance of esd. I did follow the Gnome 2.18 upgrade guide http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/gnome/howtos/gnome-2.18-upgrade.xml which states that one should start the esound service. This seems to work for the first account, i. e. no esd is spawned upon login but sound works nevertheless. For the other accounts, an instance of esd is started and if I experience a lockup, killing this esd process resolves the issue. I have yet to find out what the difference is between the accounts. It doesn't seem to be a difference in the settings, since for both enable software sound mixing (ESD) is checked in Preferences/Sound/Sounds. I even created a completely fresh home directory - to no avail. And it doesn't seem to be a problem with the user's rights either - I added one of the problematic accounts to all groups (even wheel - it was already in audio) the account not showing any problems is in, but I still experienced lockups. I'll try to investigate that further, but if someone has an idea why the above happens, I'd appreciate if they told me. Regards mks -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
On 8/14/07, Allan Gottlieb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:49:56 -0400 Dan Cowsill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An interesting development: I removed my user from the system and deleted his home folder. After that, I made the user again and tried logging in. I got a whole bunch of configuration errors... But I don't understand how this could be. I created ANOTHER user with a different name and logged in... perfectly. Everything seems to work with this user, and nothing seems to work with my user. Are user-based settings stored in some other place? I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb and it works. There must be something in my config (and yours) that is bad for the old user. I can balance my checkbook with the new user so the panic is gone, but something needs to be fixed somewhere. allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list Well, that's interesting because my test user has a different uid than my original... -- Dan Cowsill http://www.danthehat.net -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
Allan Gottlieb schrieb: At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:27:57 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Try moving ~/.gconfd out of the way. It helped in my case. Thanks. I tried it, but alas no effect. Same status (.gconfd had only the saved-state file). Yep, same for me. The difference is, for me, getting rid of it helped. If you're still interested in finding out what causes your problems, I'd start by moving ~/.gconf out of the way. You'll lose most of your settings but if that helps you could move the items from the backup to the automatically created new ~/.gconf one by one and eventually spot the bad one. And there's also ~/.gnome2 that could be screwed up. Regards mks -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
On 8/13/07, Allan Gottlieb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I updated to the new gnome. After battling the expat problem, I was able to get a clean emerge and an empty revdep-rebuild (with Bo's help). But gnome is broken on this system (others have reported similar problems). In my case basically all gnome apps, e.g. panel, gnucash, evolution, gnome-terminal, evince fail when a normal user logs in. With a root login, gnome-terminal fails, but panel, gnucash, evolution seem to work (didn't try evince as root). For a normal user gnome login, I use either a shell in emacs or go to a virtual terminal and start an xterm. In any case when I try to start a gnome app (e.g. gnucash), no output is produced, no window appears, but the app shows up in ps x. I would be very appreciative for any help. thanks in advance, allan gottlieb -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list I am experiencing similar issues to Allan, and I thought it may have something to do with user settings. So, starting from a clean slate, I created a new user and tried to log in, first with gdm and then from the console with startx. Both times with the same result. It seems to make the problem worse. I don't quite know how that could be. I then went back to my old user and started deleting all of the .folders one by one and trying to log in. Folders relevant to the problem seemed to be .gnome2 and .metacity. Perhaps it's a problem with metacity? Either way, I'm by no means a guru, but I'll try to help as much as possible. -- Dan Cowsill http://www.danthehat.net -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
On 8/14/07, Dan Cowsill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/13/07, Allan Gottlieb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I updated to the new gnome. After battling the expat problem, I was able to get a clean emerge and an empty revdep-rebuild (with Bo's help). But gnome is broken on this system (others have reported similar problems). In my case basically all gnome apps, e.g. panel, gnucash, evolution, gnome-terminal, evince fail when a normal user logs in. With a root login, gnome-terminal fails, but panel, gnucash, evolution seem to work (didn't try evince as root). For a normal user gnome login, I use either a shell in emacs or go to a virtual terminal and start an xterm. In any case when I try to start a gnome app (e.g. gnucash), no output is produced, no window appears, but the app shows up in ps x. I would be very appreciative for any help. thanks in advance, allan gottlieb -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list I am experiencing similar issues to Allan, and I thought it may have something to do with user settings. So, starting from a clean slate, I created a new user and tried to log in, first with gdm and then from the console with startx. Both times with the same result. It seems to make the problem worse. I don't quite know how that could be. I then went back to my old user and started deleting all of the .folders one by one and trying to log in. Folders relevant to the problem seemed to be .gnome2 and .metacity. Perhaps it's a problem with metacity? Either way, I'm by no means a guru, but I'll try to help as much as possible. -- Dan Cowsill http://www.danthehat.net An interesting development: I removed my user from the system and deleted his home folder. After that, I made the user again and tried logging in. I got a whole bunch of configuration errors... But I don't understand how this could be. I created ANOTHER user with a different name and logged in... perfectly. Everything seems to work with this user, and nothing seems to work with my user. Are user-based settings stored in some other place? -- Dan Cowsill http://www.danthehat.net -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
At Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:49:56 -0400 Dan Cowsill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An interesting development: I removed my user from the system and deleted his home folder. After that, I made the user again and tried logging in. I got a whole bunch of configuration errors... But I don't understand how this could be. I created ANOTHER user with a different name and logged in... perfectly. Everything seems to work with this user, and nothing seems to work with my user. Are user-based settings stored in some other place? I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb and it works. There must be something in my config (and yours) that is bad for the old user. I can balance my checkbook with the new user so the panic is gone, but something needs to be fixed somewhere. allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
Allan Gottlieb wrote: I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb and it works. There must be something in my config (and yours) that is bad for the old user. I can balance my checkbook with the new user so the panic is gone, but something needs to be fixed somewhere. Try moving ~/.gconfd out of the way. It helped in my case. Regards mks -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
At Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:27:57 +0200 Markus Schönhaber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Allan Gottlieb wrote: I created a new user testgot with the same uid as gottlieb and it works. There must be something in my config (and yours) that is bad for the old user. I can balance my checkbook with the new user so the panic is gone, but something needs to be fixed somewhere. Try moving ~/.gconfd out of the way. It helped in my case. Thanks. I tried it, but alas no effect. Same status (.gconfd had only the saved-state file). thanks again for trying, allan -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
[gentoo-user] new gnome fails except for root
I updated to the new gnome. After battling the expat problem, I was able to get a clean emerge and an empty revdep-rebuild (with Bo's help). But gnome is broken on this system (others have reported similar problems). In my case basically all gnome apps, e.g. panel, gnucash, evolution, gnome-terminal, evince fail when a normal user logs in. With a root login, gnome-terminal fails, but panel, gnucash, evolution seem to work (didn't try evince as root). For a normal user gnome login, I use either a shell in emacs or go to a virtual terminal and start an xterm. In any case when I try to start a gnome app (e.g. gnucash), no output is produced, no window appears, but the app shows up in ps x. I would be very appreciative for any help. thanks in advance, allan gottlieb -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
