moonhowler Posted November 29, 2004 Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 (edited) I'm new to linux, and trying to find my way - but finding lots of frustrations too. I had to reinstall 10.0OE recently, and when the login GUI comes up, it shows only KDE and IceWM (and Default); GNOME is missing. This happened on a previous reinstall too - but I don't remember what I did to get GNOME back on the login screen. I've done some searching and tried the following, w/o joy: A previous thread suggested trying <rpm -qa | grep gnome> in the console to find out if GNOME is installed; this is what was found: gnome-mime-data-2.4.1-5mdk libgnome2_0-2.4.0-4mdk gnome-libs-1.4.2-7mdk libgnomeprint-2.4.2-1mdk gnome-print-0.37-5mdk libgnomeprintui2-2_0-2.4.2-1mdk gnome-terminal-2.4.2-2mdk libgnome-vfs2_0-2.4.2-4mdk libgnome2-2.4.0-4mdk gnome-icon-theme-1.1.6-3mdk libgnomeui2-2.4.0.1-2mdk libgnome32-1.4.2-7mdk libgnomeprint2-2_0-2.4.2-1mdk libglade-gnome0-0.17-9mdk libgnomeprint15-0.37-5mdk gnome-desktop-2.4.1.1-2mdk galaxy-gnome-1.0.0-5mdk gnomemeeting-0.98.5-4mdk libgdk-pixbuf-gnomecanvas1-0.22.0-2.2.100mdk gnome-pim-1.4.9-5mdk gnome-audio-2.0.0-1mdk gnome-vfs2-2.4.2-4mdk libgnomecanvas2_0-2.4.0-1mdk libgnomeui2_0-2.4.0.1-2mdk libgnome-desktop-2_2-2.4.1.1-2mdk gnome-media-2.4.1.1-1mdk gnome-system-monitor-2.4.0-1mdk [root@localhost me]# rpm -qa | grep gnome2 libgnome2_0-2.4.0-4mdk libgnome2-2.4.0-4mdk I tried URPMI for all GNOME components it listed, and it said "everything already installed" for all components. I don't know what else to do...any ideas? Edited December 7, 2004 by moonhowler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted November 29, 2004 Report Share Posted November 29, 2004 hi there :) there are still some packages missing, like gnome-panel or gtk-libraries. open mandrake control center, go to software install section and check the gnome box. this should install the missing libraries/rpms and make gnome available for you. if not, report back. ;) good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2004 Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 gnome-session is the pkg needed to be in the dm list. gnome-desktop is the pkg that'll get you the necessary gnome deps installed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted November 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 Hey Guys, I'm not at my linux box right now...typing this on W*****s :( I'll try your sugg.'s tomorrow when I've got it back...in the meantime, a couple of thoughts: bvc, I tried urpmi gnome-session, but it said "no such package". This surprised me, because I thought I'd remembered installing it before. Also, in MCC Software Install, neither gnome-session nor gnome-desktop is listed...I don't understand what happened to them. Arctic, I checked everything there was under gnome in MCC Software Install - I even checked under System -> Libraries, and no more gnome stuff is listed. I just can't figure out where they went. BTW, the reinstallation was done with 10.0OE CD's, so the complete gnome pkg. "should have" been installed...but 10.0's installation does seem a little buggy. I'm also confused about why urpmi said "no such pkg." I've loved using linux - it's just amazing that an OS exists that is this usable and versatile. I'm no IT whiz, but I'm learning to use it and am impressed. It's just that there have been a few really aggravating problems like this that I'm anxious to solve so I can get it up and running again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2004 Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 how many cd's? You might want to make sure you have all 3 or at least the first 2 cd's in the Media Manager in MCC. Update them for the rpm database. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted November 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 Two installation CD's - It's the "Discovery" edition, which has a third CD, but it's Move, not an installation CD. In the initial install, right after purchase, gnome was installed, listed in the login GUI, and usable. It's just in the two reinstalls that it's disappeared. Not sure what you mean by having the CD's in the MCC Media Manager. I'll look in MM tomorrow (today!) and see what's there...still finding my way. Thanks guys for the help so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted November 30, 2004 Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 in case you have broadband, you can add some software/rpm mirrors with easyurpmi and download all things you need from there. just follow the instructions on that site and you will get access to thousands of packages, the gnome packages among them. Not sure what you mean by having the CD's in the MCC Media Manager just as you add mirrors for urpmi as explained above, you can add the cds to your software repositories in mandrake-control center. it is quite self-explaining. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted November 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2004 Yea, I got the magical easyurpmi installed (it really is magical - worked wonderfully before), but it said "no such pkg" for gnome-session. This is really strange, because this is a pkg. that it happily installed before. When I reinstalled urpmi this time, I chose different mirror sites - I wouldn't think that would make a difference, but...? Still not in front of my linux box yet, but as soon as I am, I'll add the CD's. Thanks arctic! Stay tuned... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted December 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2004 (edited) Hi bvc & arctic, I finally got a chance to look in MCC Media Mgr., and both CD's are already listed as sources, along with update_source, plf, and updates. So, that's not the source of the problem. This is insanely frustrating. I'm just baffled. Any thoughts? Edited December 1, 2004 by moonhowler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted December 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2004 I'm just about to give up on linux - at least Mandrake. When you find yourself yearning for the stability and reliability of Windows 98, something's badly wrong. Here goes: After reading many posts about dual-boots with Windows causing many linux problems, I decided to just reinstall 10.0 and let the installer wipe the hard drive completely clean - no trace of Windows left. Install went smoothly (installing many gnome files along the way); rebooted, login window came up, and...no gnome. OK, well, at least I had a fresh, clean install that should eliminate the many problems i've fought with after each install. Then, after working in KDE for a bit, things got downright creepy: *as happened on both prior reinstalls, KPPP appeared nowhere in the menu - I had to locate the file and manually create a link to it. Not too hard to fix (hard-won knowledge after spending many hours in the first reinstall trying to figure out how to connect), but why no link? An internet connection seems like a pretty basic function to me...irritating, but a minor problem. *the menu refused to change after I saved changes in Menudrake - nothing I did altered the menu's appearance in any way, and nothing I did would put "Connect to the internet" on the menu. The progress window kept freezing - just hung for 10-15 minutes at a time - had to use Ctrl-Alt-Esc each time to get rid of it. Another irritating-but-minor problem. *the terminal launcher button on the panel at the bottom of the screen suddenly stopped working. Fortunately, I was still able to launch a terminal window from the menu. After several tries, the button suddenly started working again. *the "configure desktop" function (from a right-click on the desktop) suddenly stopped working: nothing happened at all. After many tries, it suddenly started working again. *the "KDE Crash" window popped up, helpfully explaining that the traceroute had no information about the problem. Closing the crash window had no effect on KDE or the programs I was running. *I decided it was time for a Windows-style reboot to hopefully fix things. When the login window came up, the person's-head icon had changed all by itself into a plain orangish button. Not a good sign. *when KDE came back up, about half the application-link buttons I had installed in the panel at the bottom of the window had disappeared. *these were all non-critical problems - but they were piling up. I decided to do easyurpmi again. After fighting with it for a while, I found a thread that suggested the firewall might be the problem. So I disabled the firewall, and finally got all but jpackage installed. jpackage's installation would just hang for an hour or so. OK, no jpackage then... *all the other urpmi sources were added, but all said "database locked". Sounds bad, but I don't have a clue what that means. So, I opened MCC's Media Mgr. - at least I tried. MM kept giving the error message saying "please close other app.'s working with packages' database". OK, so maybe urpmi is still running in the background. A thread explained how to force an app running in the background to shut down: type <top> or <ps -u> in the terminal as root to list all processes, then type <k> (ENTER), then type the process number (ENTER). Did that, but got the message "command not found". I've got to start getting some actual work done, and I'm just never sure what's going to happen when I boot Mandrake, so I'm forced to return to Windows until I can get this sorted out. Anyone have any ideas? I'm frustrated and stumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted December 2, 2004 Report Share Posted December 2, 2004 A lot of these problems sound like 10.0 problems that require updates to be fixed. What's preventing you from going 10.1? I agree that those issues are difficult for anyone coming into linux to have to encounter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted December 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2004 (edited) A lot of these problems sound like 10.0 problems that require updates to be fixed. What's preventing you from going 10.1? I agree that those issues are difficult for anyone coming into linux to have to encounter. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think updates would fix some of them (that's why I was trying to get easyurpmi set up), although in prior installs, many were still left after updates. But I'm still confused about easyurpmi - what does "database locked" mean? Does it mean that the easyurpmi-supplied mirrors are unusable? If so, can I use urpmi through MCC Media Mgr.? If easyurpmi has inserted its sources there, and "database locked" means easyurpmi's sources are unusable, how can I substitute usable sources, so I can at least update? What's stopping me from going to 10.1 is the idea of "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result": the many bugs reported in 10.1 means that I'd probably just be trading one set of bugs for another. Would they be easier to resolve? Harder? Don't know. I'd rather go with another, more reliable distribution if I give up on 10.0 (mepis? yoper?). I realize that no distro (or OS) will be perfect, but I've just got to have an OS that's at least as reliable as Win98. I don't think that's too much to expect. I'm willing to spend some time fixing bugs, but I don't like any product - computer-related or otherwise - that either cannot be fixed or will not stay fixed. Mandrake's so far been pretty wobbly on both counts (for example, a new [old] bug popped up again: 10.0 will not shut down the computer - must hold down the power button to force it off...Mandrake tech support was baffled; it finally fixed itself after a BIOS update - and now it's back). Random, intermittent bugs like this breed mistrust (will the OS crash repeatedly at critical times? will I lose my data unless I back it up every few minutes? will I spend all my time in a futile quest to fix bug after bug just so I can get some work done?) Maybe 10.1 is a big improvement, but I'm not convinced yet. For now, I'd just like to get 10.0 usable again. Anyone have any ideas on the urpmi/how-to-update issues? I do appreciate the help, BTW; I'm just way frustrated right now. Edited December 2, 2004 by moonhowler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 3, 2004 Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 'database locked' means you're running something else that uses the urpm database at the same time - any of the urpm* apps, rpmdrake, edit-urpm-sources, MnadrakeUpdate, anything dealing with MDK packages. Only one app can access the urpm / rpm databases at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonhowler Posted December 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 'database locked' means you're running something else that uses the urpm database at the same time - any of the urpm* apps, rpmdrake, edit-urpm-sources, MnadrakeUpdate, anything dealing with MDK packages. Only one app can access the urpm / rpm databases at once. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's exactly what I needed to know - urpmi was running in the background; finally shut it down through KDE System Monitor (don't know why it was constantly running w/o any apps open using it...?), and finally (sort of) got urpmi downloading again. The terminal window is really buggy - it keeps hanging - so between that & a dial-up connection its been a pain. But I THINK (hope) gnome is downloading right now. Updates too, hopefully. Keepin' my fingers crossed...Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 BTW, 'urpmi gnome2' will automatically download all packages required for a working gnome2 system. If the terminal you're using is buggy you could always use another, I use gnome-terminal on my main system and rxvt on my laptop...a *nix system is never short of terminals :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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