Rollback from Gnome 2.9 to 2.6

[Aonghus]

Hi,

I recently updated to Gnome2.9 from thac's rpms. After updating my desktop isn't working (I see the background set in GDM rather than my desktop background, and no icons), and terminal won't run either. I don't really need the update - I was just doing it for the sake of trying it out.

 

The problem is I can't uninstall Gnome without taking all its dependants with it, so is there any way to re-install the 2.6 rpms without having to remove and reinstall anything else that needs them. Would 'rpm --force' be the best way to go about this - or perhaps urpmi has a command to avoid removing dependants?

 

Alternatively if anyone can suggest a way of getting the 2.9 working to bypass the problem altogether, that would be great.

I'm using xfce at the moment, but it's a little too utilitarian for my liking :)

 

Thanks for any ideas you might have,

regards,

Aonghus

[bvc]

have you tried moving or deleting from another wm/de or init 3 all your gnome preference dirs?

.gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconf.d .metacity

 

Or, create another user and see it the gnome desktop works first. If it does then deleting the above should take care of the prob.

[Aonghus]

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I deleted those directories, but I still have no desktop, or terminal in gnome. I presume this means there is something awry with the gnome-desktop and gnome-terminal rpms? I mean as they combine with my system of course - if they were inherently faulty I'm sure they wouldn't be up in the first place. ANyway, no luck with that method - does anyone have any alternative suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Aonghus

[bvc]

making another user will tell you if they work

otherwise you will have to remove the pkgs and there deps with

rpm -e --nodeps

and possibly need the --force options at times.

 

b4 doing it you should already have your urpmi sources pointing to the correct mirror and ready to to replace the pkgs. It can get nasty. Nothing should have been installed that would render the sys completely useless, but until everything is put back you can expect drakestuff (control center) not to work because of gtk and py deps. That could include urpmi so have a way to get pkgs from the internet and install with rpm. In fact, if yu have the hd space and broadband download the mandriva mirror to your hd.

[Aonghus]

Thanks for your help.

I made another user just to be sure and got the same problem.

 

otherwise you will have to remove the pkgs and there deps with

rpm -e --nodeps

and possibly need the --force options at times.

Sorry for a stupid question, but what does the nodeps argument mean? Does it avoid removing the non-gnome, but related, rpms?

 

b4 doing it you should already have your urpmi sources pointing to the correct mirror and ready to to >replace the pkgs. It can get nasty. Nothing should have been installed that would render the sys >completely useless, but until everything is put back you can expect drakestuff (control center) not to >work because of gtk and py deps. That could include urpmi so have a way to get pkgs from the >internet and install with rpm. In fact, if yu have the hd space and broadband download the mandriva >mirror to your hd.

I have set up my urpmi sources with easy urpmi for my version (Mandrake 10.1 CE) Am I right in thinking from the above that I need to uninstall all the gnome packages and then reinstall the 2.6 rpms, possibly without the help of urpmi? I have the 10.1 CE CDs, so will using rpm and their contents suffice as an alternative if necessary?

 

I must admit to being a little lost with your advice (sorry - distinctly inexperienced :) ). COuld you clarify? Are there perhaps alternative ways of making the version I have work?

 

Thanks again for your help - it is greatly appreciated.

 

regards,

Aonghus

[bvc]

--nodeps is a step down from --force

It's a little nicer. --force is necessary when --nodeps fails because rpm feels you are getting sys critical to having a functioning sys.

 

I would suggest removing all rpms that have thac and gpw in the name (thac.i586.rpm). You can find that out by doing

rpm -qa | grep thac

and

rpm -qa | grep gpw

 

Try not to remove drakstuff like drakconf drakxtools urpmi rpm etc...

You can replace those later after everything else has been reverted.

 

If urpmi fails rpm and the cd's should be fine in getting a functional sys. The only issues may be any updates you have gotten that are not on the cd's, but then you have the urpmi sources for that.

 

There's not really any other way to do it. If something happens that leaves you screwed, just reboot to cd1 and do an 'Upgrade'. This will not revert you to the old though, so you still have to remove all the thac and gpw rpm's. I've actually just ripped every offending pkg out with rpm -e --force and done an Upgrade from cd1. But then, I've done a lot of crap I shouldn't have ..but how else does one learn, eh?

 

Alternatively, you can

boot cd1

press F1 at the splash screen

type rescue and press Enter

choose Mount your partitions under /mnt

choose Go to console

type chroot /mnt and press Enter

and urpmi and rpm from there

 

You can also press Esc at the lilo screen and type

linux 1

(where 'linux' is the name lilo shows) and press Enter to go to init 1 to repair with urpmi and rpm.

Edited May 9, 2005 by bvc

[adamw]

no, --nodeps is not 'a step down' from --force. They do different things.

 

--nodeps skips dependency checking. --force skips conflict checking. So if blah depends on foo but you want to install blah without having foo, use --nodeps. If blah and foo both contain different versions /etc/foobar/ping, you have blah installed, and you want to install foo, use --force.

[bvc]

exactly...it's a step down not to mention we aren't installing, are we? Nope, we're uninstalling hacked rpm's. Anyone can read a man page....I was making it simple as I was asked to do.

Edited May 9, 2005 by bvc