grief with GNOME

Ralph Pichie thevillagegeek at gmail.com
Mon Aug 25 14:45:00 UTC 2008


It looks like I'm lucky I was able to fix it myself. I normally don't
reply to my own posts, but this info might help others who are using
Compiz.

The symptoms: 1 window decorations not showing in any theme when using
my main account, 2 odd background wallpaper distortion at the left
edge, 3 major shuffling of icons in panels even when 'locked'

Problem 3: this is largely caused by resolution changes when using
some games The solution was to reduce the number of applets and
launchers in each panel and spread them farther apart (new panels
might be helpful)

Problem 1: The trouble with window decoration appeared to be GNOME
specific, but soon appeared in KDE as well. The only things in common
were the Emerald Theme Manager, Compiz and the user account.

I started a new session using the GNOME Failsafe option from the login
screen. The window decorations, including the title bars, buttons and
menus were visible again. I turned off the advanced effects of Compiz,
then exited and started a regular session. All the themes displayed
correctly. Turning the Compiz features on little by little, I found
the source of the trouble when I eventually decided to try turning the
Reflection effect on to see what that did. The titlebars and window
decorations disappeared. Digging into the options for that effect, it
seems that all window decorations were being hidden or obscured with
an image. I turned on the Reflection for Windows option as well, and
my desktop seemed to change into something like a fun house hall of
mirrors, with about as much usability. I couldn't even use the proper
controls to turn the (profanity symbols) thing off.

Once again, Failsafe GNOME, my new best friend, helped me change that
setting, and my desktop is once again usable.

Cube reflection can be good with some Skydome images and settings.
General reflection is not so good, and probably only for an expert or
very limited use. That's something I've learned since enabling the
heavy eye candy a couple of months back: Compiz has a few very handy
tools for managing windows and virtual desktops, as well as a few
useful tools for highlighting things on a display as well as a useful
desktop zoom tool. Many of the other effects are more trouble than
they are worth, unless you really know what you are doing and why.

Ralph



> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:52:00 -0400
> From: "Ralph Pichie" <thevillagegeek at gmail.com>
> Subject: Grief with GNOME
> To: ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID:
>        <a65bfad00808231252x3866e056id0e2a60efccfb1b6 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> GNOME has gone completely haywire over the last few days. The random
> rearrangement of top panel icons was irritating, but now it can't
> render a wallpaper correctly at the left side of the screen, either
> showing the wallpaper at a wrong resolution or showing a different
> image entirely. Worse, it no longer displays any theme correctly,
> Reinstalling themes does not seem to improve the situation.
>
> Emerald theme manager and Compiz are both installed. This did not
> cause any error before.
>
> What I have tried: disabling compiz, reinstalling themes, tweaking
> settings for the Titlebar in Emerald theme details, switching themes.
>
> I have tried numerous things to fix the background display glitch,
> without success. I even removed the custom panel at the left, but no
> improvement.
>
> OTOH, KDE works fine, so it's back to that for now.
>
> Any suggestions? I'm ready to even remove GNOME and reinstall, though
> I really don't want to do that.
>




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