gnome-applet-volume-control is a huge usability regression

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 21 August 2012 06:15:12 Nils Kassube did opine:

> Patrick Asselman wrote:
> > On 2012-08-19 13:00, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > > Rebooting here is about a 10 to 20 minute project due to the
> > > custom scripts that handle my email needing to be hand started in
> > > sequence.
> > > I could automate that if I could figure out where to put a script
> > > that
> > > would be equal to rc.local, but which was executed once X was up
> > > and running.
> > 
> > That shouldn't be too hard.
> > 
> > (Someone correct me if i'm wrong, my knowledge is old and non-Ubuntu,
> > but i don't see why this would have changed.)
> > All scripts in /etc/rc.5/ will not be run until runlevel 5 is
> > reached, which is typically the "graphical" run level.
> 
> Forget about /etc/rc.5/ (or rather /etc/rc5.d/) because Ubuntu doesn't
> use runlevel 5 unless you have a non-standard system. We have runlevel 2
> as standard runlevel. Furthermore Ubuntu uses upstart for many jobs at
> startup and those have their configuration in /etc/init/. I'm not so
> sure where Gene should put the script though - maybe it should be
> started from the display manager? Or perhaps from the autostart folder
> of Gnome? OTOH, why not use rc.local? Wouldn't that be started after X
> is running?
> 
> 
> Nils

Its my understanding that rc.local is executed as an S99 function in 
/etc/rc.whatever, and the display manager isn't started until all that 
stuff has run.  And I have attempted in times past to put something that 
needs X in rc.local, and its always been a 100% failure, no display.
I have added a couple things to the autostart menu, but haven't rebooted to 
try them yet.

I asked how to start a program on a specific workspace but no one has 
volunteered any info on that.  My googling for help on that subject only 
finds very old (2006 & older) messages, which are likely obsolete by now.

Additionally;

I also have some errors during the reboot that make rebooting a hassle.

1. It always reports 2 errors, one long before enough X is running to have 
either a mouse or keyboard, so I am delayed in the X startup, sometimes for 
1 minute or more before the big "X" X cursor shows up, at which point I can 
click thru the first error, but that one is immediately replaced by 
another, which will be lost when X brings up the high res screen and 
finally offers me a login screen.  Next time I reboot, I will take pix, if 
launchpad will allow me to post them.

At that point, I log in as me, but when gdm has finished, I have the 
default environment the system would give a new user.

So I must reboot yet again, going thru all the error bs again, and the 
second time I login as me, I have my full environment back.

So the reboot process is about a 10-15 minute process to actually get to a 
usable system again.  All the shells I normally run on different workspaces 
are all started on one seemingly random workspace, piled on top of each 
other, so I have to count tabs to figure out which one is which and move it 
to its home workspace and then start the app, usually a tail -fn50 session 
that it normally runs, doing this on a per tab basis.

So you can understand why I reboot only when the system really goes aglay.  
This morning, as I reported yesterday, the keyboard volume control stuff 
has decided to work again, but the mouse suddenly needs a pad about 3 feet 
square, its very slow. Calling up the mouse prefs and speeding it up does a 
wee bit, but its not normal speed yet.

Thanks Nils.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
One small step for man, one giant stumble for mankind.