[gentoo-user] mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[gentoo-user] mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

I have to admit that I "touched a running system" again ;-)

My thinkpad runs gentoo linux x86, some unstable packages as well, I
upgraded to Gnome 2.28 a few days ago.

Yes, this could as well got to the mythtv-users-list but I assume the
problem isn't with mythtv ...

The symptoms:

When I start mythfrontend it opens but somehow "kills" the display of
the window borders ... the windowmanager seems to be hit somehow.

Alt-Tab doesn't work anymore, the mythfrontend doesn't react to my
keyboard, the mouse moves and selects but doesn't set the focus. When I
click a gnome-term-windows it doesn't come upfront.

ps -ef shows metacity running, I don't see any particular errors in the
usual places (/var/log/messages, Xorg.0.log, etc).

I reemerged xorg-server (1.6), xorg-drivers, rebuilt a fresh xorg.conf,
rebuilt mythtv etc etc

AND: Starting OpenOffice shows similar effects! Window border disappears
etc.

I assume this might have to do with qt somehow?

There were quite some qt-related updates as well done ...

I do perfectly understand that using unstable packages *could* lead to
such a situation.

My q is just: Has anyone here seen this as well?
Any hint on what path to follow? Downgrade ... ?

Thanks in advance for any help ... Stefan

[gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[walt]

On 11/02/2009 10:29 AM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> 
> I have to admit that I "touched a running system" again ;-)
> 
> My thinkpad runs gentoo linux x86, some unstable packages as well, I
> upgraded to Gnome 2.28 a few days ago.
> 
> Yes, this could as well got to the mythtv-users-list but I assume the
> problem isn't with mythtv ...
> 
> The symptoms:
> 
> When I start mythfrontend it opens but somehow "kills" the display of
> the window borders ... the windowmanager seems to be hit somehow.

Alas, I forget the details, but there was something in my ~./gconf
that caused problems when I upgraded to 2.28.

I created a new user and started with a clean home directory and all
worked properly, so I knew something in my home directory was broken.

May not help you, but it's worth a try.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

walt schrieb:

> Alas, I forget the details, but there was something in my ~./gconf
> that caused problems when I upgraded to 2.28.
> 
> I created a new user and started with a clean home directory and all
> worked properly, so I knew something in my home directory was broken.
> 
> May not help you, but it's worth a try.

thanks for the hint ... although switching the user would be some thing
to PLAN somehow here ....

I will simply give it a try now, create another fresh user and testdrive
mythtv and OO.org there.

Thank you, Stefan

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

Stefan G. Weichinger schrieb:

> I will simply give it a try now, create another fresh user and testdrive
> mythtv and OO.org there.

update: good information! the new user is able to start mythfrontend and
openoffice correctly.

Now I have to figure out which files in ~ to remove or recreate my user
without too much side-effects ...

;-)

Stefan

[gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[walt]

On 11/02/2009 01:34 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> Stefan G. Weichinger schrieb:
> 
>> I will simply give it a try now, create another fresh user and testdrive
>> mythtv and OO.org there.
> 
> update: good information! the new user is able to start mythfrontend and
> openoffice correctly.
> 
> Now I have to figure out which files in ~ to remove or recreate my user
> without too much side-effects ...

Excellent!  I'm almost (52% ;o) positive that it was somewhere in ~/.gconf.
But I could be mistaken...

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

walt schrieb:

> Excellent!  I'm almost (52% ;o) positive that it was somewhere in ~/.gconf.
> But I could be mistaken...

I will simply backup my home and remove dirs by trial and error ....

S

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

Stefan G. Weichinger schrieb:
> walt schrieb:
> 
>> Excellent!  I'm almost (52% ;o) positive that it was somewhere in ~/.gconf.
>> But I could be mistaken...
> 
> I will simply backup my home and remove dirs by trial and error ....

While I am at it ....

For a while I also face the fact that when I log out of my
gnome-session, the xorg-server doesn't get up again. It tries to restart
3 times and fails, Xorg.0.log says something about "failed to load load
modules dri and dri2" while nothing related is in xorg.conf ...

When I reboot the whole box, X11 comes up fine.

Rather annoying when having to log in and out more often.

xorg-server 1.6.3.901-r2 with nvidia-drivers-190.42-r2 now.

Right now I have an xorg.conf again (because of researching the original
issue mentioned) but that doesn't make much difference.

Stefan

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

Stefan G. Weichinger schrieb:
> walt schrieb:
> 
>> Excellent!  I'm almost (52% ;o) positive that it was somewhere in ~/.gconf.
>> But I could be mistaken...
> 
> I will simply backup my home and remove dirs by trial and error ....

removing ~/.gconf did the trick, thanks!

Ok, I had to readjust some things, but that was some cleanup as well.
And it solved another small issue I had with the icon of the
power-applet, fine ...

Stefan

[gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[walt]

On 11/03/2009 12:23 AM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> While I am at it ....
> 
> For a while I also face the fact that when I log out of my
> gnome-session, the xorg-server doesn't get up again. It tries to restart
> 3 times and fails, Xorg.0.log says something about "failed to load load
> modules dri and dri2" while nothing related is in xorg.conf ...

The dri and dri2 'errors' are normal for nvidia users, so that doesn't
help any.  Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

walt schrieb:
> On 11/03/2009 12:23 AM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
>> While I am at it ....
>>
>> For a while I also face the fact that when I log out of my
>> gnome-session, the xorg-server doesn't get up again. It tries to restart
>> 3 times and fails, Xorg.0.log says something about "failed to load load
>> modules dri and dri2" while nothing related is in xorg.conf ...
> 
> The dri and dri2 'errors' are normal for nvidia users, so that doesn't
> help any.  

"Good" to know ....

> Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
> that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.

hmm, any idea how to find that?

S

[gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[walt]

On 11/03/2009 12:31 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> walt schrieb:

>> Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
>> that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.
> 
> hmm, any idea how to find that?

I use ps ax to see the running processes.  Sometimes I see apps
obviously related to gnome still running after I exit X.  I have
no idea why, but if I plan to restart X I kill those processes
first.

In your case I would do "ps ax > pre" after a reboot, and then
after logging out of X do "ps ax > post", and then compare 'pre'
to 'post' to see what has changed.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

walt schrieb:
> On 11/03/2009 12:31 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
>> walt schrieb:
> 
>>> Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
>>> that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.
>> hmm, any idea how to find that?
> 
> I use ps ax to see the running processes.  Sometimes I see apps
> obviously related to gnome still running after I exit X.  I have
> no idea why, but if I plan to restart X I kill those processes
> first.
> 
> In your case I would do "ps ax > pre" after a reboot, and then
> after logging out of X do "ps ax > post", and then compare 'pre'
> to 'post' to see what has changed.

Will try something like that asap ... drown in work right now :-)

S

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Dale]

Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> walt schrieb:
>   
>> On 11/03/2009 12:31 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
>>     
>>> walt schrieb:
>>>       
>>>> Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
>>>> that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.
>>>>         
>>> hmm, any idea how to find that?
>>>       
>> I use ps ax to see the running processes.  Sometimes I see apps
>> obviously related to gnome still running after I exit X.  I have
>> no idea why, but if I plan to restart X I kill those processes
>> first.
>>
>> In your case I would do "ps ax > pre" after a reboot, and then
>> after logging out of X do "ps ax > post", and then compare 'pre'
>> to 'post' to see what has changed.
>>     
>
> Will try something like that asap ... drown in work right now :-)
>
> S
>
>
>   

Unrelated in a way but still, I notice that when I go to single user
mode that a lot of KDE processes are still running.  Sometimes there is
a half dozen or so, sometimes a little more or less.  I always run "ps
aux | less" and page my way through them and use kill to get rid of
them.  I have always been curious as to why programs don't kell their
own processes and clean up after themselves better?  This may not just
gnome since I use KDE.

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: mythfrontend problems: no more keyboard, no window borders

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

Dale schrieb:
> Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
>> walt schrieb:
>>   
>>> On 11/03/2009 12:31 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
>>>     
>>>> walt schrieb:
>>>>       
>>>>> Perhaps you have something left over from your gnome session
>>>>> that doesn't stop when it should.  I see that quite often.
>>>>>         
>>>> hmm, any idea how to find that?
>>>>       
>>> I use ps ax to see the running processes.  Sometimes I see apps
>>> obviously related to gnome still running after I exit X.  I have
>>> no idea why, but if I plan to restart X I kill those processes
>>> first.
>>>
>>> In your case I would do "ps ax > pre" after a reboot, and then
>>> after logging out of X do "ps ax > post", and then compare 'pre'
>>> to 'post' to see what has changed.
>>>     
>> Will try something like that asap ... drown in work right now :-)

For now it seems to work again ...

An issue I didn't mention is that I use suspend and resume on that
thinkpad. Instead of gentoo-sources tuxonice-sources and then I often
use hibernate-to-ram (closing the lid triggers that).

And for some time the resuming didn't come up with X11 anymore ... same
as when I tried an "xdm restart". But now it works again. Who knows ...

S