[Ubuntu]Broke gnome?

[imported_LoKe]

Well, the other day I was trying to install GIMPShop. Little did I know, the directions I was following were for KDE, and not Gnome. Along with the package, I got some lib files which seem to be interfering with Gnome. For starters; all my fonts are screwed up (tine, hardly legible) and my terminal doesn't work. At all. The system monitor shows that it's running, but I can't find it. o_o

It may not have been GIMPShop that did this, but that's all I can remember that has anything to do with KDE that I've recently installed.

Any suggestions on how I can purge myself of these KDE applications without using the terminal, unless you can help me get my terminal working again.

Thanks!

 

[xtknight]

You can access your consoles, right? (Ctrl+Alt+F1~F5) Are the fonts like normal in those? KDE wouldn't be messing up gnome.

To start try disabling compiz and Xgl and see if the font problem is fixed. If not, you can try logging in as your regular user name, and:

sudo -H -s
killall gdm
dpkg-reconfigure libcairo2
dpkg-reconfigure libglitz1
dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig (just answer whatever if a wizard comes up)
dpkg-reconfigure libpango1.0-0
dpkg-reconfigure libxfont1
dpkg-reconfigure libxft2
exit
sudo gdm

Edit: what we're doing is just reconfiguring some font packages. Maybe that will fix it, maybe not but it's not going to hurt anything.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Go to a virtual terminal and remove anything you installed.

 

[imported_LoKe]

I'll give those a shot. I removed from packages in Synaptic, hopefully I got the right ones.

EDIT: Oh, I remember this morning that the update manager came up and installed some packages. I'm going to assume some of them were KDE packages to go along with whatever I accidentally installed before hand. Three of them aren't installing, however.

libvte-common, which are the Terminal Editor common files.
libvte4, which are the Terminal Editor runtime files.
python-vte, "Python bindings for the VTE widget set."

 

[imported_LoKe]

An apt-get dist-upgrade corrected those packages and installed some other ones. Terminal is working now. Just the fonts need to be fixed so I'll follow your instructions, xtknight.

Thanks!

 

[imported_LoKe]

Looks like the font problem is with how my system is handling the msttcorefonts. If I remove them, everything looks like good ol' Ubuntu. too bad, I started to like them.

 

[Nothinman]

An apt-get dist-upgrade

Never do a dist-upgrade unless you're actually upgrading from one distribution to another (i.e. etch->sid), it can cause odd problems.

 

[xtknight]

What is the difference between an upgrade and a dist-upgrade? Countless tutorials seem to recommend dist-upgrade. I was thinking dist-upgrade meant upgrade all packages to the latest version within your distro (it certainly doesn't take me from Dapper to Edgy). The manual isn't really clear on what the difference is. They have always done the same thing for me.

 

[imported_LoKe]

I figured the same. I've been using it for quite a while now.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: xtknight
What is the difference between an upgrade and a dist-upgrade? Countless tutorials seem to recommend dist-upgrade. I was thinking dist-upgrade meant upgrade all packages to the latest version within your distro (it certainly doesn't take me from Dapper to Edgy). The manual isn't really clear on what the difference is. They have always done the same thing for me.

Apt-get upgrade will uprgade your packages in a 'dumb' way. That is it will simply upgrade what packages it can without changing what packages are installed or doing any dependancy rearrangements.

Apt-get dist-upgrade will perform 'intellegent' dependancy resolutions. It will install new stuff, uninstall old stuff, in a attempt to get as much of the system upgraded as possible.

As a side effect it may uninstall critical packages which you need to do your work or you use or whatever.

If your tracking Debian Testing or Debian Unstable you will have to perform a dist-upgrade every once in a while. You just have to be VERY carefull about what it is uninstalling or installing. Sometimes it takes some effort to resolv dependancies, and remember if you do apt-get install packagename it will install the newest version of that package. So you can do some manual dependancy manipulation.

Most of the time regular 'upgrade' is all you need. if your using Ubuntu or Stable version of Debian upgrade should be all you ever need. (although Ubuntu I am not sure.. their quality control isn't as nice as Debian Stable.)

 

[Nothinman]

It's also not a bad idea to learn how to use aptitude, dselect or synaptic since you'll be able to manually intervene and fix any problems before they're applied.

 

[drag]

As for Gimpshop...

I tried using it a while ago. Didn't work well for me as it was pretty broke.

But if you play around with Gimp's settings it's pretty usable.

I did a screenshot of how I use it typically. Although on my laptop I have limited resolution and generally like to work on my desktop which has much more space. I have to comprimise with my docked dialogs on my laptop to get it all on screen.

Most of everything is affected through the file-->preferences settings. Very flexible.

I am using 'small' theme. The windows hinting is set to 'utility' for the toolbox and 'stay on top' for the dialog box.. This way they float above the image I am working on so I don't have to alt-tab to find the window I want to click on. Having the hinting set to 'top' can cause certain dialogs be obscured behind one another, which is irritating. 'Utility' seems to work out.

Also got rid of the menu bar (more easily accessable via right click) so that is less annoying. Got rid of the scrollbars since I use middle click to move the image around. Got rid of the ruler bars. Set the non-image part of the background to a exactly neutral gray. (on my desktop i use a more neutral gnome theme then I use on my laptop).

Also for real painting and drawing I like to work in full screen mode (F11). So it's intended for picture viewing, so I have to modify the behavor to make it usable for working. I think all I did was enable it so I could see selections, the dancy ants thing. That goes away when you enter full screen mode usually. Since the toolbox is set to 'utility hinting' it stays visable in full screen, while the dialog boxes disapeer.

Also for the toolbar, moving the tool options dialog from that to the my docked dialog boxes on the right allowed me to make it much thiner then normally you'd be able to do.

For actual drawing I use a wacom pad. To use that you have to configure X in a special way and enable extended input devices in the Gimp dialog. That way I get pressure sensitivity and can select a different tool for each imput device.. (like erasor or smudge for the "erasor', draw or brush for the stylus, etc)

Little things like that make it nicer to use. Of course you'll choose differently on how to set it up.

I am also using a beta version.. 2.3.10 right now. From Debian Experimental (either install the package manually or use pinning to allow you to install individal programs from other repositories). Has some bug fixes, some usability improvements and performance improvements.

see for how it looks like:
http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotkx0.png

 

[imported_LoKe]

I'll give GIMP a second chance. I became really annoyed by the text tool because it took too much effort to change simple settings. Ontop of that, I've got a compiz plugin that seems to focus whichever window the cursor is over, and I haven't yet figured out which one is doing that.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[drag]

Unless your making text part of the image you would want to use a layout program to do text.. not a raster editor. You'll get much better results that way. Try Scribus.

I did the same thing with Photoshop and Quark express.

(of course this is for publishing images and documents. Not so much for stuff like web banners and whatnot. Also scribus handles things like cymk and color profiles better for printing.)

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: LoKe
Ontop of that, I've got a compiz plugin that seems to focus whichever window the cursor is over, and I haven't yet figured out which one is doing that.

Not a plugin, just some gconf keys. Take a look at click_to_focus and autoraise in apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

An apt-get dist-upgrade

Never do a dist-upgrade unless you're actually upgrading from one distribution to another (i.e. etch->sid), it can cause odd problems.

An 'apt get dist-upgrade' broke my old Ubuntu 5.10 install.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle

Originally posted by: LoKe
Ontop of that, I've got a compiz plugin that seems to focus whichever window the cursor is over, and I haven't yet figured out which one is doing that.

Not a plugin, just some gconf keys. Take a look at click_to_focus and autoraise in apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options.

Those are all disabled, heh. No boxes checked.

 

[drag]

"click to focus" would mean that it would require you to click on a window to change to a different one. Otherwise apparently the default behavior is to change focus on mouse over. So checking that box should give you want you want.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Looks like you're right. I tried enabling it and it still didn't work so I made that last post, but recently rebooted/logged in and it's working now. Ah.

Anyways...the font problem doesn't seem to be just a problem for me, but rather a confliction with a recent update. Boo.

 

[drag]

Cool.

Just so you know a lot of changes you make may not go into effect until you restart programs, often. Usually Gnome is pretty smart in figuring out stuff on the fly.. but I think that the metacity folks are right that it's a lot easier to take a existing window manager and add compisition capabilities to it then taking a compisition utility and adding window manager features.

Maybe check out Metacity. I don't know what version they started adding compisition effects to though.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Ah. I remember when I first came to Linux and found out that the system didn't have to be rebooted in order to get things to apply. That was one major downside to Windows. However, some changes are major and require a reboot, so I should start doing that after certain kinds of updates.

Thanks for the info.

 

[cleverhandle]

Compiz gconf changes should take effect immediately, no restart required. At least, all the ones I've played around with do (including click_to_focus).

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
Compiz gconf changes should take effect immediately, no restart required. At least, all the ones I've played around with do (including click_to_focus).

It was undoubtedly a mistake I made. I'm still getting used to Linux and I'm not surprised I screw things up here and there.

 

[xtknight]

If you're having issues with GIMPShop check my thread. I've tested these debs and they don't break anything (well, besides a couple packages that may require the gimp package itself). libgimp2.0 dependencies should be satisfied.

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=239277

 

[imported_LoKe]

Perfect. Thanks. =]