I use Linux Mandriva PWP 2010.2

System information from System Monitor
Release 2010.2
Kernel Linux 2.6.33.7-server-2mnb
GNOME 2.30.0
Memory 3.2 gb
Processor AMD Athlon dual core 64x2 4200+

I use Gnome and the system has been very stable for many months. Normal upgrades work fine. I use VirtualBox with Win XP and that has been working flawlessly.

Yesterday, I loaded a couple packages using the Mandriva Control Console Install/Remove software. I thought the software was an extension for Nautilus file manager. The computer worked normally for the rest of the day. This morning when I turned the machine on, I got chaos. Gnome was gone and in it's place was a strange logon window requiring username and password. I logged in and got a very minimal GUI. It might be icewm. There is a status bar at the bottom, a small yellow star on the lower left side, buttons for 4 desktops. Clicking on the star brings up a menu with some basic choices. Some of my apps are there, as well as some basic tools. I can access my Thunderbird eMail, and Mozilla web browser. All that works ok. I didn't try VirtualBox/XP. However nothing from Gnome.
Going to a terminal and trying to open MCC, Drakconf, drakrpm, or rpmdrak, either as root or not root, returns "command not found".
In terminal as root, entering "/usr/bin/gnome-terminal" brings up this.

Failed to get the session bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
Falling back to non-factory mode.
Failed to summon the GConf demon; exiting. Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

I went to the suggested gnome site but it offered no help for my problem.

It looks to me that I somehow wiped out some, or all, of my Gnome desktop files, or something similar.

Is there a way I can roll back all system changes I made yesterday? Or what?

Re-install Gnome? How?

Thanks for any help on this self induced disaster?

Yes, I dont know if Mandriva as a console based installer (I use Arch, we have pacman for this) but it should be possible. However, what I suspect (suspect being the main scream here) is that Gnome2 (the one you got used to) had been replaced by it successor: Gnome3. A radically alteres affair, not to the taste of some - but taste is personal. I also suspect (again, suspect) that your system does not meet the hardware requirements (3d accelleration being one) to fully run Gnome3 and you're left in fall back, does it look like this? If so, hmm, yes, it's the fall back.

If possible, I'd advice annother desktop, XFCE, perhaps...

Perhaps not self induced, rarther than inflicted upon you...

Luck

Thor

first off... what did packages did you install? Were they new software packages, or updates?
Can you access the control console and remove those packages? or update?

** Edit **

In a console type:

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION

If your running a desktop other than gnome, which I suspect given your description, it will tell you what environment

1 members found this post helpful.

I wish my fallback desktop looked as good as the Gnome 3 fallback.
It looks like this if I got the screenshot file attachment figured out.
The video card (Nvidia 8500) is working ok as I can access the configuration applet for it.
Mandriva uses urpmi from the command line to install packages and urpme to remove packages. urpme --auto-update will update all installed packages. Running that tells me that all packages are up to date. If I knew what the gnome package was named, I could reinstall it. Normally, software is installed or removed using the GUI Mandriva Control Center. That should be able to be called up from a command line if the desktop isn't working, but when I try to issue the command line "mcc" I get bash: mcc: command not found.
My dev/etc/gnome directory is empty.
I'm screwed. Maybe try to find out on the Mandriva forum if Gnome 3 will work with the current version of Mandriva.

Attached Thumbnails

 

...okay, granted, this is NOT the fallback. Never seen that before. Just to get you afloat until you repair Gnome, woud an instal of XFCE be an option? I just have questions about the workability of your system in the current state...that's all

Thor

from your screenshot it does look like your running icewm.


can you select sessions from your login screen?

** edit **

This is old, but may still be relevant:
https://forum.mandriva.com/en/viewto...p?f=86&t=68578

check to make sure you have the correct repositories enabled. use the command line to reinstall gnome. It may be missing all together.
This may also help:
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Bas...oving_software

Thanks for the tips on installing packages from the command line. I think that's what I have to do but I don't know the package name for the Mandriva gnome. I tried urpmi gnome 2.30.0, but that returned a message that there were no packages with that name and gave me some suggestions of packages with 'gnome' within the name. I think I need to try the Mandriva forum (again) to see if someone can give me the package name for gnome 2.30.0 x-86-64.

I'm quite sure that I must have selected a package to install that removed gnome and I just need to re-install it.

Thanks

Is it a must to supply a number? If I'm not mistaken:

should do it...you entered

and the installer (possibly, it happens with pacman too) mistook the "2.30.0" for a package name and froze...

I did get some help from the Mandriva forum. The command I was looking for was urpmi task-gnome.
That installed 61 separate packages and restored my desktop back to what it was. I'm still missing some Mandriva specific packages but I should be able to get them going sooner or later.

urpmi --auto-update did install back 38 mb of missing packages, but not the ones I know I need.

Thanks again.

glad we could help you get to the right track.

oh and welcome to LQ!

Lkewise, and thanks for posting the solution

Glad to have you around!

Thor

I finally got my Mandriva straightened around. I needed to re-install rpmdrake, and that went ok and got me part way there. For a long time I fought trying to re-install the Mandriva Control Center (drakconf). I always got the message that drakconf depended on files that were older than my installed files. Trying to install the control center through the GUI software installers wouldn't do anything-not even the error message. I gritted my teeth and did urpmi drakconf --allow-force.
That did the trick and installed all the missing files I needed.

Thanks again for your help. Maybe someday I can offer a useful suggestion to someone.