My desktop layout just went screwy. All my default icons changed to the same thing. I was just reading email and have not installed anything today.

When I try to start theme manager I get this error:

The default theme schemas could not be found on. This means that you probably don't have metacity installed, or that your gconf is configured incorrectly.

I am running rh9, gnome with the default bluecurve theme.

Can anyone tell me how to fix this mess.

I have reinstalled metacity and the themes and theme manager. It didn't make a difference.

Is there a default gconf I can install to at least put gnome back to its default settings?

I am going through the same thing. It just kind of happened. Have you had any luck resolving it?

The same thing happened to me too: between upgrading control center and gconf to their latest versions some of the gconf entries went MIA. I am a myself so I reinstalled both programs apparently in the right order, because it now works. The other thing I noticed is that the schemas were now installed in /usr/etc/gconf, while I believe un RH they are found in /etc/gconf. I symlinked /etc/gconf yo /usr/etc/gconf, maybe that's what soved it. MAybe one of the guru's can shed some more light on it.

Hi, I have the same thing, I noticed it just after install, I went to change some setting (perhaps the theme itself, I forget), I got an error and blam, all my icons are the same, folders, files, etc. The metacity error comes up.

Metacity is installed (from RPM), but I am not sure what I need to change in gconf that will get it functioning? Or where it needs to be?

Current path is:
/etc/gconf

I want to do a symlink to 'usr/etc/gconf' but I am a week old Linux baby so I am not sure how its done, i'm off to google but any direct help would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

I fixed my desktop using the gconf configuration editor (graphic interface) by putting the statement "Bluecurve" (without quotes)in /desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme. That fixed the broken icons instantly. It has not fixed the general theme problems, and I still get the same type of metacity and schema errors when trying to use the theme manager. I have not found an answer to that one yet, but am still looking.

I had the same problems. It happened after I did some upgrades and also tried to install a SMB network printer. The printer installation failed. Anyway, I found a lot of values in gconf were reset to <no value>. I used gconf-editor and copy the values from a working RH9 system to fix the icon problem. The theme problem was fixed by looking for %gconf.xml.bak files in the /etc/gconf directory. Copying those files back to %gconf.xml in the same directory.

I have been having some very big problems with GNOME (Tool bar down the bottom doesnt load, errors left right and center) so i changed to KDE. I am using Redhat 7.3, but I am upgrading to redhat 9 soon.

This worked for me...

create a shell script with the following in it (this is only three lines):

-----------snip---------

for i in /etc/gconf/schemas/* ; do
GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE=`gconftool-2 --get-default-source` gconftool-2 --makefile-install-rule $i > /dev/null
done

--------endsnip---------

What this does is reset the schemas to the default.

--------newbie section------

to create this script follow these steps:

-use your favourite editor to insert the above snip contents in a file and then save (as a 'good practice' rule name scripts with a .sh at the end).
-then use the following command to make the script an executable
$chmod 755 schemareset.sh

then become root and run the script.

-------end newbie section--------

I hope this helps you guys

This worked for me...

create a shell script with the following in it (this is only three lines):

-----------snip---------

for i in /etc/gconf/schemas/* ; do
GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE=`gconftool-2 --get-default-source` gconftool-2 --makefile-install-rule $i > /dev/null
done

--------endsnip---------

What this does is reset the schemas to the default.

--------newbie section------

to create this script follow these steps:

-use your favourite editor to insert the above snip contents in a file and then save (as a 'good practice' rule name scripts with a .sh at the end).
-then use the following command to make the script an executable
$chmod 755 schemareset.sh

then become root and run the script.

-------end newbie section--------

I hope this helps you guys

Before I try your script, what distribution are you running?

What brought you to this solution? How did your original schema get damaged? I have NEVER touched my schemes and still had the failure. Sorry for all the questions, I would rather know the "why" before I blindly apply a fix...

distro: redhat 9 kernal 2.4.20-8 gnome 2.2.0

I actually had the problem as described by some of the guys above. I then stupidly changed the schema and did not take note what the settings were before i changed it.

I then researched into restoring the schema and this is what I came up with after a bit of research.

I found that fixed all the problems...luckily :-)

The script worked. Very odd, I still wonder what caused the original modification though. Good fix, what resources did you use to research the schema restoration? For my own future reference...

I am having exactly the same problem.
When I try to run the script posted
I get this message
" MUST SET THE GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE"

please please HELP