GNOME 2.0 Desktop for the Solaris Operating Environment Troubleshooting Guide

Chapter 3 Startup Problems

This section describes issues that might occur when you start up the GNOME 2.0 Desktop.

3.1 GNOME Desktop Menu Item Missing From Login Screen

Problem  

A menu item for the GNOME 2.0 Desktop does not appear in the login screen. 

Solution  

GNOME dtlogin resource files are currently only installed for the C locale. To make the GNOME login option appear in other locales, you must copy this resource file to the correct directory for your locale. Use the following command to copy the dtlogin file:  

cp /usr/dt/config/C/Xresources.d/Xresources.Sun-gnome-2.0* /usr/dt/config/{your locale}/Xresources.d Future releases will include localized versions of this file.

3.2 Startup Error Messages

Problem  

Where do I look for error messages if startup fails? 

Solution  

The following files contain messages that might be helpful in diagnosing incorrect permissions, missing files and other problems.  

~/.dt/startlog

~/.dt/startlog.old

~/.dt/startlog.older

To enable logging of more detailed information, edit ~/.dtprofile and remove the dtstart_sessionlogfile=/dev/null line.

The session logs are placed in the following location:  

~/.dt/sessionlogs/* 

An alternative solution is to run gnome-session from a failsafe session, and read any error messages that appear.

3.3 General Startup Problems

Problem 

How do I fix general startup problems such as the following:

  • The login process never gets past the black screen.

  • Panels do not respond to my input.

  • Icons do not display correctly.

  • Panels do not appear.

  • Error popups referring to missing files in /opt/gnome-2.0/share appear.

  • The GNOME Menu icon appears in place of the correct icon.

  • The desktop background image is an empty white space.

Solution 

Perform the following steps:

  1. Run the following cleanup script: /usr/bin/gnome-cleanup

  2. Remove your session files from ~/.dt/sessions/gnome

  3. Make sure you do not have anything in your .xinitrc file that conflicts with the GNOME 2.0 Desktop. If you are not sure, rename your ~/.xinitrc file to /.xinitrc.orig and try to login again.

  4. Make sure your LD_LIBRARY_PATH does not point to a directory which contains incompatible versions of the GNOME libraries. The GNOME 2.0 Desktop does not require LD_LIBRARY_PATH to be set at all. If you must define this for other applications, try adding /usr/lib and /usr/sfw to the beginning of your LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

  5. Kill the gconfd-2 process.

  6. Run the following command: bonobo-slay

    Try to log in again.