gnome

Well, I know zip about gnome, but I see two possible lines of solution.

1. It sounds to me as if you have gdm as the login manager. If you use kdm you will probably not get that issue

2. If you wish to keep gdm, there must be a setting somewhere to configure the theme for the logon manager. If you change that, gdm will probably not look for that theme anymore and thus not display the error.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Thanks for your reply. How would I go about setting the login manager back to kdm? It changed to gdm, I suppose by default, when I installed gnome.

Another strange behavior I have discovered: I can't run synaptic in gnome, even when I supply the administrative password. The gdm login manager does allow me to chose to log into KDE, where I can do whatever I need to.

Any chance a future MEPIS release will feature a pre-configured Gnome option?

I think if you do a reinstall of kdm, debconf will ask you if you want to make it the default logon manager. You can also de-install gdm to force it.

The fact the Gnome does not allow you to run root apps, is probably because you need to install the package gksu.

MEPIS will most probably never offer a Gnome desktop. It was tried, but met with little response. But once you figure out some details, installing it should not be too much of a hassle.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Dang it! If you have both kdm and gdm on your system, there's actually a control file that you can modify to tell the boot process which one to use. The only problem is, I can't remember where/what it is!

Wait! I think I just found it. As user root, go to /etc/X11 (that's an UPPERCASE LETTER X followed by the number eleven). There is a file /etc/X11/default-display-manager. Edit it with your favorite text editor. You will probably find that it has a pointer to /usr/bin/gdm or some such. Change it to /usr/bin/kdm and file the record. Restart X (ctrl+alt+backspace).

Jon

The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.

Jon,

You are priceless!

(Smartass )

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

You say you installed "Gnome" but it sounds more like you installed the "Ubuntu Desktop" instead, Gnome would probably have worked better, just like KDE works better than Kubuntu and why in the world would you do that? It certainly is not something the average Mepis user would do or even want to do. If you are just playing around that is a good enough reason for me.
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Registered Linux User #380263

Well, in fact, I installed "gnome-desktop-environment."

I'm not sure why it is looking for Human and playing the ubuntu drumbeat.

I have tried several gnome and kde distributions and have my own opinions of them, but I am installing gnome on my daughter's computer because she likes gnome better. I am doing it under Mepis instead of installing Ubuntu because I like Mepis better.

I don't blame you there, Mepis is still the best, but I also use Debian and except for configuring wireless and the Samba server, I'm still having problems with them, a more correct statement would be that they are still having problems with me. I just love the clean look of Debian and multimedia works real swell.
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Registered Linux User #380263

Jon,

I tried your suggestion and changed the /etc/X11/default-display-manager file to point to kdm instead of gdm. The result was that neither graphical display manager would load. When I start up, display manager dispatcher starts and returns the message *not starting gdm (GNOME) it is not the default display manager and also *not starting kdm (K) it is not the default display manager.

I went back in and confirmed that the only change I had made was to change the letter g to a k in that one file. Is there something else I need to change as well?

carlops,

Thanks for your help. However, I find that I cannot de-install gdm without de-installing gnome altogether, because gnome desktop environment itself is dependent on it. I also find that I already have gksu installed, which means that is not the problem with running root apps in gnome.

I also tried following Jon's suggestion in changing /etc/X11/default-display-manager to point to kdm with the result that neither gnome nor kde would load and I had to login to terminal mode. From there, I could start kdm manually, but only if I logged in as root.

When you say "do a reinstall of kdm," do you mean I should uninstall it and then reinstall it? Do you think debconf might change other files besides the one Jon suggested so that K would load automatically at boot?

Lee Webb

Rats Lee, I really thought that would work (it did for me in the past)

I'm not currently able to test a full load of GNOME to try some of the things you're doing to see what I may have forgotten. I'll see what I can do the next couple days. Sorry.

Jon

The ability to comfortably use a computer is directly proportional to desire to listen, learn, and experiment, and is inversely proportional to the fear, anger, and stubbornness that you show.