Problems after update

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bzzzzzdroid
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I recently had an invitation to upgrade to trisquel 8 which I accepted

When I initially rebooted into my machine the panel had disappeared from the bottom of my screen. I managed to get that back by typing "gnome-panel &" into a terminal.

I then managed to find a way to get the panel to load on boot

I went to one of my menus called other and in there I was able to edit the startup applications.

However at the moment I am not able to shutdown the computer using the Power Off button in the menu.

Pressing the button doesn't do much.

At the moment to shutdown I have to open a terminal and type poweroff

Please can someone advise how to make the buttons power off

Thanks

chaosmonk

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This has to do with the switch from GNOME to MATE and Trisquel's default
desktop environment. What I think happened is that you did not have the
"trisquel" metapackage installed while upgrading. This metapackage would
have installed the needed components of the MATE desktop environment.

Install "trisquel", either using Synaptic or by typing

$ sudo apt install trisquel

into a terminal. Then log out and log in again or reboot. This should
fix the problem. Don't try to use gnome-panel anymore. It will be
replaced with mate-panel.

bzzzzzdroid
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Thanks

I tried that but then I got this message

Errors were encountered while processing:
minidlna

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Any advice from here would be very helpful

chaosmonk

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> Errors were encountered while processing:
> minidlna

Can you try

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install minidlna

? If you get an error, copy/paste the entire message here. If you don't
get an error, try

$ sudo apt install trisquel

again.

bzzzzzdroid
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tried it but got this error

Setting up minidlna (1.1.5+dfsg-2) ...
chown: cannot access '/var/cache/minidlna': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package minidlna (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
minidlna
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

chaosmonk

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Try

$ sudo apt purge minidlna
$ sudo apt clean
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install minidlna

and if that works then retry

$ sudo apt install trisquel
$ sudo apt update

bzzzzzdroid
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Well the good news is that all worked nicely.

I now have a mate-panel

I added this to the startup applications

Unfortunately the problem persists. I cannot shutdown or logout. I also cannot lockscreen - something I could do before

chaosmonk

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> I now have a mate-panel
>
> I added this to the startup applications

Hm. You shouldn't have to add mate-panel to Startup Applications. It
should launch automatically like gnome-panel did in Trisquel 7. Remove
mate-panel from Startup Applications. That isn't the issue.

Maybe LightDM (the login screen) is still trying to start a GNOME
session instead of a MATE session. Log out, and at the login screen
see if there's a little login next to your name. If so, click it, and
you'll get a dropdown list of all desktop environments you have
installed. The one we want should be called "MATE" or "Trisquel" or
something along those lines. Select that and try logging in.

bzzzzzdroid
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Okay

So I can't logout - because just like shutdown that button isn't working but I am able to poweroff and then reboot which is what I did.

I then selected the login next to my name and got a dropdown menu. It was set to Trisquel, but I had the option of a MATE login so I changed to that.

When the desktop loaded there was no panel at all.

I think you may be onto something suggesting that a gnome session is trying to start rather than the mate session.

I had a look in startup applications again and here is a list of startup applications

Should I remove any of these?

AT-SPI D-Bus Bus
Backup Monitor
Blueman Applet
Certificate and Key Storage
Dropbox
Evolution Alarm Notify
Mate Setting Daemon
Network
Onboard
Orca screen reader
Personal File Sharing obexftp
Personal File Sharing obexpush
Personal File Sharing webdav
PolicyKit Authentication Agent
Power Manager
Pring Queue Applet
PulseAudio Sound System
Screensaver
Secret Storage Service
Setting Overlay
SparkleShare
SSH Key Agent
Tilda
Update Notifier
Xscreensaver

I'll wait for your advice but there are three of the above applications listed below which all have references to GNOME in their description
Certificate and Key Storage, Secret Storage Service, SSH Key Agent

I'm thinking that I should remove these

Thanks

chaosmonk

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> It was
> set to Trisquel, but I had the option of a MATE login so I changed to that.

Okay, then MATE is the one we want.

> When the desktop loaded there was no panel at all.

Run

sudo apt install --reinstall trisquel trisquel-recommended

and reboot. I don't know that it will fix the problem, but it's
low-effort enough to be worth trying first.

If that doesn't fix it, run

$ mate-panel

in a terminal. If the panel crashes or does not appear, copy/paste here
any error messages that appear in the terminal.

If the panel launches properly, run

$ dconf-editor

and in the window that launches, navigate to
org -> mate -> desktop -> session- > required-components

Look where it says "panel". The value should be "mate-panel". If the
value is blank or says anything other than "mate-panel", change it to
"mate-panel" and then reboot.

> I had a look in startup applications again and here is a list of startup
> applications
>
> Should I remove any of these?

Personally, I'd remove Dropbox because it is proprietary software, but I
don't think that any of your startup programs are causing this problem.

> I'll wait for your advice but there are three of the above applications
> listed below which all have references to GNOME in their description
> Certificate and Key Storage, Secret Storage Service, SSH Key Agent

Those shouldn't be a problem. I have them too, despite using MATE on a
system that has never had GNOME installed. If we saw "GNOME Settings
Daemon" then that would indicate that this is a GNOME session, but we see
"MATE Settings Daemon" as expected.

bzzzzzdroid
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Okay I followed instructions

It booted without panel, so I ran mate-panel which worked

I then ran dconf-editor and navigated to the session required components. The value of the panel is already "mate-panel"

That doesn't seem to quite be the issue, but maybe we're getting closer

chaosmonk

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> It booted without panel, so I ran mate-panel which worked

While mate-panel is running, can you logout/shutdown/etc from the main
menu? If so, then the only problem is that mate-panel isn't started
automatically. If not then there is something else missing as well.

bzzzzzdroid
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Whilst mate-panel loads none of the shutdown/logout buttons work

This I believe is the crux of the problem. So if we can sort this out I think all will be good.

I've noticed that when I run mate-panel this error message comes up on the terminal:

(mate-panel:3374): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(mate-panel:3374): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

The panel appears to run properly with the exception that the logout/shutdown buttons don't work. One other difference is that lockscreen does not work anymore - with gnome-panel I could still lockscreen

chaosmonk

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> (mate-panel:3374): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion
> 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

From what I can gather searching, I think that this warning is harmless.

> The panel appears to run properly with the exception that the
> logout/shutdown buttons don't work. One other difference is that
> lockscreen does not work anymore - with gnome-panel I could still
> lockscreen

Do those things work from a terminal?

To logout:
$ mate-session-save --logout-dialog

To shutdown:
$ mate-session-save --shutdown-dialog

To lock the screen:
$ mate-screensaver-command --lock

What is the output of the following command?
$ ps -f -u $USER | grep mate

Do you have the same problem if you log into a guest session? You do
this by selecting a guest session instead of your user at the login
screen. Make sure you double check that the dropdown menu says "MATE"
and not "Trisquel" when logging into the guest session.

bzzzzzdroid
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:~$ mate-session-save --logout-dialog
:~$ mate-session-save --shutdown-dialog

** (mate-session-save:2541): WARNING **: Failed to call shutdown: Shutdown interface is only available during the Running phase
:~$ mate-screensaver-command --lock
** Message: Screensaver is not running!

Above is are the comments to the commands as given - none of them appeared to do anything but logout went to next line without giving any error messages

bzzzzzdroid
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The output of the ps -f -u $USER | grep mate

myusername 3014 3001 0 20:27 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto mate

3014 3001 0 20:27 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto mate

bzzzzzdroid
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Just tried the logging in as guest

It works perfectly

It boots quickly (I didn't say, but it was taking ages to boot into my account) and it has the panel in place.

:)

I feel we might be getting close

chaosmonk

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> Just tried the logging in as guest
>
> It works perfectly

Okay, then the problem is not system-wide. There just a problem with
your user's configuration, and we need to find out where it is. Magic
Banana's suggestion should accomplish this.

bzzzzzdroid
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"Personally, I'd remove Dropbox because it is proprietary software, but I
don't think that any of your startup programs are causing this problem."

I've been wanting to navigate away from this for a while, but it is convenient.

I've had a look at sparkleshare - would this be a better option?

Magic Banana

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bzzzzzdroid
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Maybe I didn't do it correctly

I tried using this command
mv ~/.config ~/config.bak

I then tried rebooting the machine

It took a long time to boot, but I experienced similar problems. Although I'd now lost my default background so I knew something had happened.
I then navigated to the config.bak folder and copied across everything into the .config folder

After this I lost the ability to type in the terminal so had to reboot the machine by holding down the power button.

On rebooting I'm experiencing all the old problems but I also have orca screen reader working all the time, and haven't been able to turn it off yet.

Magic Banana

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The idea is: if there is something wrong in a configuration file in ~/.config, then renaming that hidden folder and restarting the session (no need to reboot the system) makes you go back to the default configuration where the problem does not occur. You can then manually reconfigure all your applications the way you like (and remove the renamed folder) or you can move back their configuration file to ~/.config. However, if you move back everything, you will inclusively move back the problematic file and the problem will occur again. If you want to move back everything but the file that creates the problem, then I suggest you identify that file by binary search (because that is efficient): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search_algorithm

Basically:

  1. move roughly half of the file from the renamed folder back into ~/.config;
  2. close your desktop session;
  3. open it again;
  4. test if the problem occurs: if so, switch the half you have just moved (it contains the problematic file) with the other half (it does not) still in the renamed folder;
  5. go back to the first step and repeat the whole process until the renamed folder contains one single file: the culprit.
bzzzzzdroid
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I tried something else

I booted up a guest login and then copied all the information in the .config file.

I then pasted that into the ~/.config file in my area. But it still doesn't boot properly, even though it did when running in guest.

There must be something else which is also stopping it boot correctly

bzzzzzdroid
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Correction - we are getting somewhere.

I noticed that the default was booting as trisquel (instead of mate on the screen where you select your username)

When I corrected that everything booted as it was in guest.

I'll continue playing - hopefully will get it sorted

chaosmonk

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> When I corrected that everything booted as it was in guest.

Do you mean that panel/shutdown/etc is working like it was in guest? If
so, what problems are you still having?

If Orca is still enabled, here's how to disable it.

https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/disabling-orca-screen-reader

bzzzzzdroid
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Finally sorted

Checking the user login to use mate environment suddenly started working

Thanks all