Re: Lost my window manager

John Jason Jordan:
Jochen Schulz <ml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> dijo:

Did you look for strange messages in /var/log/syslog? It appears
something is seriously broken. Obviously, what you experienced shouldn't
happen.

I rebooted and then I read through the entire file starting at the
point where I rebooted, using "nano /var/log/syslog." When I finished I
turned to the desktop computer to write this e-mail. Just now I wanted
to move the cursor up so I could see the end of one suspicious line,
only to discover that nano has locked up while I was typing this. I
just used Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot.

The syslog should still be there, maybe renames to syslog.0 or something
like that.

While poking around I discovered that if I right-click on the desktop I
have the option to create a launcher. I created one for gnome-terminal,
and it worked. Yay! I now have a way to launch a terminal, although it
is running in the broken desktop.

In the terminal I typed "gnome-panel" and my panel appeared! Then I
opened a new tab and typoed "metacity," and the window manager was
back! Yay!

However, if I close the terminal window it stops the processes, and the
panel and the window manager disappear.

If you run the programs like this:

nohup metacity &
nohup gnome-panel &

They should keep running after you close the terminal. After that, you
should go the the settings menu (don't remember what it's called
exactly) to save your current session (or make sure that Gnome autosaves
the session on logout).

I find it interesting that the
icons for the Desktop folder items still appear on the desktop, even
though I had set up the desktop to be empty. Something in my personal
preferences is not getting loaded.

I told you to remove your settings so I am not surprised. :)

Thanks for the suggestions and patience!

You're welcome. I am quite baffled by the strange behaviour you are
getting.

J.
--
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