I can't login anymore...

[justinp]

I'm a reasonably competent person in general and that holds true when it comes to computers as well... But I also know when I'm out of my league and that is right now.

This morning I installed Linux for the first time on my laptop, eventually deciding to go with openSUSE. After wrestling with some install disc issues I finally gave up and just burned a network install disc and went with that (which worked flawlessly... mostly). During the install I ran the system update which patched a bunch of stuff and restarted the computer before coming back up to pick up where it left off during the install. I noticed the resolution was wrong (1024x768 instead of 1280x800) so I went in to change it and ended up clicking cancel on one of the dialogs to back out before choosing... well that kicked me out of the installer entirely and openSUSE booted up in 1024x768. I looked around for how to fix that, eventually finding what I should have tried straight away SAX2 (or whatever... I ended up noticing that there is an option to change resolution right in the system controls). I change it... it looks pretty good... and the system reboots itself. Weird. And when it comes back up it says the installation was never finished and would I like to finish it now? [Yes] So I have to reenter some information but it all works out because I get a second change to chance the resolution and it sticks when all is said and done.

Finally everything is installed and working. Except wireless. No problem, I searched and found instructions on how to get my wireless working after adding a repository and drivers through YAST. Problem solved. Next up? Better fonts. I found another page listing instructions on how to get better subpixel rendering by rebuilding the freetype2 library and making some tweaks in Firefox (which worked fine after I downloaded some necessary stuff through YAST first).

Now to install Compiz-Fusion!

Well, I fired up YAST, added another repo (man, this is getting old having it scan for two minutes every time I go to download something... oh well), and checked off all of the Compiz-Fusion stuff I saw (no Beryl/normal Compiz/devel) before clicking accept. I confirm that I do want to download the dependencies and it goes to do its thing which it finishes shortly thereafter.

I'm looking around for instructions on how to actually get Compiz running and I'm not finding any straight responses... ah well, I'll find it. I go to open something from the GNOME menu and I notice that the Desktop Effects (yes, I had enabled that and logged out back in.. so they were active) icon had changed to look like the Compiz logo (but not the Compiz-Fusion logo). I click it and a Bug Report comes up... then Linux bails and I'm at the login screen.

Well, I've tried restarting and choosing the Safe option... that just leaves me at a grey screen. Logging in normally used to take me to a full screen text mode/login prompt but that doesn't work anymore... it just logs in and the screen flashes a bit then kicks me back out to login.

The only thing I have access to is a Failsafe Terminal session.

How can I get GNOME back up and running? (Or Compiz-Fusion instead since that was the whole point)

Should I try Beryl instead? Vanilla Compiz?

Thanks in advance for your help... this is really frustrating. Especially since I have no idea what to do.

Hardware -
Sony VAIO VGN-FE880E
Graphics Media Accelerator 950 / Intel 945GM
Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG

Dual boot through GRUB -
openSUSE 10.2 (GNOME)
Windows Vista Home Basic

If I need to run a command from the terminal to provide more information just let me know...

[Deciare]

o.O That's an incredibly detailed problem description, but there's so much to take in, it's a bit difficult to arrive at any conclusion aside from the likely possibility that something that auto-starts when you log in is causing your X session to crash.

Let's establish some basic information so that we know we're on the same page... When you said you had to add a repo to install Compiz Fusion, exactly which repository did you add? And which packages did you select from it?

What did you type, edit, or otherwise modify to enable desktop effects (before installing Compiz Fusion)? Can you get back into GNOME by reversing that process? You won't be able to use Compiz this way, but at least you'll know you don't need to reinstall everything.

Can you post the contents of your ~/.xsession-errors file (if it's too long for this forum, try http://pastebin.ca) immediately following the crash that kicks you back to the login screen? (Logging back into the GUI may overwrite that file, so you'll have to use a terminal session to copy or rename that file before using the GUI again.)

[justinp]

First I installed the yast-meta-package handler (http://benjiweber.co.uk/mp/yast2-mpp-0.0-0.suse102.noarch.rpm)

I'm pretty sure I didn't need to bother with that though as I never got a chance to try and get One Click working in Firefox and ended up getting the Compiz-Fusion packages through YAST.

I'm pretty sure I added this repository (http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_10.2/)to YAST though I'm not sure if all of the packages came from there as I installed more than what you see in the list if you just view the directory from a web browser. I got the repo from this page (http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/compiz-fusion-052-opensuse-packages/).

I'm sorry I can't remember which packages I installed without seeing a list, though. It was probably about five or so packages...
compiz-fusion-main
compiz-fusion-emerald
compiz-fusion-themes
compiz-fusion-plugins
compiz-fusion-plugins-untested

and maybe another called lib(something)... I forget if I installed that or not.

I'm just guessing but it was something like those and whatever their dependencies were.

Also, the one time I was in the full screen text login after it failed to launch a Window Manager or whatever, I logged in under my user account and ran the following command:

compiz –replace ccp &

Which failed with some obvious error like "Could not launch XXX". I never got a chance to try any other commands as now it just boots me back to login and I never tried anything through the Failsafe Terminal I still have access to.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how to access hidden files on the / or /home partitions I have from Windows Vista, but (after struggling with trying to get stupid vi to work... I've only ever used pico in the past which at least makes sense) I tried launching gedit from the Failsafe Terminal session and it worked (sortof... it launched it without a window border... works for me).

Here's ~/.xsession-errors
/etc/opt/gnome/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/opt/gnome/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "justin"
/etc/X11/xim: Checking wether an input method should be started.
INPUT_METHOD is not set or empty (no user selected input method).
Trying to start a default input method for the locale en_US.UTF-8 ...
There is no default input method for the current locale.
SESSION_MANAGER=local/linux-lfv1:/tmp/.ICE-unix/4414
/usr/bin/compiz: Trying '/usr/$LIB/libIndirectGL.so.1'
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libIndirectGL.so.1' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
/usr/bin/compiz (cube) - Warn: Failed to load slide: freedesktop
Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension
Initializing nautilus-share extension
Initializing gnome-mount extension

(nm-applet:4514): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tooltips_set_tip: assertion `widget != NULL' failed

(nm-applet:4514): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_image_set_from_pixbuf: assertion `GTK_IS_IMAGE (image)' failed
The application 'gnome-session' lost its connection to the display :0.0;
most likely the X server was shut down or you killed/destroyed
the application.

[Deciare]

Ooh, now that's interesting. I didn't know you meant the kind of failsafe session that gave you a GUI! But, ah, now that I think about it, starting a gnome-session may autostart Compiz, which would kick you back to the command prompt again...

Try entering this command into the terminal:
gnome-xgl-switch --disable-xgl

That should disable Desktop Effects, and allow you to get back into normal GNOME session. From there, using the package manager, you can find out exactly which repo you added and exactly which Compiz-related packages you have installed.

[justinp]

That worked, back in GNOME now.

Searching for Compiz in YAST shows that I have...

cgwd
compiz
compizconfig-settings-manager
compiz-emerald
compiz-emerald-themes
compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
compiz-fusion-plugins-main
compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupported
compiz-gnome
libcompizconfig
python-compizconfig

Pretty sure I already had the compiz and compiz-gnome packages

[justinp]

Clicking on Desktop Effects produces the following Bug Report

Memory status: size: 168898560 vsize: 168898560 resident: 4198400 share: 10309632 rss: 14508032 rss_rlim: 1785451520
CPU usage: start_time: 1187587293 rtime: 15 utime: 12 stime: 3 cutime:0 cstime: 0 timeout: 0 it_real_value: 0 frequency: 100

Backtrace was generated from '/opt/gnome/bin/gnome-xgl-settings'

Using host libthread_db library "/lib64/libthread_db.so.1".
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread 47703472074368 (LWP 6165)]
0x00002b62d29d8c25 in waitpid () from /lib64/libpthread.so.0
#0 0x00002b62d29d8c25 in waitpid () from /lib64/libpthread.so.0
#1 0x00002b62cb9b2037 in gnome_gtk_module_info_get ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgnomeui-2.so.0
#2 <signal handler called>
#3 0x000000000040945c in update_plugins ()
#4 0x00000000004096b5 in plugins_activate ()
#5 0x0000000000409938 in active_plugins_changed ()
#6 0x00002b62cf178542 in gconf_listeners_notify ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
#7 0x00002b62cf185622 in gconf_client_value_changed ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
#8 0x00002b62cf18850e in gconf_client_notify ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
#9 0x000000000040975f in plugins_init ()
#10 0x0000000000408afe in main ()

Thread 1 (Thread 47703472074368 (LWP 6165)):
#0 0x00002b62d29d8c25 in waitpid () from /lib64/libpthread.so.0
No symbol table info available.
#1 0x00002b62cb9b2037 in gnome_gtk_module_info_get ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgnomeui-2.so.0
No symbol table info available.
#2 <signal handler called>
No symbol table info available.
#3 0x000000000040945c in update_plugins ()
No symbol table info available.
#4 0x00000000004096b5 in plugins_activate ()
No symbol table info available.
#5 0x0000000000409938 in active_plugins_changed ()
No symbol table info available.
#6 0x00002b62cf178542 in gconf_listeners_notify ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
No symbol table info available.
#7 0x00002b62cf185622 in gconf_client_value_changed ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
No symbol table info available.
#8 0x00002b62cf18850e in gconf_client_notify ()
from /opt/gnome/lib64/libgconf-2.so.4
No symbol table info available.
#9 0x000000000040975f in plugins_init ()
No symbol table info available.
#10 0x0000000000408afe in main ()
No symbol table info available.
#0 0x00002b62d29d8c25 in waitpid () from /lib64/libpthread.so.0

[justinp]

I have tried removing all packages except compiz and compiz-gnome because I know those were there originally, but the Desktop Effects icon remains that of Compiz even though it was originally something else before I tried to get Compiz running.

I still get the same Bug Report every time I click the Desktop Effects icon (or if I try to launch it from the terminal).

Also, just to see what would happen I tried to run 'compiz --replace ccp &' and 'gtk-window-decorator --replace &' which resulted in the following errors.

justin@linux-lfv1:~> compiz --replace ccp &
[1] 7963
justin@linux-lfv1:~> compiz: Trying '/usr/$LIB/libIndirectGL.so.1'
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libIndirectGL.so.1' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
compiz (core) - Fatal: No composite extension
justin@linux-lfv1:~> gtk-window-decorator --replace &
[2] 7966
[1] Exit 1 compiz --replace ccp
justin@linux-lfv1:~>
(gtk-window-decorator:7966): Gdk-WARNING **: Using Cairo rendering requires the drawable argument to
have a specified colormap. All windows have a colormap,
however, pixmaps only have colormap by default if they
were created with a non-NULL window argument. Otherwise
a colormap must be set on them with gdk_drawable_set_colormap

(gtk-window-decorator:7966): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_cairo_create: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed


At this point I really just want to get Desktop Effects back up and running and worry about Compiz after that (I'm thinking about just using Beryl instead but it hardly matters at this point... I just wish I knew what broke Desktop Effects).

[Deciare]

Actually, you may have to remove the compiz and compiz-gnome packages that came with openSuSE by default. Looking at your earlier crash traceback, the crash happened when Compiz was trying to load plugins, which can mean that the plugins were somehow incompatible with the version of Compiz that was trying to load.

It's likely that openSuSE comes with a Compiz version in the 0.2.x or 0.3.x series; you'll need something more recent, like 0.5.2, to use Compiz Fusion plugins. You should be able to get updated Compiz packages from the same repository where you got your Compiz Fusion plugins. (This one (http://forum.compiz-fusion.org/showthread.php?t=1415)?)



As for why Compiz won't load for you right now (without Compiz Fusion addons), it's because you aren't in an XGL session. If you switch back to an XGL session now, using
gnome-xgl-switch --disable-xgl
and then restarting the X server, you should be able to run plain old Compiz.

[justinp]

I've tried updating, removing, and reinstalling the compiz, compiz-gnome, xgl, and xgl-hardware-list packages.

Without compiz/compiz-gnome installed I don't have the Desktop Effects application, but whenever I do install them I get the new Compiz icon for Desktop Effects instead of the original icon it had when Xgl was working.

Any idea how I can get Xgl working again? Compiz aside. Every time I try to launch it I get the same Bug Report.

[Deciare]

That makes sense. The package manager is likely trying to install the newest available versions of compiz and compiz-gnome, both of which come from the Compiz Fusion repository you probably added.

Uninstalling both compiz and compiz-gnome, then removing the Compiz Fusion repository, should allow you to reinstall the earlier (default) versions of those packages.

As for how to get Xgl alone working... I think SuSE has Compiz set to autostart whenever you log into an Xgl session, so you'll either have to figure out how to change that, or leave Compiz uninstalled.