John Jason Jordan: > > [snip bluetooth mouse problems] Sorry, cannot comment on that.
> Unfortunately, the entire Gnome panel is gone. Clicking on where things
> are supposed to be in the panel does nothing.
Is the panel gone or is it empty?
> Windows have no title bar
> or icons in the corner to minimize or maximize them The keyboard works,
> but I cannot launch a terminal because I have forgotten the secret
> keyboard shortcut to launch a terminal.
Alt-F2 should spawn a "Run dialog". Use that to run the missing
programs:
metacity
gnome-panel (if it is completely gone)
> The only way I know how to do
> it is Applications > Accessories > Terminal, but there is no panel so I
> can't click on Appplications. I did get to a command line with
> Ctrl-Alt-F1, but I was unable to do anything constructive for failure
> to know what the window manager is called or how to restore it.
That wouldn't have worked anyway, since you have to start X programs in
an X environment.
> I also note that, although I logged in as myself, some of my display
> preferences were not honored. For example, I had Gnome set not to
> display any icons at all on the dekstop. I wanted a dekstop utterly
> devoid of anything except the Gnome panel. However, now all the items
> contained in the Desktop folder appear on the screen.
Did you look for strange messages in /var/log/syslog? It appears
something is seriously broken. Obviously, what you experienced shouldn't
happen.
> I am just about to give up and go back to Ubuntu. I had said at the
> outset of my foray into Debian that I would give it a week, but it has
> become apparent that I do not have the technical expertise to run
> Debian.
The symptoms you describe shouldn't happen in either Debian or Ubuntu.
And if they happen (and you don't know how to work around them), you're
screwed with both distros. :-/
I think I would try moving the Gnome-related files (.gnome2/,
.gnome2_private) in my $HOME out of the way and cnfigure it from
scratch.
J.
--
Whenever I hear the word 'art' I reach for my visa card.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
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