Mageia forum

Unable to change default to gnome, receiving an error (similar to) "the system can not recover..."
Am using KDE or LXDF without any problem, but unable to switch to Gnome, which I prefer.

Please advise
JJF

i see you have only made 2 posts, so welcome

but little else to go on in this post.

what version of mageia did you install.
trying to assess if this is a newby problem, like you did not install gnome, or another mga4 problem.

if you installed the system and chose kde as the default, it wont install enough gnome to start gnome, only enough to
install libraries used by gnome apps that kde uses.

if it was a live dvd even more so.

so help us to help you, by giving me a hint , as we are not pyscic.

regards peter

Mageia 3 on 64 bit machine.
uname -a: Linux localhost 3.10.28-desktop-1.mga3 #1 SMP Sat Feb 1 16:15:10 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
(Whilest I was composing this reply, I run: urpmi task-gnome as I removed it trying to resolve the problem. It ended with:
GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon:
Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. Anyway, I'll try switch to gnome while I send this mail)
JJF

)

Please disregard my previous post. !!
Sorry

The data was collected from my home machine.
The problem I described in my original post was related to another instalation. (which I have no access to it now). I will complete the required info (only) next week
Pardon
JJF

Hereis the correct info:

1. Mageia 4: KDE-OK, LXDF-OK. Gnome- Blinking cursor on black background.
2. Running under VirtualBox 4.3.6 r91406 on Intel core i3-3220 CPU 3.3GHz 4GB memory 32 Bit OS
3. uname -a = Linux localhost 3.12.9-desktop-1.mga4 #1 SMP Sat Feb 1 18:19:50 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
4. [root@localhost jacob]# urpmi task-gnome
Package task-gnome-3.10.1-3.mga4.noarch is already installed

Please advise
Tks JJF

JJF wrote:1. Mageia 4: KDE-OK, LXDF-OK. Gnome- Blinking cursor on black background.

How do you switch between desktop environments? Usually from the display manager, so why do you have a black background and blinking cursor?
Sounds like more that the X server didn't start at all after booting.

And in the first post you mentioned "the system can not recover..." - That is called the "fail whale" and on login you usually get that because
GNOME requires graphics acceleration and could not detect that, presumably because you're runnning it in virtualbox
and don't have 3D acceleration enabled or GNOME doesn't support the Virtualbox driver.

Does it look something like the following screenshots?
http://mclasen.fedorapeople.org/fail-whale-fail.png
http://afaikblog.files.wordpress.com/20 ... normal.png
https://community.plus.net/forum/index. ... tach=23543

I login into KDE , than logout, change sesseion to Gnome and get the frightening screen: "Something has gone wrong....etc. Forced to logout and than waiting forever the loging prompt
tks
JJF

You should be able to select Gnome classic session at the login screen.
As without 3d acceleration, you will probably not be able to start a normal GNOME session.

Same results with Gnome classic

I successfully instaled Mageia 4 into VirtualBox
I am able to login to KDE or LXDF
Trying to logout and change session to Gnome or Gnomeclassic, I get the message "Somthing has gone wrong..." forcing to logout waiting endlessly for a login screen or a new session.
I have to select Virtualbox machine and close it
Please advise
jjf

edit doktor5000: merged into existing thread

Please don't double-post, that is disregarded.

3D acceleration is enabled:
"Enable VT-x/AMD-V" is marked and greyed out in KDE session.

I installed task-gnome-minimal.
Gnome shell does crash even with 3D acceleration activated.
After removing it

Code: Select all

urpme task-gnome-minimal

kdm still autologs me in to the gnome-shell crash message before I get a half baked GUI with no visible mouse.

Then I managed to fire the konsole from docky (It blinks when the invisible mouse cursor moves over it) and entered:

Code: Select all

openbox-session

This then brings me right to the world famous "oh no something went wrong" message where i can play arround until the logout button is highlighted. (Third link above)

This brings me to kdm where I finally can pick openbox - Gnome is still there as an option and it is obviously "checked".

After that I have my normal openbox again.'

Code: Select all

inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: InnoTek Systemberatung VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
           X.Org: 1.14.5 drivers: ati,vboxvideo,v4l Resolution: 1591x1063@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.3, 128 bits) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.0.3

This does probably not help you JJF - but it must feel good to not be all alone

Gnome 3 has a long and terrible history in my VB (with different distros) - so I left Gnome a while ago.
Edit:
You could try to make ~/.xinitrc
and try to autostart gnome

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

exec gnome-session
# exec startkde
# exec startxfce4
# ...or the Window Manager of your choice
#exec openbox-session
#exec startlxde

But I have had no luck with that in Mageia (works fine with Arch). You will probably just be auto-logged in to the crash message.

Can you explain in detail what will the script do?
tks
jjf

I am also having problems with Gnome Classic. I was able to log in to Gnome Classic with the previous version of Magiea (3), but when I upgraded to Mageia 4, when I logged in the first time, it took me to the new Gnome. I thought that strange since I just did an upgrade and didn't change the settings in my account.

I logged out and tried to find the options to select Gnome Classic, but they are not there. I don't have KDE or other X-Windows, so I don't have any options showing up at the login screen.