Sparky Gnome

[dhinds]

The text of my fstab file is as follows:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda15
/dev/sda15 / ext4 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda16 home
/dev/sda16 /home ext4 relatime 0 0
# /dev/sda7
/dev/sda7 none swap sw 0 0
# cdrom
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

It's incorrect.  Because after I was unable to login with my user account on this desktop machine (on which I had installed Sparky Mate 3.2 64 bit), I installed the default version (Gnome) of Debian Testing on sda11 (a btrfs partition), and it's home is on sda15 (also a btrfs partition) that Sparty Mate is sharing as one of it's two root partitions.  Which may or may not cause problems (I don't know).  In any case, it should probably be corrected.



Sparky Mate's / partition is sda13, and it's a ext4 partition.  And gparted shows two separate mount points for / while in Sparky: sda13 and sda15 (which isn't Sparky - it's Debian /home; a separate and later installation with a newer kernel, as the Sparky Ultra Grub indicates).



This suggests to me that it might be a good idea to label the Sparky intallations so that it is clearly Sparky, as Point, Neptune, Snow, Solus and LMDE do, within Grub.



Before doing the rest of of the things you suggest below i am going to wait for any observations that you care to make and meanwhile, I will backup my IceDove files (yes it is IceDove) and attempt to put them in the Sparky Utra edition installed on sdb15 and 16 (both ext 4 - the Sparky Ultra installer does not offer the option of formatting a partition as btrfs, even after installing that capacity before installing the OS to the hard drive.

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 12, 2014, 17:04

so it should look like that (change sda8 for your home's device):

Code:

#Entry for /dev/sda8 :
UUID=d389e6c1-db27-4897-9622-2b810528bd55       /home   ext4    defaults        0       2

Find the UUID of home partition with command:

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

Then save the fstab file and reboot.

I'll hold off a bit more on that one too.  I want to get Sparky Ultra working efficiently at the moment.  (I am currently in mate to copy the IceDove files and a few other things.



I want to mention that fstab  has come up now and then over the years, but no one provided a command as clear and easy before to access it.

[pavroo]

Make me clear - the fstab file you provided is from Sparky Ultra - sda15 root, sda16 home.

Can you copy fstab from Sparky Mate which is on sda13? and past it here.

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 02:26

Make me clear - the fstab file you provided is from Sparky Ultra - sda15 root, sda16 home.

Can you copy fstab from Sparky Mate which is on sda13? and past it here.

I ran that command from Sparky Mate.   I haven't used Sparky Ultra today, which is on partitions sdb15 (/) and sdb16(/home)



Sparky Mate is on sda13 and it's /home is supposed to be on sda14.  I say that because I label those partitions when I install the OS's, and gparted shows where the mount points are for the OS one is using - and no /home partition is mounted.



Something interesting just happened: I took your advice and used SparkyBackup-Apps-Copy to copy my IceDove data, except I received a message saying "The user you chose does not have a proper home directory", referring to the user dhinds that I can no longer log into.  That may be why.  Now I have two computers with Sparky Mate that I can only use as root (and a new user that has no email accounts configured as yet).  So I check my mail as root but can't backup the accounts configured in IceDove as root, I suppose.



I should have backed them up before losing the ability to log in.  Well I can set them up again, if necessary.



sda15 is Debian's /home (although apparently Sparky Mate is using it as /root, as well, in addition to sda13) and there is no sda16, according to gparted.



So my fstab is wrong.  At some point I eliminated or consolidated partitions and the kernel wasn't informed in time.  I need to modify the present or generate a new fstab file.

[pavroo]

OK, Sparky MATE sda15 and sda16 home.

Change home line for:

Code:

/dev/sda16 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

And reboot.

Why is there separated 'proc' partition? Sparky does not have an option to create it.

You can't backup Icedove via SparkyBackupApps becouse it's root account and the app can't detect proper user account.

So manualy copy root's hidden home folder called .icedove and past it to your working 'normal' account to another sparky installation.

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 14:35

OK, Sparky MATE sda15 and sda16 home.

Change home line for:

Code:

/dev/sda16 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

And reboot.

sda16 does not exist (it did at one time but no longer does).  Sparky Mate sda13 and sda14 home.  That is correct.



So what I need to type is:

Code:

/dev/sda14 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

Is that correct?

Quote:

Why is there separated 'proc' partition? Sparky does not have an option to create it.

Nor did I create it.  I have no idea how it got there or what it stands for.



Maybe this explains it: Wikipedia  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fstab>  shows:

Quote:

The following is an example of an fstab file on a typical Linux system:



# device name   mount point     fs-type      options                                             dump-freq pass-num

LABEL=/         /               ext4         defaults                                            1 1

/dev/sda6       none            swap         defaults                                            0 0

none            /dev/pts        devpts       gid=5,mode=620                                      0 0

none            /proc           proc         defaults                                            0 0

none            /dev/shm        tmpfs        defaults

So apparently proc is a term Fstab relates to.  It may represent "Process" or "Processes"

Quote:

You can't backup Icedove via SparkyBackupApps becouse it's root account and the app can't detect proper user account.

OK.  I wasn't aware how easy it is to use the various SparkyBackup services you added to Sparky.  They represent a valuable addition to the Debian base.  So although I should have become familiar with and taken advantage of them as a user, I can still do that next time and avoid further problems in the future.



quote]So manually copy root's hidden home folder called .icedove and past it to your working 'normal' account to another sparky installation.[/quote]



Fine.  If that works for my new Sparky ultra installation (or for that matter, my new user account on Sparky Mate), I can run the SparkyBackupApps from those.  This really saves a lot of time and trouble. Evolution is easy to back up but Thunderbird/Icedove is more complicated, and that is what I use.



However, Sparky Ultra comes with Claws, however.  So SparkyBackupApps is not going to include IceDove on Sparky Ultra, I suppose.

[pavroo]

Alright, I have double checked it.

The proc has to be there.

Yes, it's OK: /dev/sda14 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

You can install Icedove on Ultra Edition:

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get install icedove

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 17:23

Alright, I have double checked it.

The proc has to be there.

Yes, it's OK: /dev/sda14 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

You can install Icedove on Ultra Edition:

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get install icedove

I changed the fstab using nano in a root terminal so that Sparky Mate is on sda13 and it's /home is sda14.



Then I rebooted and have regained access to my user account dhinds and am using it to post this.



SparkyBackup-Apps-Copy won't open but it might after rebooting.



GParted shows that Sparky is using the correct partions and is no longer sharing sda15 (a btrfs partition) with Debian Testing (DT's /home) as one of it's two /root partitions.



I was uncertain about changing "/dev/sda14 /home ext4 defaults 0 2" and left it as

"/dev/sda14 /home ext4 relatime 0 0"



IOW, I changed only the number 16 to 14



The fstab is now:

Code:

GNU nano 2.2.6              File: /etc/fstab                                  

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda13
/dev/sda13 / ext4 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda14 home
/dev/sda14 /home ext4 relatime 0 0
# /dev/sda7
/dev/sda7 none swap sw 0 0
# cdrom
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

               [ line 1/15 (6%), col 1/46 (2%), char 0/374 (0%) ]
^G Get Help  ^O WriteOut  ^R Read File ^Y Prev Page ^K Cut Text  ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit      ^J Justify   ^W Where Is  ^V Next Page ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell

I had already installed icedove to Sparky Ultra but assumed that Sparky Ultra's SparkyBackup-Apps-Copy wouldn't list it, since it wasn't part of the default installation.



I also tried to copy the root's icedove file and changed permissions to it using MC.



So there are some minor (and I assume resolveable) issues still but significant progress has been made and everything is actually making sense.

[pavroo]

Both versions of fstab entry for the home partiton are fine.

If you'd like to mount sda15 partition automaticaly, add it to the fstab or use Disk Manager from Menu-> Preferences to do so.

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 18:25

Both versions of fstab entry for the home partiton are fine.

If you'd like to mount sda15 partition automaticaly, add it to the fstab or use Disk Manager from Menu-> Preferences to do so.

sda15 is Debian Testing's /home.  I have not used it with Sparky intentionally and am not using Debian Testing at present.



I rebooted back into Sparky Mate and the passwords are working but I get the message:

Code:

Could not update ICE authority file /home/dhinds/.ICEauthority

I could then access the account and was asked for some password info.



The problem is, SparkyBackup-Apps-Copy still won't open.

[pavroo]

.ICEauthority:

Backup the old file and create a new one (in your home folder /home/dhinds):

Code:

mv .ICEauthority .ICEauthority.bak
touch .ICEauthority

SparkyBackup - run it as root it text console:

Code:

su
sparkybackup-apps

[dhinds]

I am now back in Sparky Ultra and everything is working correctly and it is very fast.  If I am unable to backup my icedove accounts data in Sparky Mate I will reconfigure all of them here.  And I see that having installed icedove (via synaptics) I can now use the SparkyBackup-Apps-copy and Restore utility with it - it's now on the list.



I won't be attempting to install Gnome on it any time soon.  I do use the xfce4-panel with it and kill the 9 wbar in order to use a second xfce-panel below.  A script to mount those automatically would be an improvement.



I find Gnome 3 to be very intuitive but I don't want to risk messing up this installation and suppose that installing Gnome would slow the system down somewhat.  Not only that, getting it installed and running as I want may or may not be feasible give my prior knowledge and experience.  This is the best system yet.  I could attempt installing Gnome over Sparky Ultra on another computer, that I use less (and has larger hard drives).

dhinds@cmgx58i7:~$ xfce4-panel



(xfce4-panel:4133): GLib-WARNING **: (/tmp/buildd/glib2.0-2.36.4/./glib/gerror.c:390):g_error_new_valist: runtime check failed: (domain != 0)

xfce4-panel: Failed to connect to session manager: Failed to connect to the session manager: SESSION_MANAGER environment variable not defined



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



(xfce4-panel:4133): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme directory scalable/stock of theme NoirCrystal has no size field



Working directory "/home/dhinds/.wine/dosdevices/z:/media/dhinds/Apps/Ecco_Suse/Ecco" does not exist. It won't be used when spawning "env".fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00000100

fixme:exec:SHELL_execute flags ignored: 0x00004100



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE

Application could not be started, or no application associated with the specified file.

ShellExecuteEx failed: Success.





(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



(xfce4-panel:4133): Wnck-WARNING **: Unhandled action type _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE



It gets much longer, but with more of the same.



The xfce4-panel allows me to use Ultra with a reasonable degree of efficiency, and I hope this issue can be dealt with successfully soon.  (I had tried out CrunchBang some time back and the suggestion was made on their forum to use the xfce4-panel, which I found useful.  But Sparky Ultra is far more useful than CrunchBang IMO, and the time spent with CrunchBang was useful for my understanding Sparky Ultra).



As I understand it, the Sparky XFCE edition is the default edition of Sparky.  Is that correct?

[pavroo]

I can't help you with taht. I never used xfce4-panel on openbox desktop.

Sparky Xfce is mady by our community member The Black Pig, but it is based on Debian stable "Wheezy".

It is not the default edition, the default one is LXDE.

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 21:44

I can't help you with that. I never used xfce4-panel on openbox desktop.

Sparky Xfce is made by our community member The Black Pig, but it is based on Debian stable "Wheezy".

It is not the default edition, the default one is LXDE.

Thanks for the info.



The LXDE panel can be installed on Openbox also.  I tried it after installing CrunchBang (also based on Wheezy, rather than Jessie) a while ago.  CrunchBang has a very active forum and I learned some things about openbox.  I remember preferring the XFCE panel, but don't recall why.  Both are already there in openbox.



On typing "xfce4-panel" as a command two xfce4 panels appear , on top and at the bottom.  But the top one closes for some reason after a while, so I just added the things it had on the bottom panel and made it longer.  I also close the wbar so there is no conflict.  (You told me how to do that a while back).



I also installed Sparky E17 on another computer and haven't had time to figure out how to use it.  (It's design is extremely different than anything else I've operated).  It's visually impressive but uses paradigms like shelves that I haven't looked into and after using the SparkyBackup System to create a backup iso, I decided to install gnome (the full desktop) with Synaptic.



On rebooting, I see no difference, as yet.

[dhinds]

Quote:

Quote from pavroo on January 14, 2014, 19:18

.ICEauthority:

Backup the old file and create a new one (in your home folder /home/dhinds):

Code:

mv .ICEauthority .ICEauthority.bak
touch .ICEauthority

SparkyBackup - run it as root it text console:

Code:

su
sparkybackup-apps

The Good and the Bad:  I'll start with the bad.



I wasn't able to do the ICEauthority backup as a user.  I wasn't on the list of sudoers.  I had to do it as root, and when I logged back on as a user, the same thing happened.  It wasn't fixed.



The second bad thing was, I configured a dozen email accounts manually and installed an addon in IceDove on Sparky Ultra which required restarting IceDove but it didn't re-initiate and on reopening IceDove the 12 email accounts were gone.



Now for the good news:  I intend to use Sparky Ultra so it doesn't matter much that Mate is still broken.  And as root I was able to backup my users email with SparkyBackup-Apps and save the results (a 1.7 gb tar.gz) and install it on IceDove in Sparky Ultra.



End of story.  Everything is fine.



What I like most about Mate is an add-on called "Force a misbehaving program to quit", which installs as an icon on the Mate panel.  Maybe something similar can be added to Ultra or the XFCE4-panel.

[dhinds]

This is now about In Sparky Ultra, in relation to the statement I made above:

Quote:

What I like most about Mate is an add-on called "Force a misbehaving program to quit", which installs as an icon on the Mate panel. Maybe something similar can be added to Ultra or the XFCE4-panel.

In Sparky Ultra's SparkyLinux Center's > System Settings Window, there is an icon linked to an application called X-Kill, to "Terminate a Malfunctioning Program" - but the AppFinder doesn't open it.



Perhaps this should be a new thread.