Help restoring messed up settings

[Chris Green]

On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 07:30:58PM -0500, kwall at kurtwerks.com wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 10:03:31PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
> > I recently lost the hard disk on which /home resides, most stuff was
> > backed up OK but I seem to have got my xfce settings very screwed up
> > somehow.  So some help sorting them out would be welcome.
> > 
> > I'm running xcfe version 3.8.5 on SuSE 7.3 Linux.
> > 
> > For starters whenever I try and save settings (whether explicitly or
> > just when logging off for example) I get a message box saying "Cannot
> > create file".  I have checked thoroughly all the file permissions in
> > my home directory and I can write to them all.  I've even done a
> > 'chmod -R 777 *' and I still get the message!  Help, what file is xfce
> > trying to create and where?
> > 
> > Then the other thing is that I have a perfectly good xfwmrc file but
> > xfce doesn't seem to want to know about it
> > 
> > In .xsession-errors I'm getting:-
> > 
> >     xfwm message (type main):  Xinerama extension disabled
> > 
> >     xfwm message (type SessionInit):  X Session Manager not available
> >     Using builtin session management instead
> > 
> >     sh: gtk-config: command not found
> >     xrdb: No such file or directory
> >     xrdb: can't open file '/home/chris/.Xresources'
> 
> This one should be clear. $HOME/.Xresources doesn't exist.
> 
Yes, OK, it had become (or was before) .Xdefaults.


> >     XFce : /home/chris/.xfce/xfce3rc File not found.
> 
> And this one. $HOME/.xfce/xfce3rc doesn't exist.
> 
This was the fundamental problem and was also causing my "Cannot
create file" message, the .xfce directory was missing.

Can I add a plea for more helpful error messages here, a message which
says "Cannot create file" should *always* say what file it cannot
create.  If the message had done this I would have taken about ten
seconds to fix the problem rather than several hours.


> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     /home/chris/.xfce/xfbdrc File not found.
> 
> And, finally, this one. $HOME/.xfce/xfbdrc doesn't exist.
> My suggestion is to run the xfce_setup or xfce_upgrade script to 
> recreate and properly populate $HOME/.xfce.
> 
Yes, it all follows on from the missing .xfce directory really.

> 
> >     Loading GNOME menus
> >     Loading KDE menus
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> >     sox: Can't open output file '/dev/dsp': Permission denied
> > 
> > Which of these matter?
> 
> Um, I'm typically of the opinion that all error messages matter.

Yes, our coding standards at work say this, there should be *no*
compiler warnings etc. when building production code.


> As root:
> 
> # chmod 666 /dev/dsp
> 
I wonder why it doesn't get installed this way?


> As usual, your mileage may vary and if it breaks, you get to
> keep both pieces.
> 
Well I've got the pieces of the dead hard disk! :-)

Thanks!

-- 
Chris Green (chris at areti.co.uk)