1

To compile a package I went on installing systemd package from Utopic 14.10 with all its dependencies on my [Modified] Ubuntu 12.04. As it's not existing in Systems prior to Trusty 14.04.

Everything went fine until I rebooted my computer the next day. Then I discovered that I am stuck at the login screen. i.e. my password is accepted but something fails later (before any desktop is shown) and I am returned to the login screen.

From an Ubuntu USB stick I performed a $ sudo chroot /mnt after mounting my root partition [+ /boot /home and /boot/efi partition] on /mnt.

I discovered after launching gconf-editor that all schemas are un-readable by Ubuntu 12.04 as they surely have been upgrated to the GNOME Utopic 14.10 version.

$ xhost +
$ for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /run /sys; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/
$ modprobe efivars
$ sudo chroot /mnt
# export DISPLAY=:0.0
# gconf-editor

All schemas for apps / desktop / system are unreadable and a key icon is displayed.

When double clicking any schema I get a pop-up window saying Currently pairs and schemas can't be edited. This will be changed in a later version.

So my question is : As these schemas were modified by triggering scripts when installing the systemd package, is there anyway I can re-generate valid Precise 12.04 schemas ? Or should I throw away my entire Precise 12.04 system because of these GNOME quirks ?

I did re-install the packages gsettings-desktop-schemas and gnome-settings-daemon however to no avail.

Antonio
  • 1,594
  • OK. Launching dconf-editor does show the schemas properly. I noticed earlier that when launching variety (wallpaper management) on the system via chroot I got this error message :

    /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/variety/bin/variety

    (variety:25651): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: No GSettings schemas are installed on the system Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

     – Antonio Dec 17 '14 at 19:13
  • The error from variety is that the GSettings schemas it uses are not installed in the system. I don't know how you installed it, but that is a completely separate problem from GNOME login not working. – dobey Dec 17 '14 at 19:59

1 Answers1

0

I'm not sure what you're asking, but most everything in GNOME doesn't use gconf any more. They use dconf. Also, yes, you can't edit pairs or schemas in gconf-editor. It will likely never be fixed though, as GNOME has moved away from gconf and over to dconf.

I'm not sure what you mena bout the schemas being unreadable. If you can see the schema in gconf-editor, then it's clearly readable.

If you simply directly force installed packages from 14.10 onto 12.04 though, you likely have a deeper problem than schemas. A whole lot has changed in the last 2.5 years, in both GNOME and Ubuntu.

You broke the system, so really you get to keep both pieces. I have no idea from your question, what is actually broken though, so I can't tell you how to fix it. Upgrading to 14.04 might help.

Looking at ~/.xsession-errors should tell you why the session fails to load after you log in, though.

dobey
  • 40,982
  • I didn't force anything. I installed all dependencies to get the package installed. However I probably misread the error message ? May be Variety is not designed to launch in a window or cli. Other programs like Synaptic etc ... are running well through chroot. I was considereing earlier to Upgrade, however I would have preferred to be able to undo everything. I have removed all packages I installed earlier and replaced them by stock 12.04 packages. However I am still stuck at login screen. The screen revert for less than a second to CLI messages I don't have time to read before login screen. – Antonio Dec 17 '14 at 19:18
  • File ~/.xcession-errors is empty ... – Antonio Dec 17 '14 at 20:40
  • OK. I was wrong about ~/.xsession-errors as it was empty because I was looking at the USB stick session. I re-started Ubuntu 12.04 and Pressed to open a cmd. line login session. Then a $ cat ~/.xsession-errors gave me : /usr/bin/lightdm-session 5: upstart not found . I reinstalled the package upstart to no avail. I imagine that some configuration from ~/.cache/upstart is missing ? how to solve this ? I had a look as well at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/1184878 and http://askubuntu.com/questions/463642/unable-to-start-kde – Antonio Dec 18 '14 at 18:49
  • The only thing in ~/.cache/upstart is a logrotate.log ... – Antonio Dec 18 '14 at 18:52
  • How a desktop user GUI session gets started with Ubuntu 12.04-14.04 @ http://askubuntu.com/questions/150487/what-happens-under-the-covers-to-log-me-in-and-start-up-unity-or-another-graphic – Antonio Dec 18 '14 at 19:32