Removing and re-installing gconf & gconf-editor ??

[William Case]

On Tue, 2008-08-19 at 13:07 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-08-19 at 12:49 -0400, William Case wrote:
> > Hi;
> > 
> > I just freshly re-installed Fedora 9.
> > 
> > Problem: 
> > 
> > Many of my gnome applets and desktop are still not working as they
> > should.
> > 
> > gconf & gconf-editor is not giving me the same keys in 'root' as in
> > 'user' for common applications because (I think) gconf in 'user' is
> > being over ridden by the '/home/user/.gconf' in the /home partition that
> > I preserved on the new install.
> 
> Naturally. That's exactly what you would expect. The root and user Gconf
> data are entirely independant of each other (because they are two
> different users).
> 
I understand they are independent from each other, that is why I
compared them.  The setup I had for an ordinary user was not very
different from the root user.  For example, things like the tasklist and
calander keys in the gconf of the 'clock' applet should have been the
same (marked true, yet they were now completely absent from
gconf-editor).

> > I used the 'root account ' as a
> > comparison because its .gconf was removed and re-written by gconf on
> > installation.
> > 
> > gconf-cleaner in 'user' finds more and more keys to change or remove
> > each time I run it in whichever 'user account ' ( I have three on my
> > machine.)
> [...]
> > Unless someone has a better solution, I was thinking of 'yum remove
> > gconf gconf-editor' and deleting all my user's .gconf dir/files.  Then
> > re-installing gconf and gconf-editor.  
> 
> Deleting ~/.gconf (and ~/.gconf2) may fix your problems, although
> instead of deleting them I'd move them to one side just in case.
> 
Of course, you're right.

> Removing and reinstalling gconf and gconf-editor is completely pointless
> and will undoubtedly cause a cascade of dependant package removals.
> 

That was what I was afraid of.  A case of frustration overriding
judgement.

> > However, that means I lose all my configurations for all my apps; and,
> > gconf-editor has a lot of dependencies.  If yum had a way to remove an
> > app while leaving the dependencies intact or a way to do a 'dry run' I
> > wouldn't be asking for advice.
> 
> It automatically does a dry run, since it asks you to confirm before
> proceeding.
> 

A case of frustration overriding common sense.

> > I have read through man yum-utils etc and
> > see nothing useful there.  I am not sure rpm -evv --nodeps -- test would
> > be any better.
> 
> Almost guaranteed to cause problems. Using --nodeps is an action of last
> resort, when there's something seriously wrong with a package
> installation or a spec file. Given that you have just reinstalled your
> entire system, there's no reason to suspect anything is wrong with your
> package set or any of its components.
> 
Forewarned is to be forearmed.  When I move -/.gconf and -/.gconf2
aside, I trust that gconf will write new files.  ( No answer necessary;
I'll find out soon enough.)

> > *****************************************************************
> > 
> > If anyone has a better idea of where the problems might lie or how to
> > fix them please let me know.
> >   
> > *****************************************************************
> > 
> > The thing that bothers me about my solution is that gconf should have
> > installed in the first place accommodating my preexisting ~/.gconf.  As
> > far as I can tell, I have not touched or been messing about with
> > anything that should damage gconf.
> 
> You've been doing a lot of tweaking in your system, and some of it may
> well have touched Gconf data. 

Calling it 'tweaking' is very kind, Patrick.

> That's what you need to clean up, not
> Gconf itself. Given the large number of problems, you're better off just
> nuking it and reconfiguring what you need. Keep a backup in case you
> need to consult something while doing the setup.
> 
> poc
> 
-- 
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.3
Evo.2.22.3.1, Emacs 22.2.1