Bug#271765: gnome crashes - hardware freeze

[John D. Hendrickson]

Package: gnome
Version: N/A; reported 2004-09-15
Severity: normal



-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux link 2.4.20-mm #1 Tue Feb 24 17:47:00 EST 2004 i586
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

--------------------------------------------------------------------
# for the systems I'm refering to

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
    APT policy: (500, 'testing')
    Architecture: i386 (i686)
    Kernel: Linux 2.6.7-k7
    Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

On 3 out of 3 machines gnome is severely unstable and incompletely installed.

	--> missing icons (ie, "Home" appears as blank sheet not a house)
	gdm crashes (and freezes computer hard with it)
	xterm and other things have many font problems and eel problems.
	gnome terminal doesn't work
	--> abiword often crashes with "Fatal: can't allocate memory"
		(reproducible, easily: just open print preview)

All had woody (separately installed - one a fresh install).  All were
dist-upraded to sarge individually.

* KDE works fine on all machines.
* All old gnome files were removed from user dirs in effort to locate problem.
* I tried installed as many gnome packages (for sarge) as seemed sane.
* I tried reinstalling base gnome packages.

Sorry I can't be drop dead specific as to why.  I beleive it to be both
improper compiling and improper distribution.

Why?  I dl'ed Gnome 2.6.1 myself and compiled it and it has none of the
problem (save I skipped compiling epiphany and gnomemeeting).
	1) I have icons installed
	2) abiword doesn't crash
	3) gnome terminal works great
	4) noticeable speed increase in trying themes and in other areas

	(I use my own xmd - haven't tried gdm in a while ;)

Now I did the compile sloppily - not insurning any of my compiling machine's
libraries / headers weren't wrong.  (so if I can do it like an idiot and
have not problems...)

So, I guess what I'm saying is: I really wish someone over there would redo
all of sarge's packages of gnome and have it checked and re-checked for
install / uninstall / upgrade (all of, in any order) by a typical user.  I
do think someone did it wrong - for whatever reasons.

Thanks,

    John D. Hendrickson

johndhendrickson22124@yahoo.com

jdh@hend.net