Re: grey screen?

[Gleef <dzol virtual-yellow com>]

On Thu, 1 Apr 1999, Nils Jeppe wrote:
> 
> What's the deal about starting gnome-session in .xinitrc and merely
> getting a default grey X screen?

Directly cut from the next version of the GNOME FAQ (I should have it up
on the website tonight):

I started GNOME with session management, why am I just getting this grey
screen (no panel, nothing)? 

  If you use session management, and it can't find a session, this is
  what it gets.  First, have you tried resetting your session
  management settings (See below)?  If this doesn't fix it, than
  gnome-session is having trouble finding the default.session file.
  In gnome-core versions 1.03 and later the file should be in
  $prefix/share/gnome.  Prior to that it should be in $prefix/share.
  If the file is missing, you should probably reinstall gnome-core.


How do I reset my session management settings?

  Many people find session management very useful. However, sometimes
  session management can go astray, and do undesired things like
  remember your settings after your kid brother attacked your
  computer.  If GNOME is properly installed, returning your settings
  to the default is easy.

  First, exit completely out of X.  If you are using session
  management, you should be able to use the "Log out" item of the Foot
  menu to exit.  If that doesn't work, hold down the control and alt
  keys, and hit backspace.  That should dump you out of the X Window
  System regardless of what's going on.

  Then, to remove your settings, just remove the ~/.gnome/session
  file.  The next time you start X, it should start with the default
  window manager, panel, gmc and the help browser.



> Also, where and what format should the default gnome icons like yes / no
> in the logout box have? I only get bitmap garbage.

Make sure you have a working version of libpng other than 1.0.2, make
sure your programs are finding the right version of libpng (eg. "ldd
panel").  If that doesn't work, I've found that it happens on one of
my systems if I use any optimization on gmodule or imlib.  Try
recompiling glib and imlib with no optimization, and see if that fixes
it.

Best of Luck,
-Gleef