Re: off topic; HELP! I cannot create a terminal window in gnome.

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Ralph:

If you have a configuration problem that affects one user and not other
users, the problem is likely a configuration option stored in your
$HOME/.gconf directory.

Note that gnome-terminal configuration settings are in the directory
$HOME/.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal

If you make sure that the gconfd daemon is not running and delete this
directory, then gnome-terminal should go back to its default
configuration.  Note that it is not good to try and modify the GConf
database when gconfd is running because it will, in some cases,
rewrite keys it thinks are "missing" when it does exit, and undo your
change.  For example, a good way to do this is to login into a Failsafe
session from the login screen to delete the $HOME/.gconf directory
without worrying about such issues.

You can also run the gnome-cleanup program.  This deletes all your
user configuration and returns your user to a default state.  In other
words, it basically does the same thing I described above, but deletes
configuration for all GNOME programs, not just gnome-terminal.  You can
refer to the gnome-cleanup man page for more information.

Hopefully this helps if Zoran's suggestion isn't the right fix.

Brian


>   I assume the answer to your question might be of some use to less 
> experienced GNOME users / new developers as well, so I am CCing it to 
> the list.
>
>   Most likely you have set the custom command to something that returns 
> immediately and forgot to set the option to keep the terminal window 
> open when the command exits.  Unless I am grossly mistaken, you can try 
> the following command:
>
> $ gconftool-2 --set 
> /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/use_custom_command --type=bool false
>
> to reset your setting on that key.  Of course, in your current 
> predicament, you would either switch to a text console using Ctrl-Alt-F1 
> (getting back to X via Alt-F7), or else hit Alt-F2 and paste the command 
> there.  It may help, but the main issue is about where gnome-terminal 
> keeps its preferences.  Those are stored (as are many other 
> applications' preferences) in GConf tree, which is akin to Windows 
> registry: a central repository for small bits of data that together make 
> up your desktop configuration.  Given your inclination towards poking 
> around I am reluctant to tell you about GConf editing tool, but I guess 
> you can not be stopped either way ;)  so might as well let you in on it 
> sooner rather than later:  gconf-editor is its name.  If the above 
> command does not solve your issue with the terminal, launch gconf-editor 
> (either via menus or Alt-F2), navigate to 
> /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default and play around with the 
> switches.  All changes take place immediately so do be careful.
>
>   GConf is an integral part of GNOME.  All desktop developers must at 
> least be aware of its existence. :)
>
> Cheers,
> Zoran
>
> On Sun, 2008-05-25 at 20:26 -0600, Ralph Boland wrote:
> > Sorry for not being a development issue unless you consider modifying 
> > gnome
> > so those stupid enough to do what  I have done can't do it anymore.
> >
> > What I did was experiment with terminal window profiles to learn how 
> > useful
> > they were.  I somehow set up my only terminal window profile to close
> > immediately upon opening.  Thus I cannot open any terminal windows.
> > Since I use them all the time this is a major pain.  For now I just
> > created a new user for myself (on ubuntu) but this is not acceptable.
> > This has happened on my work machine so I need my original name
> > back.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > desktop-devel-list mailing list
> > desktop-devel-list gnome org <mailto:desktop-devel-list gnome org>
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
>
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