Update Messed Things Up [Fixed]

[bilyo]

I am using the Gnome desktop and just completed a system update via Synaptic.  All seemed to go well. No error messages or broken packages. After the update was completed almost all of my desktop icons and icons in the panel are now generic, looking like a piece of paper with a red x. All programs seem to generally work except the icons in the upper right of windows which close or minimize are missing.  Also, some pull-down menus, such as File, Edit, View, appear when clicked but disappear when you slide the cursor down to select a menu item. Menu items cannot be selected even by keystrokes. Also, when a program like Firefox opens, the panel disappears.  Some windows no longer have the usual borders nor can I click and hold on the top border and drag the window. These are examples. There is more and all is very odd.  Can anyone suggest what the problem is and how to fix it?
Thanks

[djohnston]

What iso did you install from?
How often do you update?
Do you perform full updates?
Have you reported it here?

[CaptainSarcastic]

Are you running Compiz?

Are you using Emerald as the window decorator?

Try opening the Compiz Fusion button, in there select Emerald, and see if it has any effect.

[Neal ManBear]

When it arrives to your mirror, install the hi-color-icon-theme update.     

[bilyo]

djohnston,
Installed from: ftp.heanet.ie...
I try to update every month. Might go 2-3 months sometimes.
Yes. I do full updates.
No. I haven't.  Historically, I have mostly used this forum.

CaptainSarca,
Compiz is installed but I never use it. I have never changed any of the default settings.  I've been using Gnome for a couple of years and, up to now, everything has worked just fine without making any changes to Compiz.
Ditto for Emerald.
I found "Compiz Fusion Icon" under System/Administration and clicked it.  It installed a generic icon in my panel.  However, it doesn't seem to do anything.  Maybe because none of the Fusion plug-ins are installed??

Neal ManBear,
Sorry. I don't under stand the question.  What "it" are you referring to? And, what do you mean by "your mirror"?

All,
I just noticed that I can "grab" the upper blue bar on this forum's window and move the window.  However, when I do, the place where I grab it moves while the rest seems to be stuck.  This briefly distorts the window until it finally pops loose and the whole window quivers like a bowl of jello and then settles to its new location.  It's almost humorous.


Thanks

[Neal ManBear]

bilyo,     
You should never go more than 30 days between updates. Anything over that, and your upgrade path can become broken. That will cause problems on your system.     

Mirror: a site which mirrors, i.e. copies, the PCLinuxOS repository. ftp.heanet.ie is a mirror.     
What it, you ask? The answer to that is in my post -- the hi-color-icon-theme update.     

[bilyo]

OK. Thanks. I had an idea that that is what you were talking about.  I try to get updated every month but sometimes it just gets by me. I'll try harder.
Checked on Hi-Color-Icon-Theme update and it doesn't seem to be there.  Is this something that is expected soon?  Would it be on any of the other mirror sites?  Why do I need it now when I never did before?
Oh! There it is.  Hi-color is one word, hicolor. Synaptic shows a green square with a star in it. OK. I updated it but I don't see changes.  Is it something that needs to be run in terminal mode?
Wish you could see these "bowl of jello" windows. I've never seen anything like it.
Thanks

[TheGhost]

I think I know what the problem is.

The "jello" windows is a 3D effect that Compiz has; so you have Compiz installed and for some reason is active (and probably wasn't before). And if Emerald is not installed or not configured, you get no icons and windows decorations.

The Compiz-Fusion icon should be able to enable and disable 3D desktop effects; if you disable them you should get your regular desktop back.

If not, check in the PCLinuxOS Control Center ("Configure your computer"), under "Hardware", you might have a setting for "Configure 3D effects" or something like that. Click on it and uncheck "use desktop effects". (The actual wording might be different, I don't have compiz installed so I'm playing from memory).

Alternatively, if you wan to keep the 3D effects, install the Emerald package and configure your favorite Emerald decorations.
Or, if you don't want them, uninstall Compiz. After all, you can always install it again if you like.

I hope this helps.

[bilyo]

TheGhost,
Thanks for the suggestions.  Just for grins, I selected 3D Effects (it was off) in PCC and then installed the Fusion Main Plug-in (Fusion already installed) and Emerald Themes (Emerald already installed) and made sure both were turned on.  No change except when I shut down I noticed the shut-down window had a different color window.  None of the others like Mozilla, or the system files window, did.  Curiously, the "jello window" effect was gone.  I then uninstalled Compiz and Emerald and am now back to where I was according to my initial message. 

During all this, I have notice two other things that might be clues.  When my cursor touches a selectable item, it now changes to a pointing finger.  It did not used to do this.  Also, I cannot switch workspaces.  Also, the "jello effect" is still gone after uninstalling compiz.

Thanks

[TheGhost]

Bilyo:

Have you tried reinstalling the gnome-icon-theme?
Also, make sure that this icon theme is selected in your desktop configuration. (I am using KDE, I'm not familiar with Gnome, so I can't tell you exactly where to do this.)

Now, the wobbly effect ("jello") is part either of Compiz, or Gnome's own desktop effects. If it's gone now that you uninstalled Compiz, then probably it was that.

One more thing: when you installed Emerald, did you also open the Emerald configuration and selected a theme?
If you didn't, then Emerald did not apply any theme and your window decorations did not change.
I have seen that behavior before: window decorations and icons missing when no Emerald theme is selected. Your symptoms seem related to this.

The problem might be related to missing or corrupted configuration files in your user only.
Try creating a new user and check if everything is fine with it, or if you are still missing icons and decorations. That should give another clue.

Finally, what you can also try is to open Synaptic, do a search for "gnome", and reinstall anything that shows as currently installed. It shouldn't hurt, and it might restore some settings to their defaults - although, honestly I don't think it will.

Keep us posted.

[Neal ManBear]

Bilyo,     
Install shutter version 0.88.1-3. Simple as that. If you want to remove it later, in Synaptic > File > History, you can find it and the depends it brings in.     

[Fornhamfred]

Moving slightly off the subject, to keep your system up-to-date why not install update-notifier from synaptic. You can configure it to automatically check for updates at whatever intervals you decide daily, weekly etc.

[bilyo]

Well!  Thanks to all of you, everything is apparently as it should be.  Windows for Firefox, Thunderbird, and others no longer cover the panel at the top of the screen. All Exit, minimize, and maximize buttons are back. I can now drag or resize windows as before. Window pull-down menus now stay put so that I can select from them, I can switch workspaces, and all icons are back; some are different but there. I just don't know exactly how it all happened.

I'll try to tell you what I did as best as I can remember and decipher from my notes:
Because I could not answer TheGhost's question about what I did when Emerald was installed, I reinstalled Compiz and Compiz Fusion and turned it on in PCC to see what would happen.  I selected an Emerald theme and this resulted in all the windows corrections mentioned above.  No changes to icons, however.  Ok. These corrections are nice but Compiz wasn't running and everything was OK before the last system update.  So.

I decided to go back to Synaptic and re-install the following:
GDM, Gnome Display Mgr
GDMthemes
Gnome-Applets, For Gnome Panel
Gnome-Icon-Theme, Gnome Default Icons

This had no effect even after logging out and back in.

Neal ManBear suggested that I install Shutter.  I had Shutter already installed and I'm not sure how it relates to the problem.  However, I was considering re-installing it but instead I decided, per Fornhamfred's suggestion, to install Update-notifier instead.  As soon as the install completed it told me that there were two updates available; IOManager and Shutter.  As soon as it completed the updates of those two apps. most of the missing icons popped up.  When I logged out and back in, they were all smiling back at me. With my fingers crossed, I opened PCC and turned off 3D DeskTop Effects (Compiz Fusion is still installed).  All is still OK.

Now. Neal ManBear. Was that a coincidence or did you know something?

Again, I don't see how Shutter had anything to do with it.  So, it must have been IOManager.  Was it the problem all along? Or, did I (we) unwittingly do a combination of things that fixed it?

Thanks

[Old-Polack]

Again, I don't see how Shutter had anything to do with it.  So, it must have been IOManager.  Was it the problem all along? Or, did I (we) unwittingly do a combination of things that fixed it?

Thanks

Incredibly flawed logic. Whether or not you can see how Shutter had anything to do with it, Shutter was indeed the culprit, and the reason you were told to install/upgrade it, in order to get the repaired package installed. Jumping to the conclusion that it must have been IOManager, based on a totally false assumption about Shutter, with no evidence to support such a conclusion, especially after having already been told the solution, is mind boggling.

You "fixed" it by upgrading Shutter, which installed the repaired package, just as you were told to do. 

[bilyo]

Much thanks to everyone.