<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DTD DocBook HTML 1.0//EN">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Runtime Problems</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="GNOME Frequently Asked Questions"
HREF="index.html"><LINK
REL="UP"
TITLE="Help!!!!!!!!"
HREF="help.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="Specific Compile Problems"
HREF="compilehelp.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="Architecture Components"
HREF="architecture.html"></HEAD
><BODY
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>GNOME Frequently Asked Questions</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="compilehelp.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>Help!!!!!!!!</TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="architecture.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="RUNTIMEHELP"
>Runtime Problems</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="RESETSM"
>How do I reset my session management settings?</A
></H2
><P
>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.</P
><P
>First, exit completely out of X.  If you are using
	session management, you should be able to use the
	<B
CLASS="GUIMENUITEM"
>Log out</B
> item of the Foot menu to
	exit.  If that doesn't work, hold down the control and alt
	keys, and hit backspace.  If that still doesn't work, and you
	are now looking at an XDM or GDM login prompt, switch to a
	text login (control-alt-F1 on many systems, consult your
	system documentation if you aren't sure, log in as a different
	user and use <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>su</B
> in an xterm if you are
	really in a bind).</P
><P
>Then, to remove your settings, while you are out of X,
	remove the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>~/.gnome/session</TT
> file.  The
	next time you start X, or the next time you log in from GDM,
	it should start you with the default window manager, panel,
	gmc and the help browser.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN627"
>I started GNOME with session management, why am I just
	getting this grey screen (no panel, nothing)?</A
></H2
><P
>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 <A
HREF="runtimehelp.html#RESETSM"
>above</A
>)?  If this doesn't fix it, than
	<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>gnome-session</B
> is having trouble finding the
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.session</TT
> file.  In gnome-core
	versions 1.03 and later the file should be in
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>$prefix/share/gnome</TT
>.  Prior to that it
	should be in <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>$prefix/share</TT
>.  If the file
	is missing, you should probably reinstall gnome-core.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN635"
>How do I tell session management what window manager to
	use?</A
></H2
><P
>This is a tougher question than it sounds, since the
	answer depends on which version of GNOME you are running.  The
	easy answer is to use the Window Manager settings in
	<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>control-center</B
>.  If that doesn't work for
	you for some reason, here's how to do it.</P
><P
>In gnome-core version 1.03 and earlier, the window
	manager is selected by placing it in a file called
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.wm</TT
>.  The system default for this
	file should be in either the
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>$prefix/share/gnome</TT
> or
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>$prefix/share</TT
> directories, whichever one
	has the file <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.session</TT
>.</P
><P
>A user-specific version of
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.wm</TT
> can be put in the
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>~/.gnome</TT
> directory.  The
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.wm</TT
> file should look like:</P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
>[Default]
WM=foo</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>Where <TT
CLASS="USERINPUT"
><B
>foo</B
></TT
> should be replaced by
	the window manager you want.  If you want to change the system
	default, you might also have to change the
	<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.session</TT
> file.</P
><P
>In gnome-core versions 1.04 and later, it is much
	easier.  Set the environment variable
	<TT
CLASS="ENVAR"
>WINDOW_MANAGER</TT
> to the window manager you want,
	then start X.  If that variable is not set, GNOME will run a
	script to make a good guess as to your window manager.  You
	can also edit the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>~/.gnome/default.wm</TT
>
	file as in older versions.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BLACKICON"
>Everything seems to be working, but most of my icons are
	just black squares, or random spots.  How do I get my
	icons?</A
></H2
><P
>Most of GNOME's icons are <A
HREF="http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png"
TARGET="_top"
>	PNG</A
> format graphic images, displayed via libpng and
	the Imlib graphics library.  The trouble is, this part of
	Imlib seems to be very finicky, and it shows its displeasure
	by displaying garbage (the black squares are just cleaner
	garbage).</P
><P
>There are a few things that can cause this to happen.
	The most common problem is a bad, missing or confused libpng.
	If you have libpng version 1.0.2, assume it is bad.  Only use
	versions 1.0.1, 1.0.3 or later.  Missing is easy, if there is
	no file called "libpng.so" or "libpng.so.2", and you are on a
	system with dynamic libraries, it's missing, get a copy and
	install it.  To see if it's confused, see if you have more
	than one copy of "libpng.so" or "libpng.so.2", if you do,
	remove them all and reinstall the right one.</P
><P
>Another possibility is one I have on one of my machines
	(A RedHat box with an AMD5x86 processor and egcs).  If I
	use any optimization when I compile glib or imlib, I get the
	problem described (imlib uses the gmodule portion of glib to
	load the PNG code).  Try compiling those two packages with no
	optimization switches on.  That might fix it.  As far as I can
	tell, this is a bug in my compiler, not in GNOME.</P
><P
>I have also received a report that the problem could
	occur from interference from some versions of ImageMagick.  If
	you are at a loss, you might want to try removing or upgrading
	it.</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="compilehelp.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="architecture.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>Specific Compile Problems</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="help.html"
>Up</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>Architecture Components</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>