GNOME 3.30: help needed!

GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

I just pushed the branch “wip-gnome3.30” to Savannah.  It is based on
“wip-gnome-upgrades”, but upgrades our GNOME packages to version 3.30.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out how to start a GNOME
session with this version.  I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of
setting the correct environment variables so that all the required
libraries and the DBus service files are found.

My ~/.xsession file ends on

    gnome-session
    sleep 60

to avoid an annoying endless session reload.

Note that the wayland backend is the new default.  If you want a little
less mystery at first, try setting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11.

I would very much appreciate any help you can provide in pushing this
upgrade into a usable shape!  Let’s meet in #guix and hack on this!

--
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[L p R n d n]

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Hi Guix,
>
> I just pushed the branch “wip-gnome3.30” to Savannah.  It is based on
> “wip-gnome-upgrades”, but upgrades our GNOME packages to version 3.30.
>
> Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out how to start a GNOME
> session with this version.  I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of
> setting the correct environment variables so that all the required
> libraries and the DBus service files are found.
>
> My ~/.xsession file ends on
>
>     gnome-session
>     sleep 60
>
> to avoid an annoying endless session reload.
>
> Note that the wayland backend is the new default.  If you want a little
> less mystery at first, try setting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11.
>
> I would very much appreciate any help you can provide in pushing this
> upgrade into a usable shape!  Let’s meet in #guix and hack on this!
>
> --
> Ricardo


Hello,

First, thanks for all the work. 
I don't have time right now but i might look at this soon.
In the meantime, I looked in nixpkgs and they updated not so long ago.
They added this a few months ago:

    services.xserver.displayManager.sessionCommands = ''
      if test "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "GNOME"; then
          ${concatMapStrings (p: ''
            if [ -d "${p}/share/gsettings-schemas/${p.name}" ]; then
              export XDG_DATA_DIRS=$XDG_DATA_DIRS''${XDG_DATA_DIRS:+:}${p}/share/gsettings-schemas/${p.name}
            fi
            if [ -d "${p}/lib/girepository-1.0" ]; then
              export GI_TYPELIB_PATH=$GI_TYPELIB_PATH''${GI_TYPELIB_PATH:+:}${p}/lib/girepository-1.0
              export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH''${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:}${p}/lib
            fi
          '') cfg.sessionPath}
      fi
    '';
    
It seems to add a few environment variables to start Gnome from the
display manager. FYI, p is any package added to cfg.sessionPath.
It defaults to gnome-shell and gnome-shell-extensiosn. (They also advise
not to modify it and rather patch the package itself so it might just not be
possible for those two.)

I don't know if it's related. I hope it helps tho.

Have a nice day,

Lprndn

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Rene]

Hello Ricardo,

I tested GNOME 3.30 from the `wip-gnome3.30` branch and applied the Timothy Sample patches[1] and these are some observations:

  * With `guix system vm-image..` the startup works correctly.
  * Using `sudo dd if=$(guix system disk-image ..) of=/dev/sdb` boot and login correctly.
  * Using the `guix system reconfigure -L /home/remi/guix ..` option does not seem to work; Is there any other way to reconfigure my system using my local repository?.

  * On the other hand how to know if GNOME is using wayland?.

regards

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Rene,

> I tested GNOME 3.30 from the `wip-gnome3.30` branch and applied the
> Timothy Sample patches[1] and these are some observations:
>
>  * With `guix system vm-image..` the startup works correctly.
>  * Using `sudo dd if=$(guix system disk-image ..) of=/dev/sdb` boot
>  and login correctly.

That’s good to know.  (I wouldn’t use dd to upgrade a system, but “guix
system reconfigure”.)

What patches did you apply?  Are you using GDM or SLIM?

When I tested the packages I was not able to start the graphical user
interface.

>  * Using the `guix system reconfigure -L /home/remi/guix ..` option
>  does not seem to work; Is there any other way to reconfigure my
>  system using my local repository?.

You can use “/home/remi/guix/pre-inst-env guix system reconfigure …”.

>  * On the other hand how to know if GNOME is using wayland?.

I don’t know!

--
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Catonano]

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Il giorno ven 4 gen 2019 alle ore 10:55 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
ha scritto:

>  * On the other hand how to know if GNOME is using wayland?.
>
> I don’t know!
>
> --
> Ricardo
>



I asked this question on the fediverse and I've been pointed to this answer

(tl dr: obtain your session id with

loginctl

and then

loginctl show-session <SESSION_ID> -p Type

if the session is on Wayland this should return

Type=wayland )

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/202891/how-to-know-whether-wayland-or-x11-is-being-used

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Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Catonano]

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another answer arrived rigt now

If you open xeyes, the eyes will not move if your pointer is on top of a
Wayland window.

Also, the combination

Alt+F2

and then

R + return

restarts Gnome if it's on X. It doesn't if it's on Wayland

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Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Catonano]

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I received a new answer right now

echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY (if it outputs "wayland-0" or something it's a
Wayland session),
or echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

I don't know how and why these variables should be set on GuixSD but people
on the fediverse don't know that I asked on behalf of you ☺


Il giorno ven 4 gen 2019 alle ore 12:52 Catonano <catonano@gmail.com> ha
scritto:

> another answer arrived rigt now
>
> If you open xeyes, the eyes will not move if your pointer is on top of a
> Wayland window.
>
> Also, the combination
>
> Alt+F2
>
> and then
>
> R + return
>
> restarts Gnome if it's on X. It doesn't if it's on Wayland
>
>
>

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Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Rene]

Hello Ricardo,

I have reconfigured my system and it seems to work!

>
> What patches did you apply? Are you using GDM or SLIM?
>

the patches are in master with commit `92deb5cc920fcc7617302986180f1abee5fd2b2` until `48c8d067d4ded776939cda6f9c63c25b38ba77fc`, and I've used GDM and SLIM!

Thanks

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Rene]

Hello Catonano,

>
> loginctl
>
> and then
>
> loginctl show-session <SESSION_ID> -p Type
>
> if the session is on Wayland this should return
>
> Type=wayland )
>

I have executed the commands and it seems that we did not use wayland for GNOME.


gloton@manada ~$ loginctl
SESSION   UID USER   SEAT  TTY
     c1   993 gdm    seat0 tty7
     c2 30011 gloton seat0 tty8

2 sessions listed.
gloton@manada ~$ loginctl show-session c1 -p Type
Type=x11
gloton@manada ~$ loginctl show-session c2 -p Type
Type=x11

Thanks

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Rene,

> I have reconfigured my system and it seems to work!
>
>>
>> What patches did you apply? Are you using GDM or SLIM?
>>
>
> the patches are in master with commit `92deb5cc920fcc7617302986180f1abee5fd2b2` until `48c8d067d4ded776939cda6f9c63c25b38ba77fc`, and I've used GDM and SLIM!

I rebase wip-gnome3.30 on top of the master branch and reconfigured, but
I cannot get GNOME to start.  I deleted the slim-service-type and added
(gdm-service) to my configuration.

I moved ~/.xsession out of the way, but after logging in GNOME still
won’t start.  Could you share your configuration file that you used to
successfully start GNOME 3.30?

-- 
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Rene]

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Hello Ricardo,

I attach the configuration file.

>
> I rebase wip-gnome3.30 on top of the master branch and reconfigured, but
> I cannot get GNOME to start. I deleted the slim-service-type and added
> (gdm-service) to my configuration.
>
> I moved ~/.xsession out of the way, but after logging in GNOME still
> won’t start. Could you share your configuration file that you used to
> successfully start GNOME 3.30?
>

* I use wip-gnome3.30 branch and then apply the mentioned patches!.
* I do not use the .xsession file.
* After testing and reconfiguring my system several times some files in `/var/lib` were outdated; and renamed '/var/lib` and then reconfigured my system.

regards

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;; This is an operating system configuration template
;; for a "desktop" setup with GNOME and Xfce where the
;; root partition is encrypted with LUKS.

(use-modules (gnu) 
	(gnu system nss)
	(guix packages)
	(guix download)
	(gnu packages linux)
	(gnu services sddm)
	(gnu services xorg))
(use-service-modules desktop xorg)
(use-package-modules certs gnome emacs)

(operating-system
  (host-name "manada")
  (timezone "Europe/Paris")
  (locale "en_US.utf8")

 ;; Wifi atheros drivers: ath,ath9k_htc,ath9k_hw,ath9k_common
 ;; Trackpad  drivers: bcm5974
 ;; Bluetooth drivers: btrtl,btintel,btbcm,btusb,ecdh_generic,bluetooth
 ;; Joystick  drivers: joydev
 
 (kernel-arguments '("modprobe.blacklist=thunderbolt,btrtl,btintel,btbcm,btusb,ecdh_generic,bluetooth,joydev"))

  ;; Use the UEFI variant of GRUB with the EFI System
  ;; Partition mounted on /boot/efi.
  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
                (bootloader grub-bootloader)
                (target "/dev/sda")))

  (file-systems (cons (file-system
                        (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
                        (mount-point "/")
                        (type "ext4"))
                      %base-file-systems))

  (swap-devices '("/dev/sda3"))

  (users (cons* (user-account
                (name "remi")
                (comment "remi")
                (group "users")
                (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"
                                        "audio" "video"))
                (home-directory "/home/remi"))
	       (user-account
                (name "gloton")
                (comment "gloton")
                (group "users")
                (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"
                                        "audio" "video"))
                (home-directory "/home/gloton"))
               %base-user-accounts))

  ;; This is where we specify system-wide packages.
  (packages (cons* nss-certs         ;for HTTPS access
                   gvfs              ;for user mounts
		   emacs-no-x
                   %base-packages))

  ;; Add GNOME and/or Xfce---we can choose at the log-in
  ;; screen with F1.  Use the "desktop" services, which
  ;; include the X11 log-in service, networking with
  ;; NetworkManager, and more.

  (services (cons* (gnome-desktop-service)
		   (gdm-service)
		   (filter (lambda (x)
			     (not (eq? (service-kind x) slim-service-type)))
			   %desktop-services)))
  
  
  ;; Allow resolution of '.local' host names with mDNS.
  (name-service-switch %mdns-host-lookup-nss))

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Rene,

> I attach the configuration file.

Thanks.

>> I rebase wip-gnome3.30 on top of the master branch and reconfigured, but
>> I cannot get GNOME to start. I deleted the slim-service-type and added
>> (gdm-service) to my configuration.
>>
>> I moved ~/.xsession out of the way, but after logging in GNOME still
>> won’t start. Could you share your configuration file that you used to
>> successfully start GNOME 3.30?
>>
>
> * I use wip-gnome3.30 branch and then apply the mentioned patches!.
> * I do not use the .xsession file.
> * After testing and reconfiguring my system several times some files in `/var/lib` were outdated; and renamed '/var/lib` and then reconfigured my system.

I removed ~/.cache and ~/.config/gnome*, and I moved .xsession out of
the way, but I still cannot start GNOME.  GDM comes up fine, but after
inputing my credentials the mouse cursor skips to the bottom right
corner and then I’m thrown back into the GDM login screen.

There is nothing relevant in /var/lib, I think.

I’ve also tried to do this in a VM, but everything is terribly slow, so
I can’t get past the GDM login screen.

I’d be happy if other people could test this, too.  If you have
suggestions on how I could debug this, please do let me know.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi again,

I wrote:

>>> I rebase wip-gnome3.30 on top of the master branch and reconfigured, but
>>> I cannot get GNOME to start. I deleted the slim-service-type and added
>>> (gdm-service) to my configuration.
>>>
>>> I moved ~/.xsession out of the way, but after logging in GNOME still
>>> won’t start. Could you share your configuration file that you used to
>>> successfully start GNOME 3.30?
>>>
>>
>> * I use wip-gnome3.30 branch and then apply the mentioned patches!.
>> * I do not use the .xsession file.
>> * After testing and reconfiguring my system several times some files in `/var/lib` were outdated; and renamed '/var/lib` and then reconfigured my system.
>
> I removed ~/.cache and ~/.config/gnome*, and I moved .xsession out of
> the way, but I still cannot start GNOME.  GDM comes up fine, but after
> inputing my credentials the mouse cursor skips to the bottom right
> corner and then I’m thrown back into the GDM login screen.
>
> There is nothing relevant in /var/lib, I think.
>
> I’ve also tried to do this in a VM, but everything is terribly slow, so
> I can’t get past the GDM login screen.

Ludo reminded me that the VM script defaults to allocating only 256MB
RAM.  After passing “-m 1024” things worked just fine.  I could
successfully log into GNOME.

Sorry, Rene, for the confusion!

Now the only remaining question is: what files on my system cause this
failure to start GNOME?  I’ll be playing with this some more and hope to
identify the files that are responsible, so that we can either work
around this or document it.

--
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Timothy Sample]

Hi Ricardo,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> [...]
>
> Now the only remaining question is: what files on my system cause this
> failure to start GNOME?  I’ll be playing with this some more and hope to
> identify the files that are responsible, so that we can either work
> around this or document it.

Currently, GDM is configured to log all debug messages.  It creates a
“/var/log/gdm” folder, but ignore that!  All the juicy bits end up in
“/var/log/debug”.  It is usually pretty clear about what’s going on.  If
not, feel free to send along any relevant messages and I’ll weigh in as
best I can.


-- Tim

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Hi Rene,
>
>> I attach the configuration file.
>
> Thanks.
>
>>> I rebase wip-gnome3.30 on top of the master branch and reconfigured, but
>>> I cannot get GNOME to start. I deleted the slim-service-type and added
>>> (gdm-service) to my configuration.
>>>
>>> I moved ~/.xsession out of the way, but after logging in GNOME still
>>> won’t start. Could you share your configuration file that you used to
>>> successfully start GNOME 3.30?
>>>
>>
>> * I use wip-gnome3.30 branch and then apply the mentioned patches!.
>> * I do not use the .xsession file.
>> * After testing and reconfiguring my system several times some files in `/var/lib` were outdated; and renamed '/var/lib` and then reconfigured my system.
>
> I removed ~/.cache and ~/.config/gnome*, and I moved .xsession out of
> the way, but I still cannot start GNOME.  GDM comes up fine, but after
> inputing my credentials the mouse cursor skips to the bottom right
> corner and then I’m thrown back into the GDM login screen.
>
> There is nothing relevant in /var/lib, I think.
>
> I’ve also tried to do this in a VM, but everything is terribly slow, so
> I can’t get past the GDM login screen.
>
> I’d be happy if other people could test this, too.  If you have
> suggestions on how I could debug this, please do let me know.

Success!  GNOME 3.30 works just fine.  The gnome-shell segfaulted(!)
because of stale state in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell.  I think that’s
terrible behaviour, but what can you do…

We should announce this breaking change when the wip-gnome3.30 gets
merged.

--
Ricardo

how to fix state-broken affected user services? (Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!)

[Giovanni Biscuolo]

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Hi all,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

[...]

> Success!  GNOME 3.30 works just fine.  The gnome-shell segfaulted(!)
> because of stale state

this is one of the worst bugs a user can experience, and very few users
are able to debug it properly (and experienced users like me find it
very time wasting to debug them)

please Ricardo could you attach the relevant debug info?

have you seen a related bug report upstream? (this is a seriuos bug,
isn't it?)

> in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell.

do you mean ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/application_state?

[...]

Thanks for your work!
Giovanni

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

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Re: how to fix state-broken affected user services? (Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!)

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Giovanni,

>> Success!  GNOME 3.30 works just fine.  The gnome-shell segfaulted(!)
>> because of stale state
>
> this is one of the worst bugs a user can experience, and very few users
> are able to debug it properly (and experienced users like me find it
> very time wasting to debug them)

Yeah, it wasted a lot of my time.  Before upgrading to GNOME 3.30 I
built 3.28 and tested that with the same results.  Weeks later I
finished 3.30 only to hit the same problem.

It was only after Rene confirmed that this is actually working that I
even considered the possibility that some old state might be at fault
here.

> please Ricardo could you attach the relevant debug info?

I don’t have any debug info other than what I posted.  I didn’t look at
the files, but I might be able to recover them from backup.

> have you seen a related bug report upstream? (this is a seriuos bug,
> isn't it?)

I haven’t seen any bug reports about this.

--
Ricardo

Re: how to fix state-broken affected user services? (Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!)

[Giovanni Biscuolo]

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Hi Ricardo,

plz could you confirm what did you deleted to make GNOME run again?
application_state file or the whole directory?

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

[...]

>> please Ricardo could you attach the relevant debug info?
>
> I don’t have any debug info other than what I posted.  I didn’t look at
> the files, but I might be able to recover them from backup.

if it's not too much work on your side, this would be *very* helpful to
others

>> have you seen a related bug report upstream? (this is a seriuos bug,
>> isn't it?)
>
> I haven’t seen any bug reports about this.

having the debugging infos we should issue a bugreport upstream, I can
help if needed (I do not use GNOME but I could setup a VM to reproduce
this bug and report upstream)

thank you!
Gio

P.S.: sorry for the change in the subject line, at first I considered
opening a broather "subthread" concerning the (IMHO harmful) statefulnes
of gnome-shell and similar user *servicies*... but then I changed my mind

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

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Re: how to fix state-broken affected user services? (Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!)

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

> plz could you confirm what did you deleted to make GNOME run again?
> application_state file or the whole directory?

I deleted the whole directory.  I *also* reset my dconf customizations,
but this was not sufficient.  I had to delete that directory.

I’ll look for the files later and see if I can reproduce the crash.

--
Ricardo

Re: GNOME 3.30: help needed!

[L p R n d n]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay, I had some troubles building webkitgtk.
I started gnome successfully from slim on my usual computer! Good job
everybody!

Most things seem ok but not everything. FYI, I use a custom kernel so
some errors might just be specific to my own config. This is why it
could be nice if someone was able to try to reproduce them (or not :D ).

- I can't change gnome-shell's icons theme (nautilus and the rest are ok).

- With gnome-shell-extensions and extensions activated in gnome-tweaks,
  everything starts to be buggy. Activities menu disappear while still
  being usable. Alt-tab doesn't work anymore.
  Also, if I try to configure an extension, Gnome tends to crash
  completely. (back to slim)
  I don't have any extensions in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell so I suppose
  the trouble comes from the official ones. :/
  
- When starting some applications, Gnome crash but recovers very
  quickly. (gnome-shell kill signal 6)
  Godot appears to trigger this behavious everytime.
  
I can't do it right now but i'll try to gather and better document those
errors.

Have a nice day,

Lprndn