[PLUG] Lost my window manager

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Fri Nov 6 05:21:15 UTC 2009


Debian testing amd64, fresh install, idiot newbie user four days old.

I had everything pretty much working and configured except for my
bluetooth mouse. Finally I succeeded in getting it working, although I
cannot tell you how. I had installed Blueman, but it couldn't get the
mouse paired either. But then suddenly I had two bluetooth icons in my
Gnome panel. Using System Monitor I killed two bluetooth devices - that
is, killing the first one changed nothing but killing the second one
deleted one of the bluetooth icons. Afterward I was able to get a GUI
dialog box that found the mouse. And this time I had a Next and a Back
button. I was finally able to get the mouse working when I selected
"connect" but "without pairing."

However, the mouse was not working properly. The pointer moved around,
but left clicking did not work. I could select things only by
right-clicking on them. 

After poking around for a while and not finding a solution I decided to
reboot. When X and Gnome came up I got a popup asking if I wanted to
grant permission to the bluetooth mouse. I said Yes, and the mouse then
worked properly; that is, a left click worked as a left click.

Unfortunately, the entire Gnome panel is gone. Clicking on where things
are supposed to be in the panel does nothing. Windows have no title bar
or icons in the corner to minimize or maximize them The keyboard works,
but I cannot launch a terminal because I have forgotten the secret
keyboard shortcut to launch a terminal. The only way I know how to do
it is Applications > Accessories > Terminal, but there is no panel so I
can't click on Appplications. I did get to a command line with
Ctrl-Alt-F1, but I was unable to do anything constructive for failure
to know what the window manager is called or how to restore it.

I also note that, although I logged in as myself, some of my display
preferences were not honored. For example, I had Gnome set not to
display any icons at all on the dekstop. I wanted a dekstop utterly
devoid of anything except the Gnome panel. However, now all the items
contained in the Desktop folder appear on the screen.

I am just about to give up and go back to Ubuntu. I had said at the
outset of my foray into Debian that I would give it a week, but it has
become apparent that I do not have the technical expertise to run
Debian.



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