Weird WM breakage after expat upgrade

feardapenguin · Guru Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 414 Location: Texas

Tried searching on this but couldn't find a similar post...

I recently took the dreaded expat-2.0.1 upgrade (from version 1.95.

without noticing the version change from 1 to 2. Blissfully unaware of my predicament I didn't notice any breakage until I rebooted a short time later and saw apache complain about libexpat.so.0. Ruh roh. Upon reboot all basic window management functionality (I run gnome-2.18.0 and metacity-2.18.5) was totally borked. Gnome/Metacity ran without complaint but there are no title bars, no ability to move windows, some applets don't run (such as the virtual desktop switcher), etc. Gconf complains about "window manager 'unknown'" when trying to change settings.

Naturally, my first reaction was to run revdep-rebuild. But seeing the number of packages that had to be rebuilt I decided to downgrade expat back to its original version and revdep-rebuild. No joy. In frustration I rebuilt quite a few gnome-related packages that weren't on the revdep list. Still no joy.

Finally I bit the bullet and upgraded to expat to 2.0.1 and went through the long revdep-rebuild process. Still no joy.

I'm now running on expat-2.0.1 and have rebuilt a good portion of my system. KDE is running fine but Gnome/Metacity is still without basic window management functionality.

Can anyone offer a suggestion how to fix Gnome?

Aronar · n00b Joined: 13 Jul 2007 Posts: 3 Location: London, UK

I've just had problems upgrading to the latest test version of pango because of expat.

In the end I soft-linked /usr/lib64/libexpat.so to /usr/lib64/libexpat.so.0 (should have used /usr/lib64/libexpat.so.1.5.2 but what the heck) and the compile worked.

Try that one and see if it fixes your problem too...

Knute · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 362 Location: Fargo, ND

Is metacity even running????

If so, what happens if you use a different wm?
_________________
Knute
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The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
-- Mark Twain

If you want proof of that, take a look at windows sometime.

Mantaar · Apprentice Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 219

Can't imagine you didn't find similar stuff already in on the forums - there's quite a lot of it. The ABI change in version 2 of libexpat has messed up quite a lot and still the only way I see to upgrade dirty ol' expat is to rebuild the system from stage3. Everything else will let you run revdep-rebuild quite a few times with builds breaking at random throughout the whole procedure.

So yes, running revdep-rebuild once is not sufficient. Linking an old version to a current name may help on some systems, but since it's an ABI change it is highly likely you'll mess things up quite a bit by doing that.

When you try to run gnome and it fails, what does the x.org.log in /var/log say? ~/.xsession-errors? Your DM's log? (probably /var/log/gdm* something...)
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Error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function.

feardapenguin · Guru Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 414 Location: Texas

Just to clarify... Gnome and Metacity both launch and run without throwing any visible errors. I have a desktop, panels, menus, applets, etc.

What I don't have is basic window manager functionality within Metacity. Windows have no title bars (no close button, etc) or borders. Windows can't be moved, resized, minimized, maximized, etc. Tasks don't show in the task bar. Some applets (such as virtual desktop switcher) don't work.

So, I can basically run whatever app I have "on top". There is no way to switch to another app if it has been minimized or is behind a window. Even if a corner of a window is visible enough to mouseover, I can only make it "active". Clicking on it does not raise it to the top (as I have configured in settings).

I have updated MANY packages thru revdep-rebuild and by hand. Revdep-rebuild no longer complains about links to libexpat.so.0 at all. But I'm still stuck with the same behavior.

And again, KDE runs just fine now that I've rebuilt it. No problems with it at all. This problem is only with gnome.

Knute · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 362 Location: Fargo, ND

So then it would appear that you have one of two options.

Option 1) move metacitys config files with X closed and see if that fixes the issue.

Option 2) Try a different wm, because each and everything that you listed falls under the realm of "managed by window manager", so it only points to one thing.
_________________
Knute
----------
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
-- Mark Twain

If you want proof of that, take a look at windows sometime.

Mantaar · Apprentice Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 219

You did actually recompile metacity, didn't you? Try plugging in kwm into Gnome - if that works, we know it's *only* metacity's problem.
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Error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function.

feardapenguin · Guru Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 414 Location: Texas