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Running Evolution outside of GNOME has broken icons

If you are running Evolution outside of GNOME (e.g. using KDE or Enlightenment) and Evolution has broken icons, add the following line to ~/.gtkrc-2.0: 

  gtk-fallback-icon-theme = "gnome"

Upgrading to xorg-server 1.4 makes single-clicks act like double-clicks

If, after upgrading xorg-server from 1.3 to 1.4, your single mouse clicks now count as double-clicks, make the following modification in /etc/X11/xorg.conf 

Section "ServerLayout"
  ...
  InputDevice  "Mouse"  "CorePointer"
  ...
EndSection

Make sure your main pointer device has "CorePointer" rather than "SendCoreEvents" or "AlwaysCore".

Can't get glibc 2.3.1 to compile while upgrading from 2.2.x versions?

This hint has five stages more than is necessary and leaves all the old version libs in the system, it is not recommended. The real problem has been fixed in the glibc spell and sorcery 2004-03-25

The rebuild of the glibc package often fails during the install phase of the build scrolling something like the following messages:

> > /tmp/casting.13855: line 173: /usr/bin/bzip2: No such file or directory > > /tmp/casting.13855: line 174: /bin/rm: No such file or directory > > /tmp/casting.13855: line 175: /bin/rm: No such file or directory > > /tmp/casting.13855: /usr/sbin/dispel: /bin/bash: bad interpreter: No > > such file or directory > > /tmp/casting.13855: line 320: /bin/rm: No such file or directory > > /tmp/casting.13855: line 125: /usr/sbin/lockexec: No such file or > > directory

To fix this you need to "ctrl-c" out of it, run (as root) "ldconfig" and apply the following steps:

:{{1. clean out all /var/log/sorcery/*/glibc* entries and previous glibc entried in /var/state/sorcery/packages.}} :{{2. obtain a clean install log from [WWW] http://infolab.kub.nl/people/erics/linux/mirror/glibc-2.3.1}} :{{3. copy install log to /var/log/sorcery/instal/glibc-2.3.1 and add entry to /var/state/sorcery/packages like glibc:20021112:held:2.3.1}} :{{4. cast -c glibc (which didn't work again...), ldconfig (which caused usual failed install), cd /usr/src/glibc and make install.}} :{{5. cast -c gcc}} :{{6. cast -c glibc == finished on it's own!}}

Good luck!

Misc gettext/glibc/gcc issues

Situation: :{{g++ update breaks my C++ packages.}}

Problem: :{{C++ packages say they are missing libstdc++.so.5}}

Solution: :{{cleanse --fix will catch and fix the broken packages}} :{{A sorcery rebuild is recommended when you change compiler versions to take advantage of the "better" compilation algorithms and methods.}}

Situation: :{{gettext gets updated and recast.}}

Problem: :{{The following errors (or something very similar) are generated for many (all?) spells that are subsequently cast:}}

:{{undefined reference to `libintl_bindtextdomain'}} :{{undefined reference to `libintl_gettext'}} :{{undefined reference to `libintl_textdomain'}}

Solution: :{{Re-cast glibc.}}

Situation: :{{Upgrading glibc.}}

Problem: :{{glibc errors with the following error message:}}

:{{gcc too old}}

Solution: :{{Upgrade gcc.}}

Situation: :{{Upgrading glibc.}}

Problem: :{{glibc errors with an error message containing:}}

:{{selinux/selinux.h}}

Solution: :{{dispel libselinux libsepol policy policycoreutils checkpolicy setools}} :{{cast -c -r udev coreutils shadow linux-pam glibc}} :And make sure you don't answer 'y' to optional dependencies you don't know how to use.

Also, when casting gcc while using distcc, make sure all machines being used have the same version of gcc installed.

When you change your optimization settings (-march setting) and just cast g++ without rebuilding gcc, you get funny responses like

g++: unrecognized option '-O'

or the more understandable

g++: unrecognized option '-mtune=pentiumpro'

GCC doesn't like that mix of settings. Make sure you recompile gcc and related stuff after that when changing optization architecture - as sorcery rebuild should do...

Why does the DEL key produce a '~'?

Linux From Scratch produced a nice howto on this problem. It involves the /etc/inputrc. [WWW] http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter07/inputrc.html

Why doesn't top work?

Top probably does not work in your machine because you have the environment variable LANG set.

A simple work-around is to create an alias this way:

:{{alias top='LANG="" top'}}

and your top will begin to work.

Why can't I change the kdm background?

The problem is some missing lines in {{/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0}} file.

Just insert something like:

:{{if [ -x usr/bin/kdmdesktop ];then}} :{{usr/bin/kdmdesktop}} :{{elif [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/xbanner ];then}} :{{/usr/bin/X11/xbanner}} :{{else}} :{{/usr/bin/X11/xsetroot -solid "#21449C"}} :{{/usr/bin/X11/xconsole -geometry 480x130-0-0 -daemon -notify - verbose -fn \\}} :{{fixed -exitOnFail}} :{{fi}}

and inside the kde control panel you can choose and set which background you would like to see in kdm.

Would you like to know more about this problem? Check out this kdm submitted bug at [WWW] bugs.kde.org.

How do I get my wheelmouse to work in X?

You need to add the following lines to your XFree86conf in the Pointer section:

:{{Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"}} :{{Option "Buttons" "5"}}

Also note that some PS/2 mice require that you set the protocol to IMPS/2:

:{{Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"}}

Mozilla fonts suck

To get good looking-antialiased fonts in mozilla, you must first have some truetype fonts. These can be provided by the "msttf" and "dbz" spells. Cast them.

Ensure the Mozilla based browser is not running.

Next, add the following lines to ~/.mozilla/<profile name>/<random string>/user.js if you are using Mozilla and ~/.phoenix/<profile name>/<random string>/user.js if you are using Firebird. ( You might need to change the font dir from /usr/share/fonts/truetype to where your fonts are)

:{{user_pref("font.Free'Type2.enable", true);}} :{{user_pref("font.Free'Type2.autohinted", true);}} :{{user_pref("font.Free'Type2.unhinted", false);}} :{{//user_pref("font.scale.aa_bitmap.always", true);}} :{{user_pref("font.directory.truetype.1", "/usr/share/fonts/truetype");}} :{{user_pref("font.directory.truetype.2", "/usr/share/fonts/truetype");}} :{{user_pref("font.directory.truetype.3", "/usr/share/fonts/truetype");}}

Notice the fourth line is commented out. This line enables antialising for bitmap fonts, which just looks ugly. But the option is there.

Now restart mozilla and choose truetype fonts in the preferences dialog. Truetype fonts, for some reason, are listed before bitmap fonts, with an upper-case first letter.

Note: Don't do this if you built mozilla with xft support!

But I want ClearType

Sub pixel font rendering is available with Xfree86 and the "render" extension. First, get truetype fonts. Then, depending on whether your screen has rgb or bgr pixel ordering (most LCD screens are rgb), add one of the following lines to /etc/X11/XftConfig

:{{match edit rgba = rgb;}}

Depending on your pixel ordering and orientation, you might want to use "bgr", "vrgb" or "vbgr".

Then either use GTK+ with gdkxft, GTK+2, or QT applications with antialiasing.

Only root can play sound!

In order to get sound working for normal users you have to add them to the audio group. This is done with the command gpasswd.

To list all groups in which the user is a member use the command:

groups <username>

To then add a user to the audio group, issue:

gpasswd -a <username> audio

XMMS gives me errors about ALSA: snd_mixer_attach and only works when I'm root

# chgrp audio /devices/snd/* # gpasswd -a <username> audio

The first command changes the group on the files in /devices/snd to audio, and the second adds you to that group. (Substitute your own user name for <yourusername>, obviously.) You need to log out and then back in before the group changes will take effect.

There is another slight problem with this fix. The devfs file system is reconstructed each time you reboot; as a result, the command to chgrp the files in /devices/snd/* will not persist across reboots, and the problem will recur. To make the changes permanent, you need to add a script that runs at boot time and changes the group to audio. I wrote a file called /etc/bootmisc.sh to do this. Here are its contents:

> #!/bin/bash > > chgrp audio /devices/snd/*

To install the script, do this:

# chmod 755 bootmisc.sh # cd /etc/rc3.d/ # ln -s ../bootmisc.sh S31bootmisc

The chmod changes the permissions on the file so that it can be executed. Creating a symbolic link in the rc3.d directory will cause it to run the script when that runtime level is entered. Level 3 is the ordinary level for most uses of the computer. The "S31" bit indicates that the script should be Started after everything with a lower number like 30. On Source Mage, S30networking is the last one to run by default, so I told it to run bootmisc after networking had been set up. If you use runlevels 4 or 5, you might want to add an identical symbolic link in the rc4.d and rc5.d directories. Do not add it to rc6.d, which is the runlevel you enter to reboot or shutdown the computer. You probably will not want to add it to rc1.d or rc2.d, which are for maintenance, though I suppose you could if you wanted.

Once you have done all this, XMMS should run with no problems, and do so every time, regardless of how many times you reboot. In short, you can just forget about it.

Why can't sorcery seem to find spells I know are there?

:{{scribe reindex}}

That should reindex the spells in all grimoires for quick lookups.

Why won't procps (or another spell) compile?

Be sure to say no to fixincludes in gcc (if it asked you), or to fix this, do:

:{{rm -rf /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i*86-pc-linux-gnu.*/include}}

Tar up this directory first if you don't feel like risking some failed compiles.

Safest way is to do the recast of gcc and say no to fixincludes and then check to see if the above includes were indeed removed. New iso installs should not have this problem (Feb 2003 or later).

FT_Get_Next_Char especially during gtk+2 compile, but possibly others.

[WWW] http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/sm-grimoire/2002-December/001238.html

Try removing the libfreetype* from /usr/X11R6/lib and /usr/X11R6/lib/modules

X places the files there. They are outdated and unfortunately show up in the search path before the good ones.

X shouldn't be doing that anymore.

Then recompile the broken spell.

Locate segfaults

If locate segfaults on you and you're stuck with using find, try using --old-format with updatedb. Here is my crontab entry:

:{{@daily /usr/bin/updatedb --old-format}}

mozilla/Firebird is not loading or segfaults

rm /usr/lib/mozilla/components/compreg.dat

How can I get rid of this NLSPATH error when I run man?

NLSPATH is used as a part of gettext to find locale-specific messages. An undefined NLSPATH in itself is OK because it has defined behavior. The problem is you need to have a locale specified. Luckily, this is as easy as setting the {{LANG}} environment variable, for example:

:{{# export LANG=en_CA}}

will set your current locale to English (the "en") Canadian (the "CA"). Similarly:

:{{# export LANG=fr_FR}}

will set your current locale to French (the "fr") from France (the "FR"). Of course, you need to have the specified file installed. To set the default locale for all users permanently, just make the change to your {{/etc/profile.d/lc.sh}}!

If you set your {{LANG}} using {{export}} as described above, the change will take effect immediately. Run {{man}} again and, assuming you selected a valid locale, say goodbye to the NLSPATH error forever! :) If you made the change to /etc/profile.d/lc.sh it will only take effect the next time you log in, unless you manually source the file.

My box refuses to boot to runlevel 3! It hangs up after the network script reports success.

If you're using portmap, it's possible that your init scripts have a circular dependency in them. I encountered such a thing when using portmap (a dependency of fam and nfs-utils). The portmap script needs remote_fs working; remote_fs can be provided either by the mountnetwork script or the smgle-default-remote-fs script. However, the mountnetwork script relies on portmap to be up and running first, so the two get into a loop trying to invoke one another and the boot process hangs.

The file /etc/sysconfig/facilities determines which scripts supply certain capabilities. If it says remote_fs=mountnetwork, try changing that line to remote_fs=smgl-default-remote-fs and reboot. This fixed it for me, but may cause problems if you're using NFS for something.

My GNOME icons are broken

If you're running GNOME apps (i.e. evolution) and the icons are broken, try recasting hicolor-icon-theme.

My /dev/fd is empty

I'm not sure why this happens, but just do: {{# ln -s /proc/self/fd /dev/fd}}

My programs say Fontconfig has an invalid token

If you are getting this error: :{{Fontconfig error: line 24: not well-formed (invalid token)}} :{{Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file}}

Make sure your timezone is set (/etc/localtime) properly and then recast fontconfig.

e.g. :{{$ ls -lah /etc/localtime}} :{{lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 2004-12-16 16:25 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific}}

Symlinks don't work well with installwatch/install logs

An installwatch bug will occasionally cause symlinks to be removed during dispel and replaced by an empty directory. So if you want to move system directories to another location (e.g. moving /usr/share to another harddisk) you should not use symlinks. Instead use mount --bind. You can place it into your /etc/fstab like this:

:{{/mnt/bigdisk/usr_share /usr/share none defaults,rbind 0 1}}

Of course the mount point should exist as well.

last edited 2008-03-17 22:39:09 by EricSandall