Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 104880
severn and taroon cannot share $HOME /home
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:57:43 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030703 Description of problem: The previous gnome-desktop-2.2.0.1-5 of severn was compatible with the gnome-desktop of tarron. A user could have the same $HOME for both systems [the same /home partition mounted under either, using sequential dual boot of different root partitions], and everything would just work under both systems. Installing the new gnome-desktop-2.4.0-1 onto severn breaks the taroon system. The taroon panel is gone. The only items left are the RedHat "Start" icon and the clock; the WebBrowser button and all OpenOffice buttons have disappeared. Worse, now on taroon /usr/bin/mozilla freezes shortly after displaying the background of the main window, title bar, etc., but no content. Upgrading one system should not kill the other. There should be two "root" desktop directories: one for gnome-desktop-2.2 and one for gnome-desktop-2.4. Upon installation the one for 2.4 should be initialized with a copy of the contents of the one for 2.2, and perfhaps there should be a way to transfer subsequent changes from the 2.2 to the 2.4 [and back, if possible], but mere installation of 2.4 should not kill 2.2 on the other system. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gnome-desktop-2.4.0-1 How reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1. install original severn with gnome-desktop-2.2 and separate /home partition. 2. install taroon (gnome-desktop-2.2) on a different root partition, but share /home with severn. 3. observe that $HOME directories interoperate. 4. up2date severn to gnome-desktop-2.4 5. observe that severn desktop works, but taroon desktop is broken (panel destroyed, /usr/bin/mozilla freezes) Actual Results: up2date of severn to gnome-desktop-2.4, sharing user $HOME [/home] with taroon gnome-desktop-2.2, destroys taroon desktop. Expected Results: Both desktops should work, although they might not be "synchronized" anymore (changes in one might not propagate automatically to the other). Additional info:
If you want to just totally separate the configs, you can do that by changing the gconf path (~/.gconf.path I believe). See the GNOME sysadmin guide and www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ However if this is necessary it is a GNOME bug. (Or it sounds like you're seeing a separate mozilla bug as well.)
Exactly which version of gnome-panel was installed in Severn?
gnome-panel-2.4.0-1 is the new severn ["rpm -qa | grep gnome-panel"] gnome-panel-2.2.0.1-9 was the old severn [/var/spool/repackage 2003-09-23 03:12 UTC]
gnome-panel-2.2.2.1-2 is the one on taroon. Now it has the RedHat, the schematic 4-window pager, the window lister for the current page [I only use 1 page], and the clock. The other icons (web browser, OpenOffice, Terminal [that I added]) have disappeared. And /usr/bin/mozilla did not freeze this time (being used to enter this Comment).
I bet this must be the schema thing biting us. Alex: Are the taroon schemas the same as rh9 schemas? And which schemas did you add to the 2.4 panel package? If they are different then we are in major doodoo.
I believe the taroon and the rh9 schemas are the same, and i used those same schemas in cambridge.
Latest gnome-panel package in rawhide has been fixed so that it happily shares a home directory with gnome-panel-2.2 and before. Very belated fix but ...