gnome-display-properties changes desktop theme

[Hendrik]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

This is on Ubuntu 8.10 with version 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1 of gnome-control-center.

I use my laptop (HP EliteBook 6930p) with a second monitor at work (as one large desktop via ATI Catalyst Control Center). When I take the laptop home, I switch to the lower one-display resolution (from 2800x900 to 1400x900) with gnome-display-properties. This changes my desktop theme from Ubuntu's default brown-ish "Human" to a blue one ("Clearlooks", I think).

Usually, this change cannot be reverted via gnome-appearance-properties. When I try, an error message informs me that the gnome-settings-daemon couldn't be started, so changes won't take effect. In the appearance window, "Human" is still the selected theme. If I start the daemon by hand, it works again.

Strangely, this only happens when I decrease the screen resolution, not when I increase it again.

[Michele Mangili (mangilimic)]

Hello!

I've tried to reproduce your bug, and I've experienced the same problem!

I've opened System->Preferences->Screen Resolution (gnome-display-properties) ; reduced my screen resolution and clicked Ok. The tool switched to the new resolution and, at the same time, it changed the theme, and stopped gnome-settings-daemon.

I've also noticed that if I try to set my resolution to the previous value and I click ok, nothing happens!

A possible workaround is:
open a terminal and run "gnome-settings-daemon" , as a result the original theme is restored. At the same time I can use gnome-display-properties to set my previous resolution. (And it works as expected, without changing my theme!).

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[Hendrik (joker-x)]

Sebastian: Sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that - I've changed my display setup in the meantime. I've installed the new ATI drivers (9.1) and, after much hassle, got everything working properly. However, now gnome-display-properties doesn't open any more (another bug?). I'm not willing to roll back to the old drivers just to reproduce the bug.
Michele - maybe you could help out?

[Michele Mangili (mangilimic)]

2009/2/12 Hendrik <email address hidden>:
> Michele - maybe you could help out?

It is quite funny!!! Yesterday, I have installed Hardy on my pc, and
tried to reproduce this bug, but it works great on Gutsy. As soon as I
install Intrepid once again, I'll post the backtrace as requested.

Thank you!

[Michele Mangili (mangilimic)]

Sebastien,

Hope that everything is ok!

Thank you.

[Dariel Dato-on (odd-rationale)]

Possibly a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/285843

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the logs have no crash, do you still get the issue?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.

[Jonas Alves (jonasfa)]

How can i give information if you don't tell me WHAT information i should
give?

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in
> the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further.
> However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and
> don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Invalid
>
> --
> gnome-display-properties changes desktop theme
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324115
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

--
Jonas Alves

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

you didn't reply to the previous comment asking if you still get the issue neither got a crash log as requested before (the log you added had no crash)

[Bill Smith (bsmith1051)]

There's no 'crash' per se, just the desktop theme get corrupted. Will the debugger catch that? I thought this bug was Confirmed and stopped trying to investigate it; I experience it too on my ATI IGP and Ubuntu 8.10.

[era (era)]

The symptoms suggest that gnome-settings-daemon is crashing. Perhaps you could run it with strace to see what causes it to exit, if it's not a crash.

Something like this:

# somehow kill the current gnome-settings-daemon instance
# then run a new one with strace:
strace gnome-settings-daemon 2>/tmp/gsd.strace &
# once you repro the symptoms, the end of the strace file should show what gsd did
# just before it quit

If you cannot interpret the file yourself, feel free to attach it here.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Running it with strace will probably not provide anything useful really. What would be useful is a backtrace using GDB, and also testing if it is still an issue in Jaunty or Karmic. To get a backtrace of gnome-settings-daemon, you need to run it with the "--no-daemon" option, else the parent process just exits with success when it daemonizes. Or you would need to attach GDB to an already running gnome-settings-daemon instance. seb128 already gave instructions for that several comments up (https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/324115/comments/2)

[Ihar Hrachyshka (ihar-hrachyshka)]

Tried to reproduce it on Ubuntu 10.10 on Elitebook 6930p (the original reporter's hardware) with no success. Maybe this can be actually closed if the original reporter doesn't exprerience the issue anymore.