This Key Is Not Writable

[Bryan Moore]

Binary package hint: gconf-editor

Description: Ubuntu lucid (development branch)
Release: 10.04
gconf-editor:
  Installed: 2.28.0-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.28.0-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Whenever I try and change any number of things via gconf-editor, I'm greeted with the "This key is not writable" warning. This is particularly irritating for Maximus because I am trying to exclude the terminal from being maximized. I've check in ~/.gconf/apps and there is no Maximus folder, as I would expect, so I'm not sure where gconf-editor is getting the list of programs it has for exclusion from Maximus.

Also, and possibly related, I cannot add anything to my panel.

If there's any additional info, let me know.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Feb 7 20:02:47 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100207)
Package: gconf-editor 2.28.0-1ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-12.17-generic
SourcePackage: gconf-editor
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-12-generic i686

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is an unr one, not a gconf-editor bug

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

This should be fixed with today's upgrade, reopen the bug if it isn't.

If you have additional list of exclusion for Maximus from windows that shouldn't be maximized and we should include as a default, do not hesitate to open some whishlist bug.

[Bryan Moore (moore-bryan)]

Thanks to both of you... I'll check this later today when I arrive home.

[Bryan Moore (moore-bryan)]

The maximus issue is fixed, but a new problem has popped-up with netbook-launcher. I filed this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/netbook-launcher/+bug/519050.

Thanks, again, for all your help!

[Bryan Moore (moore-bryan)]

This bug also appears in Nautilus preferences to show_desktop. Perhaps all of these keys should be, by default, writable? Why wouldn't they be?

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

Hey, Bryan.
I triaged a lot of keys to put only the relevant as mandatory.

Right, we don't show the desktop in UNE by a design decision and put some as a mandatory is needed when you run both UNE and ubuntu-desktop in your laptop.
So, some keys are mandatory, others are default. If you want that nautilus render your file, you should really logout of UNE, and choose "ubuntu-desktop" session in gdm to have a better experience. :)

[Bryan Moore (moore-bryan)]

Thanks for the info, Didier, it makes sense.

I'm toying with Gnome Shell and just can't seem to get things quite right. To even further aggravate things, I autologin and never see gdm.

Once out of the UNE session, I *should* be able to set everything as I want in a "normal" Gnome session?

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

Right, the "gnome session" is a normal one and no UNE key is taken into account into that session.

You can unlog from your session to get back to gdm.

[Bryan Moore (moore-bryan)]

Success. Thanks so much for the help!

[jtholb (jtholb)]

I would love to have the "show desktop" key as optional in UNE. I understand that as a design decision it wouldn't normally work to have the desktop show itself. However, in my case I prefer to just uncheck netbook-launcher from the startup programs, that way I still have maximus working in order to gain a little more screen real estate. I ran into this when I upgraded to the beta of 10.04. If that's a possibility I'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks.

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

showing and hiddening dynamically the desktop is complex has nautilus should be killed and so, closing all nautilus windows.

Apart from that, in lucid, you can switch between the UNE and the gnome session in gdm.

[mellofello (soumo-m)]

Not sure if this fits here, but it's kid of a pain to log out/in especially when you've gone to the trouble of setting up compiz, kiba, numerus other things that will probably have to be redone. It would have been nice to have known this ahead of time.

I noticed that if I:
             sudo gconf-editor
then the showdesktop option is configurable.

As above, I read that the fix is committed, what does this mean and how can I access it?
Any help is appreciated.