You need to add libgnome2-perl to the general packages installed

[Matthew McEachen]

Binary package hint: xubuntu-live

After installing a basic xubuntu 6.06 system and rebooting, I ran synaptic and loaded some packages which required debconf interactions. The "Applying Changes" dialog appeared to hang.

Only after I clicked the expand triangle to reveal the Terminal did I see:

debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Gnome
debconf: (Unable to load Gnome -- is libgnome2-perl installed?)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Dialog

and debconf was asking me a question through the curses dialog interface.

If you just added the libgnome2-perl package as a dependent or default-installed package, you'd avoid this issue.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

...And installing libgnome2-perl by default would defeat the approach (nay, entire philosophy) of Xubuntu for having a slim, usable desktop environment without the GNOME trappings.

[Jani Monoses (jani)]

I am unfamiliar with debconf and it's interfaces but I wonder if adding just the libgtk2-perl package would solve your problem. I would think that debconf just uses gtk not gnome features? If it was gtk only it could easily be added to xubuntu.

[Matthew McEachen (mrm-ubuntu)]

OK, I see the elephant being pulled through the keyhole here with the libgnome2-perl dependency on libgnome2-0. It's just not a very happy user experience, that's all.

Perhaps the dependency message isn't precisely correct? I can try purging libgnome2-perl, installing libgtk2-perl, and see if debconf can raise a gtk dialog.

[Jani Monoses (jani)]

hi, did you try this?

[Jani Monoses (jani)]

indeed libgnome perl is needed libgtk perl will not suffice as it uses the gnomedruid.
With recent gtk.210 if the perl bindings are up to date, one could convert that code to the GtkAssistant API and get rid of the gnome dep.

[Zoran Dzelajlija (jelly+launchpad-net)]

I think this should be more than just a wishlist - making Gnome the default debconf frontend is simply wrong in xubuntu. It would be better to use a frontend that was actually installed, if nothing else just to get rid of the warnings.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

http://codebrowse.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/xubuntu.gutsy/revision/704