by michi | Jun 7, 2014 | Debian
Using a fresh Debian testing netinstall iso, and manually installing Gnome 3 instead of XFCE leads into the problem that the login screen does not show (and neither does any user action on the top menu).
# apt-get install aptitude tasksel
# tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install
The error log looks like
# less /var/log/gdm3/:0-greeter.log
message = '"GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Service Unknown: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit was not provided by any .service files"'
fileName = '"/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/gdm/loginDialog.js"'
Googling the error leads into some older bugs, but nothing special (but one which made me check if consolekit is installed). The solution is simple – the ‘consolekit’ package is missing, a slipped dependency somehow.
Install it, and reboot.
# apt-get install consolekit
# reboot
by michi | May 4, 2014 | Debian
They still happen occasionally on dist-upgrade, but recently I was running into them every week – still after one year.
Fix (other than noted on the shell):
# /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders > /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
by michi | Jan 30, 2014 | Debian
A few days ago the kernel 3.12+55 has hit Debian Testing (Jessie) so the linux-image-amd64 pulls the new kernel, and therefore also new nvidia-kernel-amd64 packages shipping 379.82.
Problem – the xorg nvidia driver is still 379.76 which breaks the current xserver with kernel 3.12 and nvidia drivers in current Debian Jessie.
# less /var/log/gdm3/:0.log
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Stereo disabled by request
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling 2D acceleration
NVIDIA: API mismatch: the NVIDIA kernel module has version 319.82,
but this NVIDIA driver component has version 319.76. Please make
sure that the kernel module and all NVIDIA driver components
have the same version.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module. Please see the
(EE) NVIDIA(0): system's kernel log for additional error messages and
(EE) NVIDIA(0): consult the NVIDIA README for details.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failing initialization of X screen 0
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found(EE)
(EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org
for help.
(EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
(EE)
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
Temporary solution – remove the current kernel and step down to 3.11 and nvidia 319.76. But beware – that will remove the linux-image-amd64 and nvidia-kernel-amd64 meta packages pulling the latest kernel/nvidia packages too!
# apt-get remove linux-image-3.12-1-amd64
# tail /var/log/apt/history.log
Start-Date: 2014-01-30 19:13:06
Commandline: apt-get remove linux-image-3.12-1-amd64
Remove: linux-image-3.12-1-amd64:amd64 (3.12.6-2), nvidia-kernel-amd64:amd64 (319.82+3.12+1), linux-image-amd64:amd64 (3.12+55), nvidia-kernel-3.12-1-amd64:amd64 (319.82+1+1+3.12.8-1)
End-Date: 2014-01-30 19:13:23
I’m not going the ‘pin the package and get it from debian sid‘ here, since there are too many dependencies pulled.
by michi | Jan 27, 2014 | Debian
Debian Testing pulled a new Virtualbox version (4.3.2) into my system. Which is apparently incompatible with Vagrant 1.2.2
$ vagrant up
Vagrant has detected that you have a version of VirtualBox installed that is not supported. Please install one of the supported versions listed below to use Vagrant:
4.0, 4.1, 4.2
A debian bug is already open, but the package update is only available in sid, not testing.
Thanks lazyfrosch for the hint about pinning unstable and pulling only newer vagrant updates.
# cat < /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unstable.list
deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib
EOF
# cat < /etc/apt/preferences.d/pinning
Package: *
Pin: release a=sid
Pin-Priority: -100
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: -100
Package: vagrant
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 991
EOF
# apt-get update
# apt-get install vagrant
Now it works like a charm again ๐

by michi | Jan 4, 2014 | Debian
Using the openvpn network manager applet, this strange error occured when trying to connect to my VPN. I also figured that the configuration edit was denied with a strange error on not being able to load the template.
Jan 4 16:57:03 nbmif NetworkManager[2872]: Starting VPN service 'openvpn'...
Jan 4 16:57:03 nbmif NetworkManager[2872]: VPN service 'openvpn' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn), PID 6230
Jan 4 16:57:03 nbmif NetworkManager[2872]: VPN service 'openvpn' appeared; activating connections
Jan 4 16:57:03 nbmif NetworkManager[2872]: [1388851023.483964] [nm-vpn-connection.c:1374] get_secrets_cb(): Failed to request VPN secrets #3: (6) No agents were available for this request.
Jan 4 16:57:08 nbmif NetworkManager[2872]: VPN service 'openvpn' disappeared
The gdm session log unveils that something is missing…
$ tail -f .cache/gdm/session.log
JS LOG: Error 'VPN plugin at /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog is not executable' while processing VPN keyfile '/etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-openvpn-service.name'
Looking at the openvpn service configuration itsself, it’s configured correct:
# vim /etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-openvpn-service.name
[GNOME]
auth-dialog=/usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog
properties=/usr/lib/NetworkManager/libnm-openvpn-properties
supports-external-ui-mode=true
But the file itsself is missing…
# ls -la /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog
ls: Zugriff auf /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog nicht mรถglich: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
Re-install the involved packages.
# apt-get install --reinstall network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome
# ls -la /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 31K Sep 13 19:54 /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog*
Now check the broken symlink for the gnome shell and manually fix it.
# ls -la /usr/lib/gnome-shell/nm-openvpn*
#
# ln -s /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog /usr/lib/gnome-shell/
# ls -la /usr/lib/gnome-shell/nm-openvpn*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 Jan 4 17:10 /usr/lib/gnome-shell/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog -> /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-auth-dialog*
But still, it remains broken.
$ tail -f .cache/gdm/session.log
JS LOG: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
It’s necessary to not only restart the network manager, but also dbus in order to apply the changes. And while at it, save your current work, and reboot. Killing dbus while running a window manager isn’t much fun ๐
# service network-manager restart
# service dbus restart
# reboot
Kudos to this forum post out of many many bug reports and hints. It seems that package upgrade broke/changed the location of the auth dialog file which then broke everything, as usual.
by michi | Dec 30, 2013 | Debian
There’s a bug in the current gnome-shell 3.8.x+ with fullscreen flash videos presented in chromium and iceweasel. While youtube seems to have a workaround for the missing window focus (but only in chromium), other flash players just open the video into an invisible layer, the browser video freezes, and you’ll only hear the sound.
Works in fullscreen – does not work. The bug is described here, but seems a bit dead.
Debian Testing, d-u 2013-12-29
xorg 1.14.5-1
gnome-shell 3.8.4
chrome flash player 11.2 r202
Workaround – use a tool named devilspie and set the focus for such fullscreen events automatically as described here.
# apt-get install devilspie
$ mkdir ~/.devilspie
$ cat <<EOF > ~/.devilspie/flash_fullscreen.ds
(if
(or
(is (application_name) "plugin-container")
(and
(contains application_name) "chromium-browser")
(contains application_name) "flash-plugin")
)
)
(begin
(focus)
)
)
EOF
Now make sure that devilspie is started automatically in gnome 3 – either using ‘ALT + F2’ and ‘gnome-session-properties’ and adding a new entry like shown below

or add a new entry manually:
$ cat <<EOF > ~/.config/autostart/devilspie.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/usr/bin/devilspie
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name[de_DE]=devilspie
Name=devilspie
Comment[de_DE]=flash fullscreen fix
Comment=flash fullscreen fix
EOF
Logout/login again, or run devilspie in background using ‘/usr/bin/devilspie&’ – works again ๐