[plug] Weird Debian Testing problem

[Onno Benschop]

Hi all,

I don't even know how to begin describing what I'm seeing, let alone
figure out what to use google for to find an answer, so I'm hoping that
some list members can ask some silly questions, so I can look for
answers and see what happens...

I'm running Debian Testing.

Until about yesterday or the day before, my machine was very stable. As
usual I did a dselect update ; apt-get -u upgrade and saw a whole lot of
held-back packages, so I did an apt-get dist-upgrade and went on my
merry way.

Now, over the past 24 hours, I've seen behaviour where all of a sudden I
cannot launch new applications, and running applications - notably
evolution and galeon - stop responding.

I can switch between desktops, right- and middel-click on my desktop and
see the appropriate menus.

I can also click on panel icons, but nothing happens.

I've had the good fortune of having a terminal open and noticed about 10
minutes ago that the applications do actually seem to launch, but they
don't show any windows.

If I run galeon -q (to quit the running server and children), it hangs.

I thought the issue was with gconf-2, because I was seeing lock file
errors, but following /var/log/syslog,messages,user.log show that stuff
is still happening with gconf after the thing breaks.

I'm running sawfish-gnome.

I've looked for bugs in gnome-terminal, gnome-panel, sawfish-gnome.

Over the past two days I've also been playing with GDK_USE_XFT=1, but
that is currently turned off. I've also changed ide0=ata66 in lilo.conf,
but changing it back made no difference.

The thing seems to break when I click on a button in evolution, or if I
happen to open a new tab in galeon.

I've not ever seen any behaviour like this, and I know that I'm only
scratching the surface of what is broken underneath, but as I said, I'm
hoping that some of you could start asking silly questions.

I'm hitting 'send' now, hoping that my machine won't freeze in the
process...


Onno Benschop 

Connected via Optus B3 from S33:37'33" - E115:07'30" (Dunsborough, WA)
-- 
()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno.. 
|>>?            ..EBCDIC for Onno.. 
--- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno.. 

Proudly supported by Skipper Trucks, Highway1, Concept AV, Sony Central, Dalcon
ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   -   onno at itmaze.com.au