DATE ISSUED:   06/16/08

 

SOFTWARE BULLETIN: RH-SWB-003

 

RELEASE LEVEL: RedHawk 5.1

 

EXPLANATION: The gnome settings fail to initialize when booting to init 5.

 

This error results in the gnome desktop failing to function properly and can be recognized when the usual desktop wallpaper and or gnome panels do not appear.

 

You may see this error message in one form or another, displayed as a dialog box:

 

An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for gnome-settings-daemon. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

                                - OR -

 

GConf error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are  that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks  due to a system crash. See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ for information.  (Details -  1: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-root/lock/ior' not opened successfully, no  gconfd located: No such file or directory 2:IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-root/lock/ior'  not opened successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)

 

 

The error is caused whenever the gnome-settings-daemon fails to read the file: /tmp/gconfd-root/lock/ior

 

The reason for the failure is not understood but is believed to be a bug in the gnome-settings-daemon.

 

 

WORKAROUND:

1. Remove the /tmp/gconfd-root directory

        rm -rf /tmp/gconfd-root

2. Drop to runlevel 3 then back to runlevel 5

        init 3

        init 5

 

A bug fix may or may not appear in the future that will prevent this from happening.  In the meantime, the workaround provided above is sufficient to deal with the problem.