Cinnamon on 11.1 RC1?

I am not even sure where to begin here. I am playing around with 11.1 RC1 on a very beefy desktop, with the intent to migrate that desktop over to FreeBSD completely at some point in the future. While the installation process went smoothly for most packages, including a fully working MATE desktop environment, Cinnamon frustrates me.

Some general questions first:
  • Is the version of Cinnamon in ports considered to be usable or is it known to be broken?
  • Is anybody aware of current issues with Cinnamon on FreeBSD 11.1?
Here are my issues:
  • cinnamon did not build from ports (missing module reported during build), so I had to install the binary package
  • cinnamon-session-cinnamon (started through SLIM, just like the working MATE environment) hangs with a black screen and the white/black X11 cursor (The "X"). The Error Message from cinnamon-session is "CRITICAL: We failed, but the faile whale is dead. Sorry...." Very helpful.
  • Fallback mode (software rendering) kind of works, but many Cinnamon tools (like Cinnamon settings) do not start with the message "env: python: No such file or directory". There is a forum thread that provided some insight, but not enough for me (Python agnostic person) to address the issue: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/28779/
I know that I am not providing much information, but Cinnamon is not giving me much. Some pointers where to look would help a lot at this point.

System is an X99 chipset Asrock Extreme3 motherboard with Intel core i7-5820k, 16 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 980 graphics, FreeBSD 11.1-RC1 amd64. Nvidia proprietary driver is loaded and running as soon as SLIM starts up (onn my GPU there is a great indicator for that: only once the Nvidia driver initializes do the fans turn down from maximum RPMs)
 
cinnamon did not build from ports (missing module reported during build)
Please provide the exact information, Cinnamon consists of dozens of ports and anyone of them could be giving you problems.

One of the problems new users typically face is not realizing the implications of enabling/disabling various options. So make sure you first try to build everything with the default settings. Those are more or less guaranteed to build (bugs are always a possibility of course).
 
  • Fallback mode (software rendering) kind of works, but many Cinnamon tools (like Cinnamon settings) do not start with the message "env: python: No such file or directory". There is a forum thread that provided some insight, but not enough for me (Python agnostic person) to address the issue
I've not tried Cinnamon under FreeBSD yet - I use MATE and I'm perfectly happy with it under FreeBSD apart from the logout menu not offering suspend.

Anyway, as for your python error. That is because most Linux distros will have a symlink in your path from your preferred python version called simply 'python'. For some reason FreeBSD doesn't do this so you'll need to run a command such as:

# ln -s /usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/python

That is presuming FreeBSD cinnamon expects python2, as it does under Debian.
 
Please provide the exact information, Cinnamon consists of dozens of ports and anyone of them could be giving you problems.

One of the problems new users typically face is not realizing the implications of enabling/disabling various options. So make sure you first try to build everything with the default settings. Those are more or less guaranteed to build (bugs are always a possibility of course).

Hello Sir Dice,

I am happy to provide any information needed.

The build error occurs for /usr/ports/x11/cinnamon, here is the error message:

Code:
gmake[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/ports/x11/cinnamon/work/Cinnamon-2.4.6'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/ports/x11/cinnamon/work/Cinnamon-2.4.6/files/generate_desktop_files", line 3, in <module>
    import commands, os
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'commands'
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make[1]: stopped in /usr/ports/x11/cinnamon
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /usr/ports/x11/cinnamon
 
I've not tried Cinnamon under FreeBSD yet - I use MATE and I'm perfectly happy with it under FreeBSD apart from the logout menu not offering suspend.

Anyway, as for your python error. That is because most Linux distros will have a symlink in your path from your preferred python version called simply 'python'. For some reason FreeBSD doesn't do this so you'll need to run a command such as:

# ln -s /usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/python

That is presuming FreeBSD cinnamon expects python2, as it does under Debian.

That was the magic bullet, a big thank you!!!

After setting the symlink, Cinnamon works perfectly. In fact, I am writing this from my FreeBSD Cinnamon desktop. This addressed both the crash of the cinnamon session and the unavailable Cinnamon tools.

Should the Cinnamon installation process under FreeBSD be modified to take care of this? I wonder if I should do a bug report on this.
 
Yes, we should prob file a bug report against python2 to create that symlink. FreeBSD supports python3 but most apps that use python in FreeBSD expect python to link to python2 so it would make sense to make it the default if installed.
 
I've been working to resolve the cinnamon desktop issue myself. I have loaded the software from /usr/ports/x11 cinnamon and cinnamon-*.* (everything cinnamon) reports as loaded. I have Gnome running but dislike its clumsy interface. Calling cinnamon by root causes a complaint that themes are missing. However the themes are actually there... in sub folders in the area called out at the end of the complaint message.

Makes sense to me that python may be the culprit. So are you saying that I simply create the symlink using ln -s /usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/python and my troubles are over ???

what about the cinnamon.session file... does it call out X-Cinnamon or Gnome at the end ?

I am running 11.1 don't think it's an Rel Client version

Dave
 
symlink reports as already done...

root@FBSD:~ # cinnamon
Window manager warning: Software rendering detected: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 4.0, 128 bits)
Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Simple": Failed to find a valid file for theme Simple

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "xfwm4": Failed to find a valid file for theme xfwm4

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Raleigh": Failed to find a valid file for theme Raleigh

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "index.theme": Failed to find a valid file for theme index.theme

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "metacity-1": Failed to find a valid file for theme metacity-1

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Emacs": Failed to find a valid file for theme Emacs

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "HighContrast": Failed to find a valid file for theme HighContrast

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "gtk-2.0": Failed to find a valid file for theme gtk-2.0

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "gtk-3.0": Failed to find a valid file for theme gtk-3.0



Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita-dark": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita-dark

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Default": Failed to find a valid file for theme Default

Window manager error: Could not find a theme! Be sure /usr/local/share/themes exists and contains the usual themes.

***********
Window manager error: Could not find a theme! Be sure /usr/local/share/themes exists and contains the usual themes.
root@FBSD:~ # cd /usr/local/share/themes
root@FBSD:/usr/local/share/themes # ls
Adwaita Default HighContrast gtk-2.0 index.theme xfwm4
Adwaita-dark Emacs Raleigh gtk-3.0 metacity-1


********************
root@FBSD:/usr/local/share/themes/Emacs # ls
gtk-2.0-key gtk-3.0


so now what ? Are we sure that somebody from Microsoft isn't on this staff ?
 
Accerciser found this...

RuntimeError: The IPython module is required for the IPython console

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/accerciser/plugin/plugin_manager.py", line 140, in _getPluginLocals
plugin = imp.load_module(plugin_fn, *params)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/imp.py", line 234, in load_module
return load_source(name, filename, file)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/imp.py", line 172, in load_source
module = _load(spec)
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 675, in _load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 205, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/usr/local/share/accerciser/plugins/console.py", line 25, in <module>
raise RuntimeError('The IPython module is required for the IPython console')
RuntimeError: The IPython module is required for the IPython console
 
symlink reports as already done...

root@FBSD:~ # cinnamon
Window manager warning: Software rendering detected: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 4.0, 128 bits)
Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Simple": Failed to find a valid file for theme Simple

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "xfwm4": Failed to find a valid file for theme xfwm4

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Raleigh": Failed to find a valid file for theme Raleigh

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "index.theme": Failed to find a valid file for theme index.theme

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "metacity-1": Failed to find a valid file for theme metacity-1

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Emacs": Failed to find a valid file for theme Emacs

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "HighContrast": Failed to find a valid file for theme HighContrast

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "gtk-2.0": Failed to find a valid file for theme gtk-2.0

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "gtk-3.0": Failed to find a valid file for theme gtk-3.0



Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Adwaita-dark": Failed to find a valid file for theme Adwaita-dark

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Default": Failed to find a valid file for theme Default

Window manager error: Could not find a theme! Be sure /usr/local/share/themes exists and contains the usual themes.

***********
Window manager error: Could not find a theme! Be sure /usr/local/share/themes exists and contains the usual themes.
root@FBSD:~ # cd /usr/local/share/themes
root@FBSD:/usr/local/share/themes # ls
Adwaita Default HighContrast gtk-2.0 index.theme xfwm4
Adwaita-dark Emacs Raleigh gtk-3.0 metacity-1


********************
root@FBSD:/usr/local/share/themes/Emacs # ls
gtk-2.0-key gtk-3.0


so now what ? Are we sure that somebody from Microsoft isn't on this staff ?

Yeah, it does that for me, too... I use KDE4 instead ^_^'
 
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