System->Administration almost working

G

geoB

In FreeBSD 8.3, Gnome 2.32.1:

I think I've eliminated all the possible bonehead noob moves I might have made in trying to get this system up and running. I returned to a thread I found (on System Administration in Gnome) that referred to a missing comma. The post was in June so I figured that issue had already been resolved. I was wrong.

So, forging ahead where I perhaps should not have, I found the file with the missing comma and added it. Lo and behold the situation improved significantly. The original issue - accessing Users & Groups - was still not possible. Now, however, a dialog box shows up but greyed out. It does not change after five minutes so I assume it's stuck.

I'd greatly appreciate some ideas on where to go next.

Many thanks.

George

ps: I thought I'd posted this earlier but could not find it. If this is a duplicate I apologize. gwb
 
What a waste of time!!!

In a posting in an Ubuntu forum from 2010 that described the symptoms I observed I read that the behavior (grey screen in Gnome, System, Administration, Users & Groups) is expected because one is not supposed to run users-admin in gnome when logged in as root. I totally agree with the original poster that rather than a stuck, blank grey screen there should be some notice to that effect if indeed it should be run as some other user. I also believe that documentation ought to make this point exceedingly clear. This is not the case here in FreeBSD-land, nor does it appear to be the case elsewhere.

To further investigate I logged in as other than root, only to find that sure, the screen now has useful content and appears to be meaningful. Yet any attempt to modify the only non-root user, i.e., the user as whom I logged in, the system locked up in both 8.3 and 9.0.

I give up. I'd hoped to come up with a useful, non-Windows environment in a virtual machine. FreeBSD is surely an OS for those who already speak the lanquage and need a good server. It does not strike me as sufficiently useful or adequately documented for someone like me. And I'm a long-time alpha geek in the PC & Windows world. I spent 11 years as a CTO for a small college. But there are far too many massive boulders in the middle of my learning curve.

Best wishes to those who remain.

George
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top