Subject: Re: Unable to Execute Programs with GNOME
From: Jim Cole (greyleaf@yggdrasill.net)
Date: Fri Sep 24 1999 - 01:33:40 MDT
Hi.
Typically I use KDE, but I tried to duplicate your problem in Gnome since
I have the same machine. Everything seemed to work fine for me. Had no
problems executing anything. So it doesn't look like it is a problem
related to the new PowerBooks.
Some of what you say does sound reminiscent of what I encountered when
I first started using the trackpad... even resorting to a 3 finger salute
to restart the machine once. But given that the problems gradually went
away as my fingers became less clumsy, it was clearly a trackpad thing ;)
Not sure if it is the same for you, but the easy way to check is by
turning off tap, as you imply you want to do. You can get the trackpad
tool from...
http://xenu.phys.uit.no/~alvin/linux/trackpad_tool.tar.gz
It includes both source and binary. To turn off the tap feature, just do
trackpad-r5 notap
You can turn it back on by doing
trackpad-r5 tap
Jim
JCS's bits of Thu, 23 Sep 1999 translated to:
> Being the proverbial Linux newbie, I will begin by expressing my sincere
> apologies for my ignorance, and I would like to say that I did search the
> archives before posting this problem.
>
> I am running the 1.1 server on a Powerbook G3 Bronze using the built in
> trackpad for a mouse. I have successfully used the GNOME version of
> LinuxConf to set up a user account. But the first time I ran LinuxConf to
> set up the user account I lost the ability to run most executables from
> within GNOME immediately after quitting LinuxConf. The mouse button appeared
> to be working properly because I was still able to navigate the GNOME menus
> in the panel, and I was able to point and click in the file manager. But the
> only program that I could run from within the GNOME panel menu was the
> "About GNOME" menu item. I was also unable to logout and had to do the three
> finger salute to restart. After booting back into Linux, everything worked
> okay. But after running LinuxConf and doing nothing but run and quit, I
> still find that I am unable to execute programs.
>
> I have read that by default, the trackpad is used for clicking and that this
> can sometimes cause the system to hang because inadvertant pressure on the
> pad causes the system to wait for a mouse up event that never comes. I don't
> believe this is my problem however, because the mouse button and trackpad
> appear to be fully functional after running LinuxConf. Still, because of the
> quirky nature of the pad, I would very much like to turn off the pad click.
> I found something in the archives about a utility that will do this but it
> must be compiled and I'm not ready to undertake a compile at this point.
> Maybe it would be best to try the Contour three button USB mouse instead.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Chris
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Fri Oct 01 1999 - 16:13:45 MDT