[Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-23 15:10:42

Hi everyone,

I've recently found that OBConf has simply stopped working on my system and so I've been unable to use it to change themes in Openbox, and I don't know why; I've tried uninstalling it and then reinstalling it, but to no avail. It's not a big deal since changing the theme manually by editing rc.xml still works, but I'm puzzled all the same.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be happening?

Thanks in advance,

CP .

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-24 07:14:11)

malm · 2019-05-23 17:20:10

So you get any messages if you start it from a terminal?

Does it misbehave if you use a different rc.xml?

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-23 17:34:10

malm wrote:

So you get any messages if you start it from a terminal?
Does it misbehave if you use a different rc.xml?

Thanks for replying. I don't get any messages when I start it from a terminal, and using a different rc.xml doesn't seem to make any difference.

Editing the rc.xml file by hand does still work though, so if all else fails I'll stick with doing that.

[Brief update; I'm posting this from Debian Stretch now, which Bunsen is based on, and OBConf works fine in that.]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-23 18:06:48)

brontosaurusrex · 2019-05-23 18:22:56

Might not be a good suggestion, but I'd just build it from git https://github.com/danakj/obconf, something like:

sudo apt remove obconf
git clone ...
cd to that git
./bootstrap
./configure
make
sudo make install

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-23 20:14:46

brontosaurusrex wrote:

Might not be a good suggestion, but I'd just build it from git https://github.com/danakj/obconf, something like:
sudo apt remove obconf
git clone ...
cd to that git
./bootstrap
./configure
make
sudo make install

Thanks for your advice; I'll have a look at that the next time I'm in Bunsen (still in Debian ). Don't know much about GitHub though maybe it's time I learned.

For now though I can manage by hand editing the rc.xml file to change the theme.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-23 20:25:30)

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-23 23:02:37

I had a go but only got as far as the "cd to that git". I may try again another day but I'm too tired now, sorry.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-23 23:16:12)

damo · 2019-05-23 23:17:24

Colonel Panic wrote:

Sorry but life's too short....

...to troubleshoot a problem with minimal information about package versions, error messages (.xsession-errors? journalctl?), any Debian bug reports, any recent system changes, forum searches.

hhh · 2019-05-23 23:23:32

Colonel Panic wrote:

Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be happening?

Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!

https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

If not that, any other weirdness you can report? Any big package installs or removals? Is this the only GUI program that won't start? Is Venus in retrograde?

ohnonot · 2019-05-24 04:21:09

really nothing at all in the terminal? i get loads.

Colonel Panic wrote:

[Brief update; I'm posting this from Debian Stretch now, which Bunsen is based on, and OBConf works fine in that.]

that is interesting.
it must be specific to your install, and hhh's suspicion seems the most plausible atm.
output of

apt update

please (as well as answering hhh's other questions of course).

Last edited by ohnonot (2019-05-24 04:21:45)

hhh · 2019-05-24 05:43:39

I mean, it's such a simple package and it's the first report of this in the 3 plus years BL's been around, plus another 3 or more on CrunchBang.

OP, do you run other desktop sessions on this machine? Honestly... How do you break obconf? Have you tried removing/moving the themes from your home directory temporarily?

hhh · 2019-05-24 05:55:57

Here it is, a corrupt rc.xml. It works by manually editing it, but it's a malformed file so obconf chokes on it, I'm guessing...

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ … refox-b-ab

Backup your current rc.xml file, copy the default from /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/openbox to ~/.config/openbox and then run 'openbox --reconfigure' or just logout/login

Source: #!, almost 6 years ago. YEAH BABY!!!

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-24 06:39:46

damo wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
Sorry but life's too short....
...to troubleshoot a problem with minimal information about package versions, error messages (.xsession-errors? journalctl?), any Debian bug reports, any recent system changes, forum searches.

Sorry damo.

I deleted that post because I realised it wasn't appropriate. The one I wanted people to read was the one where I said I would come back and look at it again.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-24 07:28:56)

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-24 07:03:36

post deleted

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-24 10:02:04)

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-24 07:04:29

I've just seen this thread, which I think contains the solution to the problem. It appears to be a permissions issue;

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=133302

Later on I'm going to check the write permissions of my rc.xml file, as it looks like the file hasn't been saved anew each time I run OBConf as it should have been.

Thanks again to everyone who's contributed with suggestions and advice.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-24 10:39:02)

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-24 08:47:00

hhh wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be happening?
Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

Thanks for this link; I'm going to have a good look at it. One thing I've learnt already is that you don't mix Debian and Ubuntu packages in the same system.

DeepDayze · 2019-05-24 15:55:23

Colonel Panic wrote:

hhh wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:
Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be happening?
Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Thanks for this link; I'm going to have a good look at it. One thing I've learnt already is that you don't mix Debian and Ubuntu packages in the same system.

Darn straight and this especially goes for packages from PPAs that claim to be compatible with plain Debian. If you break Debian you keep the pieces

And don't try to backport newer compilers or toolchains to Stable

Last edited by DeepDayze (2019-05-24 15:56:11)

Colonel Panic · 2019-05-24 19:54:29

DeepDayze wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
hhh wrote:
Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Thanks for this link; I'm going to have a good look at it. One thing I've learnt already is that you don't mix Debian and Ubuntu packages in the same system.
Darn straight and this especially goes for packages from PPAs that claim to be compatible with plain Debian. If you break Debian you keep the pieces
And don't try to backport newer compilers or toolchains to Stable

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind though to be honest I don't do all that much compiling nowadays (and don't know what a toolchain is either) .

A further update; it turned out that yes, it was a file permissions problem. I’ve installed midnight commander, a console-based file manager which can change a file's permissions from its file menu, and when I changed the group permissions of rc.xml to enable reading and writing, OBConf worked without a hitch (and stopped working when I changed them back again).

Thanks again to everyone who's contributed with suggestions and advice. I've marked the thread "Solved" now in accordance with the fact that the problem I had with OBConf is now in the past.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2019-05-24 20:06:54)

malm · 2019-05-24 20:15:50

Glad you found the issue.

You can set permissions with chmod. E.g.

chmod 644 rc.xml

I too am a fan of mc.

hhh · 2019-05-25 00:52:19

Colonel Panic wrote:

hhh wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:
Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be happening?
Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Thanks for this link; I'm going to have a good look at it. One thing I've learnt already is that you don't mix Debian and Ubuntu packages in the same system.

Simple backports are easy...

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=58

You'll know it's simple if it compiles successfully.

DeepDayze · 2019-05-25 01:13:53

hhh wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
hhh wrote:
Did you break Debian stable? How can you break Debian stable? Naughty, naughty!
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
Thanks for this link; I'm going to have a good look at it. One thing I've learnt already is that you don't mix Debian and Ubuntu packages in the same system.
Simple backports are easy...
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=58
You'll know it's simple if it compiles successfully.

Yep, as long as said package doesn't use funky Ubuntu specific libraries.

#1 2019-05-23 15:10:42

[Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#2 2019-05-23 17:20:10

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#3 2019-05-23 17:34:10

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#4 2019-05-23 18:22:56

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#5 2019-05-23 20:14:46

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#6 2019-05-23 23:02:37

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#7 2019-05-23 23:17:24

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#8 2019-05-23 23:23:32

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#9 2019-05-24 04:21:09

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#10 2019-05-24 05:43:39

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#11 2019-05-24 05:55:57

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#12 2019-05-24 06:39:46

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#13 2019-05-24 07:03:36

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#14 2019-05-24 07:04:29

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#15 2019-05-24 08:47:00

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#16 2019-05-24 15:55:23

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#17 2019-05-24 19:54:29

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#18 2019-05-24 20:15:50

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#19 2019-05-25 00:52:19

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

#20 2019-05-25 01:13:53

Re: [Solved] OBConf stopped working for no obvious reason

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