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Ondra Žižka
Asked: 2018-03-19 04:57:07 +0800 CST

Regression? Ubuntu 17.10 gnome-shell starts instead of gnome-flashback

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I have 17.10, been using gnome-flashback for quite a long time, since 16.04 and kept upgrading.

After installing latest updates, I can't make gnome-flashback to appear. In the login screen, I can choose Gnome Flashback - Metacity or Gnome Flashback - Compiz, but both, when chosen, end up displaying the new layout with "Activities" and the large icons panel on the left.

I have tried reinstalling gnome-flashback using 

sudo apt-cache depends gnome-flashback | \
grep '[ |]Depends: [^<]' | cut -d: -f2 | tr -d ' ' | \
xargs sudo apt-get --reinstall install -y

which finished, but after restart, I still end up in that weird layout.
Also, when I lock the screen, it behaves like something was pressing enter every ~500ms, so it's not possible to enter the password.

What happened? Is that a bug? Is Gnome Flashback supposed to work? What should I try to get it back? Thanks!

Update: After reinstallation of gnome-flashback, some GTK apps wouldn't start, e.g. Synaptic said:

$ sudo synaptic
Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 keyUnable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
(synaptic:3867): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0

I was able to solve it as per this. I think I had this issue after upgrading to 17.10. Not sure if it is related to my issue above.

gnome login-screen 17.10 gnome-flashback

1 Answers

  1. "when I lock the screen, it behaves like something was pressing enter every ~500ms, so it's not possible to enter the password"

    I was able to fix this by uninstalling lightdm and gdm3, and then reinstalling both, and running sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm which took me to a dialog where I chose lightdm over gdm3 (which was used before). Now I am at least able to lock and unlock the system. Still no Flashback though.

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