If the "control-center" is not emerged on a fresh gnome-desktop install, an error will occur at startup causing icons, fonts, n'such to not work properly. Gnome will report GnomeSettingsDaemon failure (OAFIID). This appears to be a common problem with other distributions as well. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge -a gnome-desktop Start up Gnome and watch as everything does not load properly. Actual Results: Fonts are not anti-aliased (using X bitmap fonts only). Icons are missing. OAFIID error message dialog box pops up. Expected Results: Everything works as expected. # emerge info Portage 2.0.51.22-r2 (default-linux/x86/2005.1, gcc-3.3.6, glibc-2.3.5-r1, 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 i686 Celeron (Coppermine) Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [enabled] ccache version 2.3 [enabled] dev-lang/python: 2.3.5-r2 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.11 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r10 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.18-r1 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -mmmx -march=pentium3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mmmx -march=pentium3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig buildpkg ccache distcc distlocks sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/gentoo/" MAKEOPTS="-j8" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 X alsa apache2 apm arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cdr crypt cups dga eds emboss encode esd fam foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gimpprint gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 imap imlib jpeg kde ldap libg++ libwww mad mbox mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg mysql ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg oggvorbis opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl php png ppds python qt quicktime readline samba sdl spell sse ssl tcltk tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts vorbis xml2 xmms xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
Dialog box contains: The Settings Daemon restarted too many times. The last error message was: Failed to activate 'OAFIID:GNOME_SettingsDaemon GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.
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gnome-desktop is not gnome. gnome is gnome (or gnome-light). If you just emerge gnome-desktop, you're not expected to have a working gnome system. The gnome metaebuild has a correct dep on control-center.
I know it's bad taste to comment on a bug that is considered resolved - but figure this: I understand your logic in-so-far as if I wanted the entire Gnome suite. However, a minimalist (something Gentoo allows very nicely) may only want a smaller portion of Gnome and choose to install the mere basics as in: emerge -a gnome-desktop nautilus metacity gnome-panel gnome-applets Based on the above scenario, the essentials will be pulled in (as per the dependency layout), but gnome-desktop itself is still rendered non-functional because it *requires* another package to be installed. Adding a dependency for control-center produces a *working* Gnome (light) environment without the fluff of graphics viewers, Mozilla (??!!), bloated email clients (evolution), editors, etc. I would normally like to use USE flags to rid these - but there is no such capability. Does this not make sense? Should dependencies only be tied to things that make other things compile properly? This is a rather messed up philosophy, considering the small effort it would take to correct. Google for the error message - there are quite a few people that are just as confused as I am.
This is what gnome-light is for. gnome-desktop is a package of libs, locale files, and documentation, and pictures. The only executable in the package is gnome-about. It has nothing to do with any errors on startup of gnome, so you must have it mistaken for something else. I realize it has an unfortunately suggestive name, but that's what upstream named it, so that's what we have to live with. Seriously, you want gnome-light. We maintain that to get the (hopefully) minimal set of gnome packages, without all the fluff. If there's something in it that you think shouldn't be, please open a bug, and we'll try and remove it.
