On startup, Gnome 2.16.3 gets to the Nautilus icon on the startup splash screen and hangs. None of the desktop icons appear, nor does the correct desktop background. You also can't log off. This happens on both an x86 and amd64 system. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.emerge gnome 2.startx 3.
Please make sure your system is fully up to date "emerge -DuNa world". Also please post the output of emerge --info. Are the panels still working? Could you detail a bit more what you see on-screen, which elements work and which ones don't.
sudo emerge --info Portage 2.1.2.9 (default-linux/amd64/2006.1/no-multilib, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.5-r3 , 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9 Timestamp of tree: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:00:01 +0000 dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.0.33-r1 dev-lang/python: 2.4.4-r4 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.17 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10 sys-devel/binutils: 2.17 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.16 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.23b virtual/os-headers: 2.6.17-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=nocona" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=nocona" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/ distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/di stfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --filter=H_**/files/digest-*" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi amd64 berkdb bitmap-fonts cli cracklib crypt cups dri fortran gdbm g pm iconv ipv6 isdnlog libg++ midi mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam p cre pdf perl ppds pppd python readline reflection session spl ssl tcltk tcpd tru etype-fonts type1-fonts unicode xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGI NS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 iopl ug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol " ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES= "bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND ="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="apm ark chips cirrus cyrix dummy fbdev glint i128 i810 mach6 4 mga neomagic nv r128 radeon rendition s3 s3virge savage siliconmotion sis sisu sb tdfx tga trident tseng v4l vesa vga via vmware voodoo" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGU AS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_ OVERLAY Re Comment #1 from Remi Cardona: Yes, the system is up-to-date as of today. Please note that this issue has been discussed by others in the Gentoo Desktop Environments forum, thread "Gnome-2.16.3 hangs on two machines". I will respond to your request for more info about what is on-screen in a separate comment (I'm running twm, not gnome, so I can work on one of the two machines I broke with the 2.16.3 update; I'll bring up gnome on this machine and if I can't post the comment, I'll do it from another machine).
Ok, running with Gnome 2.16.3. The panels appear to be working (I can run applications, e.g., the Firefox I'm typing at now and I can switch workspaces). I think it's basically Nautilus that's broken. None of the usual on-desktop icons (my home directory, Trash) are present and if I click Places->Home folder, I just get a permanent "wait, I'm working on it" cursor. Also, my chosen desktop background color/pattern is not set (I've got a nearly black background now, which I presume is the default?), but if I click System->Preferences->Desktop Background, the correct background appears. I also can't exit from Gnome/X by clicking System->Log Out. That just hangs. To get out of this, I have to ctrl-alt-bksp. Hope this helps.
One more thing -- the inability to exit from Gnome/X via Log Out is probabilistic. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
Can you try running gnome-terminal and then running "nautilus" from there and post the output here? Thanks
Well, I did as you suggested -- ran nautilus from a terminal and got an error trying to load a specific version of a shared library (don't even remember at this point which library it was, because it's now moot -- read on). This said "run revdep-rebuild, dummy". So I ran it, and the problem is fixed. I will close this bug (if I'm allowed to?) and post the answer to the thread in the Gentoo forums that I mentioned earlier. Thanks for your help.
