When mate-destop began to continue the Gnome-2 desktop environment, they began with the unhinched libraries of gnome2 and x11-libs/gtk+-2. To make their project future proof they then began smoothly a transition to the new x11-libs/gtk+-3 library. This is the other way round: The gnome-flashback team is going the complete other way round to get the Gnome-2 desktop expirience back. They developed newly from scratch out of the latest Gnome-3 For example the actual testing Debian Buster just needs a very few additional Debian packages on top of Gnome-3 to get you the old Gnome-2 experience: gnome-flashback-3.30.0 gnome-flashback-common-3.30.0 gnome-session-flashback-3.30.0 (all given upstream URL https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback) gnome-panel-3.30.0 gnome-applets-3.30.0 metacity-3.30.1 metacity-common-3.30.1 For now there isn't listed any of gnome-flashback in a Gentoo overlay. I would suggest to get introduced gnome-flashback for the benefit of every Gentoo workstation, which has to provide a Gnome-2 like environment and Gnome-3 at the same time. You can then start both of them from gnome-base/gdm
The bug has been referenced in the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=b2504fb7f36650b9d937e54f9ac836f8c02f7eaf commit b2504fb7f36650b9d937e54f9ac836f8c02f7eaf Author: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2019-06-21 21:53:47 +0000 Commit: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2019-06-21 21:54:32 +0000 gnome-base/gnome-flashback: add 3.32.0 for GNOME Flashback session Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/680326 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.62, Repoman-2.3.12 Signed-off-by: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> gnome-base/gnome-flashback/Manifest | 1 + .../gnome-flashback/gnome-flashback-3.32.0.ebuild | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++ gnome-base/gnome-flashback/metadata.xml | 8 ++++ profiles/features/selinux/package.mask | 1 + 4 files changed, 63 insertions(+) https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=9d42088f2ef49248955eb86afd88dd45ecb8511b commit 9d42088f2ef49248955eb86afd88dd45ecb8511b Author: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2019-06-21 21:52:09 +0000 Commit: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2019-06-21 21:54:30 +0000 x11-wm/metacity: add 3.32.0 for GNOME Flashback session Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/680326 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.62, Repoman-2.3.12 Signed-off-by: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> x11-wm/metacity/Manifest | 1 + x11-wm/metacity/metacity-3.32.0.ebuild | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ x11-wm/metacity/metadata.xml | 12 ++++++++ 3 files changed, 65 insertions(+) https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=a337f1f4d3742bfdb5c589546941a2043e1f5713 commit a337f1f4d3742bfdb5c589546941a2043e1f5713 Author: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2019-06-21 21:51:28 +0000 Commit: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2019-06-21 21:54:27 +0000 gnome-base/gnome-applets: add 3.32.0 for GNOME Flashback session Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/680326 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.62, Repoman-2.3.12 Signed-off-by: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> gnome-base/gnome-applets/Manifest | 1 + .../gnome-applets/gnome-applets-3.32.0.ebuild | 57 ++++++++++++++++++++++ gnome-base/gnome-applets/metadata.xml | 11 +++++ profiles/features/selinux/package.mask | 1 + 4 files changed, 70 insertions(+) https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=d49854d742675fd12c23f9f7c720400b5e440fe2 commit d49854d742675fd12c23f9f7c720400b5e440fe2 Author: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2019-06-21 21:47:20 +0000 Commit: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2019-06-21 21:54:25 +0000 gnome-base/gnome-panel: add 3.32.0 for GNOME Flashback session Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/680326 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.62, Repoman-2.3.12 Signed-off-by: Mart Raudsepp <leio@gentoo.org> gnome-base/gnome-panel/Manifest | 1 + gnome-base/gnome-panel/gnome-panel-3.32.0.ebuild | 70 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ gnome-base/gnome-panel/metadata.xml | 8 +++ profiles/features/selinux/package.mask | 1 + 4 files changed, 80 insertions(+)
I've pushed the main packages, but I'm not sure yet what to do with metas and any aux stuff it wants. As I don't use this, suggestions welcome. Like should we really re-package gnome-screensaver too? Should we pull in more runtime deps for better fresh install experience? etc.
As a long time Mate-Desktop user I just installed Gnome-Flashback. Also I had not much of Gnome installed already, it did pull in very few packages. But when it came to gnome-base/gnome-panel-3.32.0 --- this error out: ... checking whether to use NLS... yes checking where the gettext function comes from... libc checking for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-pkg-config... /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-pkg-config checking pkg-config is at least version 0.16... yes checking for PANEL... no configure: error: Package requirements ( gmodule-2.0 >= 2.45.3 gdk-pixbuf-2.0 >= 2.26.0 pango >= 1.15.4 gtk+-3.0 >= 3.22.0 cairo-xlib gdm glib-2.0 >= 2.45.3 gmodule-2.0 >= 2.45.3 gio-2.0 >= 2.45.3 gio-unix-2.0 >= 2.45.3 gnome-desktop-3.0 >= 2.91.0 libgnome-menu-3.0 >= 3.7.90 dconf >= 0.13.4 x11 xrandr >= 1.3.0 ) were not met: Package 'gdm', required by 'virtual:world', not found Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you installed software in a non-standard prefix. Alternatively, you may set the environment variables PANEL_CFLAGS and PANEL_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config. See the pkg-config man page for more details. --- So I restarted with explicitly pulling gdm. And now much much more Gnome ebuilds were pulled in also. ... And gnome-panel emerged successfully! The phantastic result: After having emerged, I log out of Mate and I return to my old sddm which announced Flashback(Metacity) which started without problems! Gnome-Flashback does NOT need to be started from a running Gdm ! But Gdm had to be emerged due to gnome-panel :(
gnome-panel requires the small libgdm.so.1 library out of gdm package for some logout/user-switching stuff, instead of reimplementing it itself. Binary distributions can ship that in a separate package by splitting it up after the tarball is built, but not so doable in Gentoo.
I guess, you then don't need to think much about any additional Gnome-Flashback meta for solo install. Flashback is an alongside Gnome3 offer. (Perhaps an additional USE "flashback" for the gnome ebuild ?) @Raudsepp, many thanks for your work!
OK, looks like everything is fine as-is here by now with gnome-flashback RDEPENDing on the important other components, so closing.
