GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

Cipelli · 2015-03-31 12:01:21

I know this is probably out of Xfce's scope, but I was wondering if anyone knew how to hook up GNOME Software into Xfce. 99% of it works fine as it needs GTK+ and PackageKit, however the one major error I get is trying to use the Updates tab. When clicking "Restart & Install" nothing will happen.

I believe this error is because of the action not being linked into Xfce's session manager, but GNOME's? I'm not 100% sure but that seems why.

Running this on Paragon 2015 (aka openSUSE 13.2 with Xfce 4.12). Other update methods (gpk-update-viewer and "zypper up") work fine, though gpk-update-viewer also won't do anything when you click the "Log out" button to apply changes which is what also leads me to believe it's a session issue.

Thanks for reading!

Last edited by Cipelli (2015-03-31 18:07:37)

ToZ · 2015-03-31 17:13:46

A couple of suggestions to make:

1. If possible, run the application in a terminal window and note any error messages when you click on "Restart & Install".

2. There is a "Launch GNOME services on startup" option in Settings Manager >> Session and Startup >> Advanced tab. According to the help file, this will enable the GNOME keyring daemon to run at startup. If not enabled, it might help.

Cipelli · 2015-03-31 18:04:21

Thanks for the quick reply! I tried #2 but no success unfortunately.

Running gnome-software as root in a terminal provides constant badgering about (though I believe this is nothing to do with the "Restart & Install" error, the more you know the better so):

(org.gnome.Software:21382): Gs-WARNING **: failed to get recommended applications: no results to show

(org.gnome.Software:21382): GsPlugin-WARNING **: no mapping for refresh-cache

Clicking "Restart & Install" first time throws out this:

(org.gnome.Software:21382): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_connection_call_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed

(org.gnome.Software:21382): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

Meanwhile clicking it again after the first time it's running gives you:

(org.gnome.Software:21708): Gs-WARNING **: failed to trigger an offline update: GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._pk_5fengine_5ferror.Code1: Failed to create symlink: File exists

Gnome PackageKit gpk-update-viewer gives me this then closes/crashes on clicking the "Log Out" button (after successfully installing the update attempted above)

** (gpk-update-viewer:21860): CRITICAL **: dbus_g_proxy_new_for_name_owner: assertion 'connection != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault

ToZ · 2015-03-31 19:19:30

I'm not familiar with gnome-software so I may be off, but why are you running it as root? In my experience, graphical apps don't react well to being run as root if they're not run properly. So:

How do you create a root session to run this app? What command do you use to create this session?

What happens if you run the app as a regular user?

And what happens if you run the app using "gksudo gnome-software" or "pkexec gnome-software" (if it is setup to run through pkexec)?

Cipelli · 2015-03-31 22:55:33

Sorry I decided to run it as root (su root) as for some reason, that was the only way gnome-software would give me output via the terminal. (I should probably sort out sudo some time.) Otherwise I run it as a regular user. Both ways end up with no success.

(Pkexec doesn't actually work for me which is an interesting issue all by itself, but I'll work on that one tomorrow :L)

Update:

I don't know why, but the moment after I posted this, I managed to get gnome-software to give me output via the terminal in my regular user session. It now gives me this error with the "Restart & Install" button:

(org.gnome.Software:29078): Gs-WARNING **: Calling org.gnome.SessionManager.Reboot failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files

Last edited by Cipelli (2015-03-31 22:59:12)

ToZ · 2015-03-31 23:11:48

dbus will only run in a user session, so root won't have access to it. Thats probably why you are getting those errors.

I'm not familiar with gnome software to know if there are any parameters you can pass to get some output (like --verbose or --debug) to get it to display some output. There is also strace or gdb that you can use. It might be useful to create a bug report through your distro's normal bug-reporting channels so someone with knowledge of this app can walk you through debugging it.

ToZ · 2015-03-31 23:58:33

Cipelli wrote:

Update:
I don't know why, but the moment after I posted this, I managed to get gnome-software to give me output via the terminal in my regular user session. It now gives me this error with the "Restart & Install" button:
(org.gnome.Software:29078): Gs-WARNING **: Calling org.gnome.SessionManager.Reboot failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files

Looks like that app depends on the gnome session manager to initiate the reboot sequence. Xfce uses its own session manager (xfce4-session).

Cipelli · 2015-04-01 07:53:01

Okay then, didn't know D-Bus didn't run in root. So I'm assuming there's no way to fix other than to break out the code and have a look?

ToZ · 2015-04-01 10:26:21

Or at least run in through an strace or gdb session to see exactly what is happening.

Not sure if this will work, but you can also try to export the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and DISPLAY variables before running it as root. You can get these variable from your environment using the "env" command:

[toz@archer ~]$ env | grep -i dbus
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-4O3XCLIgVr,guid=cac9e5f58f9117f32cc59c775515b948
[toz@archer ~]$ env | grep DISPLAY
DISPLAY=:0.0

...then:

sudo -i
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-4O3XCLIgVr,guid=cac9e5f58f9117f32cc59c775515b948
export DISPLAY=:0.0
gnome-software

This _may_ get you a dbus session, but if the package relies on gnome-session for restarting, you may not be able use the restart button if your not using gnome-session.

EDIT: I fired up the paragon live cd to have a look. There appears to be a gpk-dbus-service executable on the system that isn't running. Does starting it up prior to running gnome-software or gpk-update-viewer help in providing access to a dbus session?

Last edited by ToZ (2015-04-01 10:48:09)

Cipelli · 2015-04-01 12:54:11

Got something. Trying Dbus as root threw errors but it's the gnome-session that's the problem anyway.

I installed and started gnome-session inside Xfce, then pressed "Restart & Install" and voilà. Just need to figure out a better way to do this for Xfce session, as I don't know if running them both side-by-side is a good idea.

Thanks for your help!

eric_the_idiot · 2015-04-01 15:59:40

You're running into this bug https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=693203 GtkApplication is hard coded to only talk to gnome session at this time.

Cipelli · 2015-04-01 16:05:12

eric_the_idiot wrote:

You're running into this bug https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=693203 GtkApplication is hard coded to only talk to gnome session at this time.

Thanks very much for the link, that's the one. So it's not a problem with gnome-software it's a GTK thing.

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#1 2015-03-31 12:01:21

GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#2 2015-03-31 17:13:46

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#3 2015-03-31 18:04:21

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#4 2015-03-31 19:19:30

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#5 2015-03-31 22:55:33

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#6 2015-03-31 23:11:48

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#7 2015-03-31 23:58:33

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#8 2015-04-01 07:53:01

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#9 2015-04-01 10:26:21

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#10 2015-04-01 12:54:11

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#11 2015-04-01 15:59:40

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

#12 2015-04-01 16:05:12

Re: GNOME Software and Gnome-PackageKit working with Xfce?

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