Updating Slackware — 4

I found several issues after creating support scripts to help automate parts of the updating Slackware.

The Xfce wallpaper background changed to the default.

The difference was a new monitorLVDS-1 entry in $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml. The entry replaced the monitor0 entry. I resolved that by copying new entries into my existing 14.2 xfce4-desktop.xml. The new entries will be inert in 14.2, but with this method I will not have to deal with the problem again.

Fonts looked rough in Xfce. I resolved that by editing the new /etc/profile.d/freetype.sh to use classic hinting version=35.

A sore spot with Xfce is moving to GTK 3 and tooltips. I feel helpless that I cannot truly disable tooltips. Annoying as Hell.

A possible solution is enabling compositing along with the following gtk.css CSS tweak:

    tooltip {
      opacity: 0;
    }

When booting the Lenovo T400 laptop I was always greeted with udevd: Unknown key identifier 'zoom'.

I could eliminate the error temporarily but only once by deleting /etc/udev/hwdb.bin. I finally silenced the spew by copying /lib/udev/hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb to /etc/udev/hwdb.d/ and commenting out line 1456:

    @@ -1453,7 +1453,7 @@
      KEYBOARD_KEY_09=brightnessdown                         # Fn+F5
      KEYBOARD_KEY_0a=brightnessup                           # Fn+F6
      KEYBOARD_KEY_0b=switchvideomode                        # Fn+F7
    - KEYBOARD_KEY_0e=zoom                                   # Fn+F10
    +# KEYBOARD_KEY_0e=zoom                                   # Fn+F10
      KEYBOARD_KEY_10=suspend                                # Fn+F12
     
     evdev:name:Sony Vaio Keys:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnSony*:pn*PCG-C1*:pvr*

That line is in a section labeled # sony-laptop driver that has nothing to do with a Lenovo T400.

I saw elogind boot errors.

    udevd[211]: failed to execute ‘/lib64/elogind/elogind-uaccess-command’ ‘/lib64/elogind/elogind-uaccess-command

I was able to stop the error by copying /lib64/elogind to /boot/initd-tree and using the mkinitrd -u option. This bug was later fixed upstream in Slackware.

Another nuisance message:

    gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file

A little searching indicated gkr-pam had something to do with GNOME keyring. I was able to stop the errors by commenting out the following in /etc/pam.d/system-auth:

#-session optional pam_gnome_keyring.so auto_start

The journey continues.

Posted: May 12, 2021 Category: Usability Tagged: Slackware

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