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so "what desktop am I runnning"

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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graemev2
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so "what desktop am I runnning"

#1 Post by graemev2 »

FYI, I've read: (in FAQ)
3.1.10. I have a working Desktop/cluster with Debian installed. How do I know which distribution I am running?

I run many several Debian boxes. Most I access via x2go and so use xfce as the desktop . However I've just installed "buster" on an Intel NUC which Intend to "carry away" so will use a real keyboard, screen etc.

So I thought, for once, I'd just take the "default" desktop . I did a clean install and didn't opt to add xfce, kde etc.
[ debian-10.2.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso ]
But before I "ship" I need to install stuff on it, so I'm sshing to the box. My problem is it keeps timing out the desktop , back to xdm (gdm3? ) which then suspends while I'm using it.

Now I could just disable all the suspend/hibernate , but I'd like to "go with the flow" . When it's finally installed the "defaults" will probably feel right. So I thought I'd just set the "screen auto timeout" to a big value or run caffeine or similar . When I look up ways to do this , all the guides seem "wrong" ...the gnome setting just aren't there. Caffeine installs but seems to do nothing and does not show as a icon ....so what desktop am I running? For extra points where is the "user guide for it?"

Chrisdb
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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#2 Post by Chrisdb »

The part where you select the DE is called 'tasksel':

https://wiki.debian.org/tasksel#Desktop_environment
So if no specific DE is chosen, it will install GNOME as default

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#3 Post by graemev2 »

Thanks for that. It did looks a little like "gnome" but then lots of GUIs look like gome (well look alike at least) . So assuming it is gnome. I found:

https://www.thegeekdiary.com/how-to-cus ... os-rhel-7/ (from Redhat world)

and

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... mmand-line (from pure Debian ...nb real suspend , not just GUI)

I was a little surprised that it's now done this way:

Code: Select all

# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 180
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay 300
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled true
I though most GUI's went in for fancy graphical interfaces . I take it there is, somewhere, a list of all these "magic settings" as there seem to be quite a lot, asking quite a lot of a new user to figure all these out?

Also the
"System wide mandatory settings can also be enforced for all users...."


bit seems to be centos specific , so I guess I'd "gnome3 on buster" specific documentation .

In general It would be really helpful is all GUIs said what they were , e.g written on the background wallpaper and preferably in the help->about (e.g. "This is gnome3.n on Debian Buster" I guess people familiar with given GUI might recognise them on sight but I certainly can't (well motif/CDE I recognise)

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

graemev2 wrote:I take it there is, somewhere, a list of all these "magic settings"

Code: Select all

gsettings list-schemas
Check the man page for the other options. Or use dconf-editor.
graemev2 wrote:It would be really helpful is all GUIs said what they were
If you go to the settings panel and select "Details" it quite clearly says "GNOME" (and it also gives the version).
deadbang

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#5 Post by graemev2 »

graemev2 wrote:If you go to the settings panel and select "Details" it quite clearly says "GNOME" (and it also gives the version).
Well I guess that depends on knowing that's it's "gnome" before I start ...most of the GUIs I just checked didn't have a "settings panel" in fact THIS one (we're discussing) doesn't seem to have that info:

Top LSH --> "activities" (text box) type "settings" hit enter, get a windows with

displays
keyboard
...
colour

No mention of "Details" ?

Also It seems those gsettings have no effect. It's still hanging every 30 mins or so ...I need to go to the other room and tap the keyboard to wake it up. I suspect I'll need to go the brute force route and just disable the various sleep modes in systemd.

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#6 Post by graemev2 »

Ah, ha , I might have found it.

Top RH screen corner, right click over networking icon.

This causes a menu to appear on the top right of the screen. Left click on the small spanner icon . This creates another small spanner icon on the top LH side of the screen and hopefully also a window appears in the centre of screen.

In this window left click on small less than sign in the top LH corner. This in turn opens up a side menu, in this side menu is "Details" and these details show Gnome 3.30... (can't see actual screen now it's on another room) and I use ssh or XFCE from here ( ... gnome is on rarely used local screen, as it does seem to work over x2go and I've fought long and hard to use XDMCP with no success)

But more importantly. It (this final menu) has a privacy setting which allows me to turn off the screen lock. This in turn I hoping will prevent the "suspend" which is killing all my sessions.

Seems you need to be pretty familiar with gnome in order to discover you're running gnome :-)

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#7 Post by graemev2 »

I might well have a different issue. Even with the "privacy" set to no long the screen, my (remote) sessions hang when I got back to the machine (an Intel NUC) it's suspended. When I wake it up, the screen is NOT locked (this time, was previously) . As an "also interesting" earlier when I was running a long FTP job (several hours) started from the local GUI screen (because I'd just had to wake it again) it did not suspend for the about two hours the copy took. So???

+ High CPU use?
+ Processes whos controlling TTY is console
+ graphical activity (status )

Something kept it awake. Whereas me actively using it via remote desktop has no effect. ...given different symptom, time for more googling methinks

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

graemev2 wrote:Seems you need to be pretty familiar with gnome in order to discover you're running gnome :-)
Not really:

Code: Select all

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
Or

Code: Select all

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
To prevent suspend while running an application see https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwa ... d/inhibit/
deadbang

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#9 Post by graemev2 »

Wohh, loads of info ...

I thought I'd got the answer to my original posting, sadly not:

Code: Select all

graeme@real:/rtmp$ cat ./wot-desktop 
#!/bin/bash

echo "echo DESKTOP_SESSION=${DESKTOP_SESSION} , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=${XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP}" | tee -a ./these-desktops


graeme@real:/rtmp$ rm these-desktops 
graeme@real:/rtmp$ ./wot-desktop 
echo DESKTOP_SESSION=default , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=X-Cinnamon
graeme@real:/rtmp$ chmod 666 these-desktops 
graeme@real:/rtmp$ cat ./these-desktops 
echo DESKTOP_SESSION=default , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=X-Cinnamon
echo DESKTOP_SESSION= , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=
echo DESKTOP_SESSION= , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=
echo DESKTOP_SESSION=gnome-xorg , XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME
graeme@real:/rtmp$ 
So if it's "gnome" or a gnome derivate" this tells me it's gnome :-) otherwise it doesn't

Quite ironic really I can easily find the kernel version and most commands support an option to say what version they are , shard object libraries make it clear in their name. But the GUI, which is only one with an actual visible interface , doesn't reveal what it is (even things like eclipse give a detailed breakdown of what you're running when it starts up)

It's amazing the number of conversions which go on for quite a while before somebody says "wait, you are running KDE right?" (change name as required)


WRT to "inhibit" [ https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwa ... d/inhibit/ ] I'm clearly going to have to go away and do some background reading. A whole lot has changed that I wasn't aware of. Thanks for the pointer.

However this feels wrong.

+ To have server class machines dropping into suspend or hibernate when there is no activity is clearly wrong
+ To have machines suspend while users are active on one or more desktops or ssh sessions, but the console is unused seems wrong
+ having the system suspend , with no way to wake up ...without somebody finding the main console and waking it up seems wrong.


Now it seems I can (probably) turn all this off. But actually it would be quite useful in my current use-case. It just has all the wrong "values" for me:

+ If I turn on the box and do not log onto the console, I'm probably accessing it remotely . So I'd like it to stay up for say 8 hours after I last had a remote connection [ because I need to make a trip back the the machine , if I log off say to move location ]

+ If I turn off the box and DO logon the console, then don't access remotely and just leave it sitting there . Then I'd like it to suspend shortly after the lock screen comes on.

So I don't really want to "just turn it off" (but that does allow me to work)

So, I'll read up , see if I can find the rationale. Feels like the "correct" setup is/would be quite complex. I don't know if the current implementation has considered all these.
[ something like a "countdown timer" reset anytime something "significant" happens , typing a key, starting a cron job etc ... humm needs some thought]

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#10 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

graemev2 wrote:So if it's "gnome" or a gnome derivate" this tells me it's gnome
No, the DESKTOP_SESSION is derived from the display manager and just lists which session has been selected. XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP is the best method and that has identified your desktop as Cinnamon.

Either inxi or neofetch will give simple answers to your simple question, perhaps you would prefer those.

And for inhibitor locks just use

Code: Select all

systemd-inhibit foo
to run the program foo with a lock to prevent suspend.

EDIT: your posts are far too prolix so I'm not really reading them properly. Sorry.
deadbang

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Re: so "what desktop am I runnning"

#11 Post by graemev2 »

No, the DESKTOP_SESSION is derived from the display manage
The value of DESKTOP_SESSION was (from various different desktops, in above eample)

default
"" (nothing)
gnome-xorg

The 1st was the "gnome" I got from a "default" buster install.
The "" was XFCE and the last one was an older "stretch" system. I didn't have any KDE etc systems to try it on.

But it looks like inxi -S does indeed answer my original question:

$ inxi -S
System: Host: real Kernel: 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)

$ inxi -S
System: Host: zbox Kernel: 4.9.0-11-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)

$ inxi -S
System: Host: nuc Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Gnome 3.30.2 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)


your posts are far too prolix
I shall endeavour to be more terse.
systemd-inhibit foo
I'll need to read some background, but I'm not just trying to hit it with a hammer until it works . I can think of lots of ways to totally stop "suspend" I'd like to make it work correctly. I now see lots of folks are having similar problems

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