Debian Wheezy and Gnome-shell (PD 9)

Hi,

I'm using Parallels Desktop 9 and I've installed a Debian Wheezy distribution (migrated from PDF 8).
Parallels Tools installed properly, and the VM is configured to allow 3D acceleration.
However, when login to my account, it fails to load the Gnome-shell environment and fallback into the 2D Metacity.

Looking at the /var/log/parallels.log, I can see the Parallels Tools is trying to execute /usr/bin/compiz. Below is a portion of this file.

Code:

Shutting down Parallels tools daemon: done
Loading Parallels ToolsGate driver: done
Loading Parallels Network driver: done
Loading Parallels Shared Folders driver: done
Mounting Parallels Shared Folders: done
Loading Parallels Filesystem Freeze driver: done
Loading ACPI memory hotplug module: done
Starting Parallels tools daemon: done
09-11 17:04:31.873 I /prlcc:3559:12b4b720/ Can't execute /usr/bin/compiz

09-11 17:04:31.879 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Detected XServer version: 1.12.4.0
09-11 17:04:31.879 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Detected Compiz version: 0.0.0.0
09-11 17:04:31.879 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Creating semaphore...
09-11 17:04:31.879 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Semaphore key -771656918, name='/usr/bin/prlcc': ret 0
09-11 17:04:31.879 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Control Center starting . . .
09-11 17:04:31.885 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Open Tools Gate link was opened.
09-11 17:04:31.885 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Running '/usr/bin/prldnd'
09-11 17:04:31.885 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Running '/usr/bin/prlcp'
09-11 17:04:31.885 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libglib-2.0.so.0 GLib Base library...
09-11 17:04:31.886 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ GLib Base functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.886 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libgobject-2.0.so.0 GObject library...
09-11 17:04:31.886 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ GObject functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.886 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libgconf-2.so.4 GConf library...
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ GConf functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libglib-2.0.so.0 GVariant library...
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ GVariant functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libgio-2.0.so.0 GSettings library...
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ GSettings functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libXrandr.so X server's library...
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libXrandr.so.1 X server's library...
09-11 17:04:31.887 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libXrandr.so.1.0.0 X server's library...
09-11 17:04:31.888 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Try libXrandr.so.2 X server's library...
09-11 17:04:31.889 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ X functions were loaded successfully
09-11 17:04:31.889 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Opened /proc/driver/prl_tg
09-11 17:04:31.889 I /prlcc:3553:12b4b720/ Control Center: initialized
09-11 17:04:31.899 I /prlcp:3569:a9f3720/ Creating semaphore...
09-11 17:04:31.899 I /prlcp:3569:a9f3720/ Semaphore key -771656916, name='/usr/bin/prlcp': ret 32769
09-11 17:04:31.899 I /prlcp:3569:a9f3720/ starting . . .

But Debian does not support anymore Compiz (hence I guess Ubuntu will soon have problems). And anyway, Gnome-Shell is independent of compiz (if I'm not mistaken).

Am I doing something wrong here? Can you please help me with this issue?

Thanks a lot,
Mat

 

The compiz thing is a red herring. You need to look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if there are any lines starting with EE, indicating a driver load issue (you need to see many lines for PRLVIDEO finding memory, monitor modes, DRI, GL, etc.), and if prl_video and OpenGL loaded okay, which the parallels log seems to indicate they did, then look in ~/.xsession-errors to see if there's mis-configuration with gnome-shell itself. 3D acceleration is required for gnome-shell and is the common fail point (3D accel driver prl_video.so and associated GL driver didn't load or weren't installed correctly).

I.e., you /must/ see lines like this in /var/log/Xorg.0.log:

Code:

...
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: Compiled for 1.14.0 XServer
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: /proc/driver/prl_vtg opened
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: /proc/driver/prl_tg opened
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: /proc/driver/prl_vtg opened
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: ParallelsControl version 1.0 initalized
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: OpenGL supported
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: This message is only for compiz starter script:
        'Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so'
        Maybe later compiz team include our driver in whitelist
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: Compositing supported
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: Multiheads supported
[    19.389] (II) PRLCONTROL: Randr's private data available
[    19.389] (II) PRLCOHERENCE: Coherence initialized
[    19.389] (II) PRLXINERAMA: Parallels Xinerama initialized
[    19.390] (II) PRLVIDEO: VESA link to Open Tools Gate was opened.
[    19.390] (II) PRLVIDEO: Cursor initialized.
[    19.390] (II) PRLVIDEO: VESA Screen 0 was initialized.
[    19.390] (==) RandR enabled
...

Past that, it may just be you're not getting the gnome-shell environment session when you login. Have you tried to select Gnome explicitly from the drop-down?

 

Hi millix,

Thanks for your answer! I've indeed checked the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log: I do get the same lines you mentioned, and I'm getting "only" 2 errors so far in this file:

Code:

[    10.951] (EE) PRLXINERAMA: Xinerama Virtual Screen 0 (x=0, y=0, w=1024, h=768)
[    18.997] (EE) PRLXINERAMA: Xinerama Virtual Screen 0 (x=0, y=0, w=1920, h=1080)

As for the file ~/.xsession-errors, the first lines indicates an error:

Code:

/etc/gdm3/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
localuser:mat being added to access control list
openConnection: connect: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
cannot connect to brltty at :0
gnome-session-is-accelerated: No hardware 3D support.
gnome-session-check-accelerated: Helper exited with code 256
gnome-session[3575]: WARNING: Session 'gnome' runnable check failed: Quitté avec le code 1
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/home/mat/.cache/keyring-wbotzM
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/home/mat/.cache/keyring-wbotzM
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/home/mat/.cache/keyring-wbotzM/ssh

Any idea about how to fix this? Could this be related to the fact I attached an external screen?

Thanks a lot.
Mat

 

I get an error with Xinerama too, but that doesn't seem to affect anything I care about, even multiple displays, although you can't span displays with one big desktop (that's what Xinerama does). The key bits are OpenGL support and Compositing support, which show up in Xorg.0.log. You may have to fool the helper program that is checking for 3D hardware support from gnome-session, which you can do by:

Code:

# cd /usr/lib/gnome-session
# rm gnome-session-check-accelerated-helper
# ln -s /bin/true gnome-session-check-accelerated-helper

But, no guarantees... it may still not work with your graphics card.