GNOME - Gconf, NFS $HOME, orbitrc tricks

So, for the longest time I wondered why using Gnome as a desktop for a user (with an NFS automounted $HOME directory) on two machines would cause all sorts of silly warnings and error messages from Gnome applications - related to GConf.

Two reasons.

The first is that the Gnome IPC mechanisim is only good on the localhost unless you tweak an dotfile in your $HOME directory. The file is '.orbitrc' and it should contain the following two lines

ORBIIOPIPv4=1
ORBIIOPUSock=1

The second is that gconf puts lock files in your home dir and somethimes those dangle after a crash or, well, I really don't care. All I know is that I've had a look at this document (GConf configuration system)and found out how to shut gconfd down and remove the lock files.

gconftool-2 --shutdown
rm ~/.gconfd/lock/ior
rm ~/.gconf/%gconf-xml-backend.lock/ior

All the information here is in that document.... I just wanted to make it quick for me to remember the next time my remote gnome-terminal comes up with crazy fonts and colors.

ssh -X <machinename> 'bash -l -c "gnome-terminal \ --window-with-profile=<profilename>"'