[GNC] Having issues with gsettings, dconf, gsettings-dconf-backend and GnuCash

[Adrien Monteleone]

Considering the timing of the GnuCash release and the Ubuntu 23.10 
release, your build issues are likely due to dependency hell. I've had a 
few frustrating build sessions where GnuCash needed an ever so slightly 
older version of a library that wasn't in the new repos. (and this 
cascaded to some of their dependencies as well) Your build errors should 
be informative enough to figure out if that is the case here. (note, 
when I had that problem it was also on a non-LTS .10 release) Sometimes, 
this is resolvable with a bit of effort. Sometimes, it isn't worth the 
effort.

I see you switched from Pop_OS! 22.04 to Ubuntu 23.10. Any reason not to 
stick with Ubuntu 22.04? Maybe try that in a VM and see if you get the 
same build issues. (you could just keep that VM for GnuCash until you 
resolve the build problems in the host)

There is always flatpak. Of course, be aware of a few workarounds for 
printing and file locations for settings. These should all be documented 
on the GnuCash wiki.

Otherwise, some VM testing would be my approach, though considering how 
you've described your OS transition and upgrades, as well as other OS 
issues, I'd consider the nuclear option if I wasn't too far invested in 
the current installation. A clean install has saved me weeks of 
continued frustration more than once.

Regards,
Adrien

On 10/21/23 10:43 AM, Bryan B. wrote:
> That is a good idea.
> 
> To give some context, without explaining everything: One week ago, I was
> running the Ubuntu-based Pop_OS! 22.04. On that system, I had GnuCash built
> using the "Building on Ubuntu" gnucash-wiki 22.04 script. I did not have
> that issue at that time, nor the other GnuCash issue that I encountered
> here:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2023-October/046795.html
> 
> I was having other issues with Pop_OS! (network issues that were needed on
> my previous job), and at the recommendation of my previous employer I
> decided to switch to mainstream Ubuntu.
> 
> When I switched to Ubuntu 23.10, this issue appeared, along with the issue
> with gsettings.
> 
> Another issue that is worth mentioning, in case this happens to anyone
> else, is that I got unlucky with the .iso file I used to install mainstream
> Ubuntu. I somehow Googled my way into creating an .iso based off of 22.10,
> which is a version of Ubuntu that is no longer supported. I installed on
> 22.10, then discovered my error. At that point, I upgraded to 23.10.
> 
> I also should mention another thing I just remembered. Whenever I open
> dconf, even if I don't click anything, Terminator, a terminal app I use for
> coding, stops working correctly: when I type text and approach the side of
> the app window, three characters proceed off the edge of the screen before
> the app's autowrapping feature kicks in and the following characters appear
> on the next line down.
> 
> Also worth mentioning is that the issue with being unable to switch
> gsettings background image on the desktop existed before installing the
> dconf gui app.
> 
> Based on the feedback I am getting, it does seem that something deep within
> ubuntu is likely broken and a complete reinstall from scratch is the only
> reasonable way to fix this.
> 
> I do like the idea of rebuilding using a virtualbox 23.10 iso and getting
> the system working first, before redoing everything. Thank you!