🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi list, I am trying to help my dad with a strange problem with his
GNOME setup on Debian lenny-stable.

After having just installed the monodevelop packages from the repo and
making sure dependencies were resolved, he had restarted his system,
only to find that GNOME no longer brings up the desktop after
logging in with GDM. A mouse pointer is shown against a red backdrop,
but nothing else shows beyond that point. The hard drive stops
accessing, apart from sporadic bursts. The only option at this point
is to open another console to read the logs.

/var/log/syslog shows the last activity to be:

[   57.090958] [drm] writeback test succeeded in 2 usecs

This machine does have slight problems with the HDD sudden motion
sensor, but I doubt that has anything to do with this.

Xorg.conf looks normal. None of the config files look like they have
problems.

Would anyone know what it could be? Am I missing something, perhaps?
While we can just boot from a live CD or USB, fish a few files out,
and wipe and reinstall, we really, really want to avoid that if
possible. Thanks for any help!

--Rob

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