Session Saving

Quantum · #1 9th June 2012, 05:29 AM

Why doesn't Gnome remember any of my window sizes? Why doesn't it remember my sessions, opening the same windows I had before?

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:56 PM ----------

You mean to tell me that Gnome can't manage to save sessions? Well this is a deal-killer. Back to KDE.

weitjong · #2 9th June 2012, 10:00 AM

You can if you configure Gnome to do so. Invoke "gnome-session-properties' in a terminal window, go to second tab and check the option to save your session. There was a time when one can easily get to this GUI in Gnome 2. I am still not able to figure out how to get there from Gnome 3, not via CLI. Any one know?

Quantum · #3 9th June 2012, 04:11 PM

Apparently though, it only saves a snapshot at the time I check that setting.

At any given time I have 30-40 windows open. When I shut down I can't lose all my work.

What an idiotic idea to remove this functionality, just because it doesn't work to the nth degree. The perfect, is the enemy of the good.

weitjong · #4 9th June 2012, 04:48 PM

I don't think the developer removes the functionality as it can still be invoked using CLI. I believe it just that it does not receive enough priority in Gnome 3 development. I have not opened so many apps running like you do and so I have no comment on Gnome failure to automatically bring them all back in a new login session. But the functionality seems work for me with a smaller number of apps running. Perhaps, the shutdown sequence does not give enough time for all apps to exit gracefully. I always have problem with my Evolution app if I do not close it first before shutting down (but that's another problem).

Also note that the option reads "Automatically remember running applications when logging out". So, I would not attempt to logout/shutdown Fedora without first saving my work because even if the function works, Gnome only brings up the apps, and not the actual previous "session" (like what Mac OS X Lion does, reopening the apps and loading the last auto-saved version, heck Lion even remembers where the last highlighted text was). Are you saying KDE can do all that? If yes then I would pay KDE a visit.

Quantum · #5 9th June 2012, 05:12 PM

In this Gnome virtual machine, I opened gshell and set the gnome-session-preferences setting. I closed that and started file manager. Then rebooted. Only the shell came up. I started file manager again and rebooted. Only the shell came up.

It does not remember my new work. KDE certainly does. KDE doesn't reopen my LibreOffice docs, but it does remember everything else, even if it's crashed. KDE has a more comprehensive object-oriented approach, which makes Gnome seem limited. I tried to like Gnome because of the more 'modern' interface, but it is just not up to par.

weitjong · #6 9th June 2012, 06:07 PM

I have a F17 VM running as guest OS in my bare metal running F17. I am trying to reproduce your problem. I had three apps: a Gnome terminal, a Firefox, a file manager (Nautilus). After shutdown/restart, what do you know, only Gnome terminal and Firefox restored correctly. You just pick one app that having problem. What can you do? File a bug, I guess.

---------- Post added at 01:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 AM ----------

Just to want to add that I agree with you that Gnome "restore session" is not as reliable as it should be, or as compared to KDE.

Quantum · #7 10th June 2012, 03:15 PM

Well my conclusion is that, even after ten years, Gnome is still limited in many ways and sucks. Staying with KDE.

weitjong · #8 10th June 2012, 04:16 PM

If you say so. It is your choice

.

***Gareth Jones*** · #9 10th June 2012, 08:39 PM

The session manager's job is to tell programs to save their state on log-out, and to reload those programs with a "cookie" on log-in. It is up to the individual programs to restore their internal state, using the session cookie as a code for identifying the state to restore (in theory, you can have multiple saved sessions and switch between them on the fly with a suitably complex session manager).

It looks like Nautilus doesn't do that properly (I just tested it here, same problem), so that's a bug.

dead online · #10 15th June 2012, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weitjong

I am still not able to figure out how to get there from Gnome 3, not via CLI. Any one know?

You can get there by
sudo nano (or vim, ...) /usr/share/applications/gnome-session-properties.desktop
and change NoDisplay=true to NoDisplay=false. You'll get a starter called "Startup Applications" in the application view

weitjong · #11 18th June 2012, 04:34 PM

Hi dead_online. Welcome to the forum and thanks for the information. It works.