[Software] Very few programs opening - consistent error message

[BlackOwl]

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root@9600k:~# ls -l /etc/profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 828 Nov 22 18:04 /etc/profile

That file can and will be updated by system updates. Probably best to leave it alone. Put your edits in ~/.profile.

That does make sense. So if I'm trying to launch games from the desktop and not just a terminal, what do I do?

[RedGreen925]

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root@9600k:~# ls -l /etc/profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 828 Nov 22 18:04 /etc/profile

That file can and will be updated by system updates. Probably best to leave it alone. Put your edits in ~/.profile.

It appears the OP or some software has altered the default file which you would know if you had read the thread. Or I think this is what the problem is, they have not posted to confirm this but the symptoms indicate it. I showed the stock Debian file I have installed and advised a restoration to this default file to correct the broken PATH now being set.. The OP also advises that the solution I proposed of setting the PATH in the ~/.profile to include the /usr/games does not work for a graphical starting of the games only in the terminal starting.

[RedGreen925]

That does make sense. So if I'm trying to launch games from the desktop and not just a terminal, what do I do?

Confirming the stock Debian file has not been altered is the place to start with it restored to its original state, the file I posted above, the PATH will be correctly set. Without seeing it it is the only place I can think of where it goes wrong.

[BlackOwl]

So currently /etc/profile looks like this:

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# /etc/profile: system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell (sh(1))
# and Bourne compatible shells (bash(1), ksh(1), ash(1), ...).

if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
  PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
else
  PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games"
fi
export PATH

if [ "${PS1-}" ]; then
  if [ "${BASH-}" ] && [ "$BASH" != "/bin/sh" ]; then
    # The file bash.bashrc already sets the default PS1.
    # PS1='\h:\w\$ '
    if [ -f /etc/bash.bashrc ]; then
      . /etc/bash.bashrc
    fi
  else
    if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
      PS1='# '
    else
      PS1='$ '
    fi
  fi
fi

if [ -d /etc/profile.d ]; then
  for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
    if [ -r $i ]; then
      . $i
    fi
  done
  unset i
fi

[RedGreen925]

So currently /etc/profile looks like this:

That appeared to be the stock file with the /usr/games in the PATH. It appears something is altering the PATH to remove the /usr/games. Try this at the window where you login in use the CTRL + ALT + F3 keys at the same time to get a console login. There put in your user name and password and use the command echo $PATH and see if the /usr/games is at the very end of it. If not then something during booting up messes with it as it should be there on fresh boot having been set by the /etc/profile been read when you login, though now I think if any of the files sourced by a login are messing with it then it can be altered by the login. This console idea only works if some of the graphical files sourced on login are doing it. I am rapidly running out of ideas on this one. Try booting with a live Debian USB and see if the path is correct there. If you do the console idea a CTRL + ALT + F7 keys at the same time should get you back to the graphical login or a sudo pkill X to kill off the X server and have it respawn showing the screen. Have you installed any software from outside the Debian repositories lately before this started to happen?

[BlackOwl]

A few programs, yes, but they've all been installed via Wine. Does that make a difference?

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/usr/games:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

[RedGreen925]

A few programs, yes, but they've all been installed via Wine. Does that make a difference?

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/usr/games:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

Now that is showing the correct PATH now with the addition from the ~/.profile showing as well. Are the games not launching graphically started from the wine?

[BlackOwl]

No, they are the only games that are launching correctly. The ones that aren't launching were installed from Debian repositories - AisleRiot being the most prominent example.

[RedGreen925]

No, they are the only games that are launching correctly. The ones that aren't launching were installed from Debian repositories - AisleRiot being the most prominent example.

Alright I downloaded ad checked it out the sol.desktop file in the /usr/share/applications directory is responsible for launching it. Let us try editing the file copied to the ~/.local/share/applications directory.

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zeus@9600k:~/Downloads/folder$ ls -l
total 3704
1848 -rw-rw-r-- 1 zeus zeus 1891076 Feb 21 00:11 aisleriot_3.22.23-1_amd64.deb
  44 -rw-r--r-- 1 zeus zeus   44320 Feb 21 00:12 control.tar.xz
1804 -rw-r--r-- 1 zeus zeus 1846564 Feb 21 00:12 data.tar.xz
   4 -rw-r--r-- 1 zeus zeus       4 Feb 21 00:12 debian-binary
   4 drwxr-xr-x 6 zeus zeus    4096 Jun  3  2022 usr/
zeus@9600k:~/Downloads/folder$ ls -l usr/share/applications/sol.desktop 
16 -rw-r--r-- 1 zeus zeus 13366 Jun  3  2022 usr/share/applications/sol.desktop

There you can see I downloaded the packages from the packages.debian.org site and made directory to extract it in. Now for your machine do.

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cp /usr/share/applications/sol.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

To copy the file then.

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nano ~/.local/share/applications/sol.desktop

To edit the file changing the lines.

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Name=AisleRiot Solitaire
Comment=Play many different solitaire games
Exec=sol

To.

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Name=AisleRiot Solitaire edited
Comment=Play many different solitaire games edited
Exec=/usr/games/sol

So when the duplicate pops up in the menus you have way to tell which has been edited to try. Once done with the edits use the CTRL + x keys at same time to attempt to quit application answer y for yes when asked to save the modified buffer then ENTER key to save the file. You should now be able to go into the menu and select the edited version of the file to start the game. Give it a go and see if hard wired path in the .desktop does it.

[FreewheelinFrank]

Why so many languages and fonts? Did you install from a live image? They seem to install every language under the sun.

Does it run in a terminal?

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$ sol

Take a look at the .desktop files in your own /usr/share/applications; many will include the localization strings so all menu items and comments don't appear in English worldwide (though Star Trek says we won't need that in the future). Though how many translations depends on who provides the .desktop file; GNOME really puts an effort into theirs. Debian's own packagesearch...none at all.

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[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Debian Package Search
Comment=Search for packages and view package information
Exec=packagesearch
Icon=packagesearch
Type=Application
Categories=PackageManager;System;Settings;Qt;

My bad. It's been a while since I've looked in there.

[BlackOwl]

You should now be able to go into the menu and select the edited version of the file to start the game. Give it a go and see if hard wired path in the .desktop does it.

Affirmative. Hard-coding the path got it working from the menu.

Hopefully that gives an idea of where to go next, hopefully I don't have to do that for e v e r y s i n g l e g a m e . . .

[RedGreen925]

Affirmative. Hard-coding the path got it working from the menu.

Hopefully that gives an idea of where to go next, hopefully I don't have to do that for e v e r y s i n g l e g a m e . . .

Actually leaves me more puzzled than ever. It appears the PATH is correct in the /etc/profile, the change made to the ~/.profile shows up in it but yet the games in the PATH do not launch unless hard-coded for the directory they are in. This makes zero sense to me as they should be working the same as everything else you launch from a .desktop file that gets shown in the menus. I am not sure of the next step here as the only thing left I see is what you mention last every single one that does not work put edited file in the .local directory. Either this or a new test install or perhaps new user on current install to see if it works there, the new user if it works would confirm some kind of configuration in the old /home directory causing it to fail. Now if doing the new user there are two commands the adduser and useradd one of them it totally useless for the purpose of creating a user that has a close to usable configuration for desktop use, I forget which one it is. Even then you want to make certain that the groups of the original user are duplicated on the new account, except of course for the old user name group. This is all I can see left to try.

[BlackOwl]

I think I may have found another clue. Testing the games with a new user yielded the following results.

When a new user was created, the desktop environment defaulted to GNOME. I ran the games under GNOME and they worked. I ran them under Plasma Wayland (KDE has always been my preferred environment), and the games failed.

Switching back to the old user, I tried switching the environment to GNOME and the games began working again.

This must mean the underlying issue is caused by my choice of desktop environment.

[RedGreen925]

I think I may have found another clue. Testing the games with a new user yielded the following results.

When a new user was created, the desktop environment defaulted to GNOME. I ran the games under GNOME and they worked. I ran them under Plasma Wayland (KDE has always been my preferred environment), and the games failed.

Switching back to the old user, I tried switching the environment to GNOME and the games began working again.

This must mean the underlying issue is caused by my choice of desktop environment.

Yes indeed it does indicate the Desktop is doing it or the combination of both of them installed does it. Which having just cloned my install and booted that external SSD confirms that for me at least. I installed the aisleriot package with that SSD booted on my test machine and it fired right up. This machine has nothing installed from the Gnome on it as I cannot stand that desktop only packages needed to run GTK packages on KDE are installed. So I think think this solves the mystery Gnome installed with KDE on your machine prevents its proper operation in regards to the games running under KDE.

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root@8400:~# agi aisleriot
Installing:                     
  aisleriot

Installing dependencies:
  enchant-2                      libneon27t64
  fonts-dejavu                   libnice10
  fonts-dejavu-extra             libonnx1t64
  gstreamer1.0-libav             libonnxruntime1.19.2
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad       libopenh264-7
  libavtp0                       libopenni2-0
  libcanberra-gtk3-0             libpthreadpool0
  libcanberra-gtk3-module        libraptor2-0
  libcpuinfo0                    libre2-11
  libdnnl3                       libsoundtouch1
  libenchant-2-2                 libspandsp2t64
  libgssdp-1.6-0                 libsrtp2-1
  libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0  libvo-aacenc0
  libgupnp-1.6-0                 libvo-amrwbenc0
  libgupnp-igd-1.6-0             libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0
  libhandy-1-0                   libwildmidi2
  libharfbuzz-icu0               libxnnpack0
  libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-0     libyajl2
  liblrdf0                       libyelp0
  libltc11                       libzbar0t64
  libmanette-0.2-0               xdg-dbus-proxy
  libmjpegutils-2.1-0t64         yelp
  libmpeg2encpp-2.1-0t64         yelp-xsl
  libmplex2-2.1-0t64

Suggested packages:
  gnome-cards-data     liblrdf0-dev       libwildmidi-config
  frei0r-plugins       raptor2-utils
  libenchant-2-voikko  gstreamer1.0-alsa

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 48, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
  Download size: 58.1 MB
  Space needed: 242 MB / 23.1 GB available

Continue? [Y/n] y

aisle.png (268.44 KiB) Viewed 18 times

Edit: If you have spare drive to do test install on you can confirm this yourself. Do fresh install making certain to install only the KDE desktop no Gnome selected or the Desktop environment selected either. That last option selected will still install the Gnome too I think anyways I never do that method. I go with basic utilities and ssh server then install what I want to reduce the bloat of unnecessary programs installed I will never use. Boot into the KDE desktop and install the game and attempt to use it, it should just start like it did for me.