Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

Hi all,

I have been playing with my girlfriend's N800 for a few days now. It is an excellent machine, but since I'm a Linux geek I couldn't let it be. A couple of days ago, after installing a lot of power apps (osso-xterminal, mplayer, dropbear) I noticed that the UI was completely broken: only the text shows, while most widgets (buttons, scrollbars, sliders) have disappeared. A change of theme did nothing.

Two days ago I upgraded the little thing to OS2008 and everything was back to normal. But yesterday (after some more power-ifying) the interface was broken again, and I could swear that I did not install any of the same apps. Changing default theme from Echo does not help either.

I have searched this and other forums and there is nothing similar. Short of reinstalling the system I don't know what to do; but I would like to identify the culprit. What's going on? Anyone else noticing the same symptoms?

Attached is a screenshot of how the UI looks now. Notice the lack of screenbars or buttons; not pretty.

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

Maybe I'm too late, but I got the same problem :-(
I tried to reset the device (both "Restore Original Settings" and "Clear device" in Control Panel) and nothing changes. Setting any theme does not help.

Anybody can tell where Maemo keeps its settings? I thought the settings are in the home directory, but there's nothing there.

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

I hate to say this but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with this problem, and glad too, to say, I found my cure (ymmv). Go to thisURL
and grab the instructions and deb for installing bash. Once you have rm the symlink for /bin/sh to busybox. Then replace it with ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh. Reboot. (once you are sure the symlink is good.) Reboot . At this point for me I got my widgets to re-appear, in 2 months not a single problem, and no more lost widgets.

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

Ah damnit! It looks like something I have downloaded/installed used bash syntax in the post-install (or post-uninstall) scripts (incompatible with the syntax of the ash shell which is built into busybox).

I cured my problem by reflashing the OS (there was a newer version available anyway), but I'll install bash anyways - I'm feeling lost with the limited functionality of ash. But my last impression before reflashing was that some package just removed the image files for all themes from /usr/share/themes or whatever... so there were simply no images for button boundaries, scrollbars and alike...

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

The same thing happened to me, and I had to reflash. Strangely enough, the Application I though broke my UI, when I reinstalled the same App, nothing bad happened. Is this like some random problem that just happens?

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

linuxrebel's fix worked for me. What a weird problem..

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

With such symptoms, check if env var TMPDIR=/var/tmp, and dir exists/writable.

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

I've gotten this problem again, but this time in diablo. The bash fix does not work.

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

I had this problem, but my OS was due for a reflash anyway so I reflashed. I never knew what caused it; I'll keep linuxrebel's solution in mind, but it doesn't answer why it happened... What is there about bash that fixes your visual widgets?!

Re: Broken UI, invisible widgets
 

I also had a similar problem in that widgets (scrollbars in my case) disappeared. Just like qole, I ended up reflashing.