Can't edit advanced effects or appearance

[OOHnirav]

I booted up Linux for the first time and decided to try diving head-first into the features. Unfortunately, that decision has lead to quite a bit of pain... Most recently: (posted this in the linuxmint forum, but I'm hoping for more help here)


I changed the advanced effects earlier today, but right now, any change I try to make has no effect. When I click on Preferences>Appearance, I get this message:

Unable to start the settings manager 'gnome-settings-daemon'.
Without the GNOME settings manager running, some preferences may not take effect. This could indicate a problem with Bonobo, or a non-GNOME (e.g. KDE) settings manager may already be active and conflicting with the GNOME settings manager.



I tried to run gnome-settings-daemon in the terminal and got this:

Code: Select all
nirav@Thor ~ $ gnome-settings-daemon

** ERROR **: You can only run one xsettings manager at a time; exiting

aborting...
Aborted



My settings say:

Code: Select all
nirav@Thor ~ $ ps -ef |grep settings
nirav 6412 6288 0 02:24 ? 00:00:05 gnome-settings-daemon
nirav 14982 14936 0 05:33 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --colour=auto settings



I'm really hoping that I don't have to get rid of 5 Gnome and have to start over... Does anyone know what I can do to remedy this?

[jmadero]

What kind of graphics card do you have?

Post the output of this:

lspci | grep VGA

[OOHnirav]

00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7150M (rev a2)

[jmadero]

what version of Linux? You need to install the nvidia driver (if you are using Ubuntu go to system, administration, hardware drivers). Most major distros have an easy way to install the driver. If you post what distro I can find instructions on how to get the nvidia driver installed --> without 3d rendering enabled through the driver no advanced effects will work

[OOHnirav]

what version of Linux? You need to install the nvidia driver (if you are using Ubuntu go to system, administration, hardware drivers). Most major distros have an easy way to install the driver. If you post what distro I can find instructions on how to get the nvidia driver installed --> without 3d rendering enabled through the driver no advanced effects will work

Well see, that's the problem. Advanced effects do work, but I am no longer able to change them for some reason. The version I use is Mint 5 Gnome Main.

EDIT: Nevermind guys, I just did a complete restore and things are working well now... I just won't download and mess with everything as much anymore.