Hello,
I’ve installed Debian 12 with Gnome Desktop, while removing Evolution, gnome was also deleted, so I installed it but now it doesn’t look the same. The text on the right panel of the settings menu looks pretty bad. Is there a way to revert all changes to its default settings as it appears on a freshly Debian install?
Hi, removing evolution should not remove GNOME. Maybe removing evolution-data-server does, though. What exactly did you “install”? What does “pretty bad” mean exactly?
Hi Andre,
I did:
$sudo apt remove evolution
Log:
Start-Date: 2025-08-08 17:17:21
Commandline: apt remove evolution
Requested-By: joe (1000)
Remove: gnome:amd64 (1:43+1), evolution-plugins:amd64 (3.46.4-2), evolution-plugin-pstimport:amd64 (3.46.4-2), evolution-plugin-bogofilter:amd64 (3.46.4-2), evolution:amd64 (3.46.4-2)
End-Date: 2025-08-08 17:19:02
I then did:
$sudo apt install gnome
Log:
Start-Date: 2025-08-08 17:23:39
Commandline: apt install gnome
Requested-By: joe (1000)
Install: gnome:amd64 (1:43+1), evolution-plugins:amd64 (3.46.4-2, automatic), evolution-plugin-pstimport:amd64 (3.46.4-2, automatic), evolution-plugin-bogofilter:amd64 (3.46.4-2, automatic), evolution:amd64 (3.46.4-2, automatic)
End-Date: 2025-08-08 17:25:16
And here is what I mean by pretty bad 
:
Those are the System Settings; That’s unrelated to Evolution and its settings. Indeed, the spacing looks broken. Is there anything in system logs?
Also, if “apt remove evolution” in Debian removes GNOME then please file a bug report in Debian’s issue tracker.
System Logs: (Between the time I accidentally uninstalled gnome and reinstalled it):
Aug 08 17:17:08 white sudo[4584]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
Aug 08 17:17:29 white dbus-daemon[606]: [system] Failed to activate service ‘org.freedesktop.fwupd’: timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Aug 08 17:17:33 white PackageKit[3824]: get-updates transaction /48_cccdbece from uid 1000 finished with success after 2417ms
Aug 08 17:17:36 white fwupd[4583]: 07:17:36.223 FuEngine no GUIDs for device TPM [dfb1a4db3787a1799167fb68010ef732c71041f9]
Aug 08 17:17:36 white fwupd[4583]: 07:17:36.316 FuPluginDfu truncated DFU interface data, no bcdDFUVersion
Aug 08 17:17:37 white fwupd[4583]: 07:17:37.055 FuPluginIntelMe failed to get public key using /fpf/OemCred: generic failure [0x9e]
Aug 08 17:17:39 white fwupd[4583]: 07:17:39.450 FuEngine failed to add device /sys/devices/pnp0/00:01/tpm/tpm0: failed to initialize TPM
Aug 08 17:17:41 white systemd[1]: Started fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon.
Aug 08 17:17:41 white fwupd[4583]: 07:17:41.964 FuPluginPciMei ME family not supported for 0:7.1.30.1142
Aug 08 17:17:50 white systemd[1]: fwupd.service: Deactivated successfully.
Aug 08 17:17:50 white systemd[1]: fwupd.service: Consumed 1.287s CPU time.
Aug 08 17:18:25 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (1670754) is greater than comparison timestamp (1670752). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around…
Aug 08 17:18:25 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: W44 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 1670754. Working around…
Aug 08 17:18:25 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (1671401) is greater than comparison timestamp (1671398). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around…
Aug 08 17:18:25 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: W44 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 1671401. Working around…
Aug 08 17:18:26 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (1672061) is greater than comparison timestamp (1672058). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around…
Aug 08 17:18:26 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: W44 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 1672061. Working around…
Aug 08 17:19:02 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Extract’ unit=‘tracker-extract-3.service’ requested by ‘:1.13’ (uid=1000 pid=1491 comm=“/usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs-3”)
Aug 08 17:19:02 white systemd[1349]: Starting tracker-extract-3.service - Tracker metadata extractor…
Aug 08 17:19:02 white sudo[4584]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Aug 08 17:19:03 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Extract’
Aug 08 17:19:03 white systemd[1349]: Started tracker-extract-3.service - Tracker metadata extractor.
Aug 08 17:19:07 white dbus-daemon[606]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.freedesktop.fwupd’ unit=‘fwupd.service’ requested by ‘:1.92’ (uid=1000 pid=1788 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-software --gapplication-service”)
Aug 08 17:19:07 white systemd[1]: Starting fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon…
Aug 08 17:19:08 white fwupd[4662]: 07:19:08.852 FuEngine no GUIDs for device TPM [dfb1a4db3787a1799167fb68010ef732c71041f9]
Aug 08 17:19:08 white fwupd[4662]: 07:19:08.957 FuPluginDfu truncated DFU interface data, no bcdDFUVersion
Aug 08 17:19:09 white fwupd[4662]: 07:19:09.817 FuPluginIntelMe failed to get public key using /fpf/OemCred: generic failure [0x9e]
Aug 08 17:19:11 white fwupd[4662]: 07:19:11.355 FuEngine failed to add device /sys/devices/pnp0/00:01/tpm/tpm0: failed to initialize TPM
Aug 08 17:19:11 white dbus-daemon[606]: [system] Successfully activated service ‘org.freedesktop.fwupd’
Aug 08 17:19:11 white systemd[1]: Started fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon.
Aug 08 17:19:11 white fwupd[4662]: 07:19:11.715 FuPluginPciMei ME family not supported for 0:7.1.30.1142
Aug 08 17:19:12 white PackageKit[3824]: get-updates transaction /49_bacdaeba from uid 1000 finished with success after 439ms
Aug 08 17:19:24 white sudo[4677]: joe : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/joe ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/apt remove evolution
Aug 08 17:19:24 white sudo[4677]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
Aug 08 17:19:25 white sudo[4677]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Aug 08 17:20:10 white systemd[1349]: vte-spawn-7df1c902-e863-40e8-9392-ede91436fe8f.scope: Consumed 25.229s CPU time.
Aug 08 17:20:10 white systemd[1349]: gnome-terminal-server.service: Consumed 3.573s CPU time.
Aug 08 17:20:12 white systemd[1]: fwupd.service: Deactivated successfully.
Aug 08 17:20:12 white systemd[1]: fwupd.service: Consumed 1.219s CPU time.
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white systemd[1349]: Starting gnome-terminal-server.service - GNOME Terminal Server…
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Characters’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.clocks’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.gnome.Terminal’ unit=‘gnome-terminal-server.service’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:20:23 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (1788979) is greater than comparison timestamp (1788903). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around…
Aug 08 17:20:23 white gnome-shell[1541]: Window manager warning: W44 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 1788979. Working around…
Aug 08 17:20:23 white nautilus[2756]: Source ID 64802 was not found when attempting to remove it
Aug 08 17:20:24 white systemd[1349]: Started app-gnome-firefox\x2desr-4723.scope - Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 08 17:20:25 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:20:25 white PackageKit[3824]: resolve transaction /50_ddaedcab from uid 1000 finished with success after 781ms
Aug 08 17:20:25 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:20:25 white gnome-calculato[4700]: search-provider.vala:117: Failed to spawn Calculator: Child process killed by signal 9
Aug 08 17:20:25 white gnome-calculato[4700]: search-provider.vala:117: Failed to spawn Calculator: Child process killed by signal 9
Aug 08 17:20:26 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.clocks’
Aug 08 17:20:26 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Characters’
Aug 08 17:20:26 white gnome-character[4702]: JS LOG: Characters Application started
Aug 08 17:20:26 white gnome-character[4702]: JS LOG: Failed to search by keywords: Operation was cancelled
Aug 08 17:20:26 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:20:30 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Terminal’
Aug 08 17:20:30 white systemd[1349]: Started gnome-terminal-server.service - GNOME Terminal Server.
Aug 08 17:20:36 white gnome-character[4702]: JS LOG: Characters Application exiting
Aug 08 17:20:39 white dbus-daemon[606]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.freedesktop.timedate1’ unit=‘dbus-org.freedesktop.timedate1.service’ requested by ‘:1.129’ (uid=1000 pid=4723 comm=“/usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr”)
Aug 08 17:20:39 white systemd[1]: Starting systemd-timedated.service - Time & Date Service…
Aug 08 17:20:40 white dbus-daemon[606]: [system] Successfully activated service ‘org.freedesktop.timedate1’
Aug 08 17:20:40 white systemd[1]: Started systemd-timedated.service - Time & Date Service.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 6 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 6 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 6 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 6 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Successfully made thread 4917 of process 4723 owned by ‘1000’ RT at priority 10.
Aug 08 17:20:43 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:44 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:44 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:44 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:44 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:47 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:47 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:48 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:20:48 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:21:11 white systemd[1]: systemd-timedated.service: Deactivated successfully.
Aug 08 17:21:11 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:21:11 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:22:15 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:22:15 white rtkit-daemon[779]: Supervising 7 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Aug 08 17:22:17 white systemd[1349]: app-gnome-firefox\x2desr-4723.scope: Consumed 44.827s CPU time.
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.Characters’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white systemd[1349]: Starting gnome-terminal-server.service - GNOME Terminal Server…
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating service name=‘org.gnome.clocks’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.gnome.Terminal’ unit=‘gnome-terminal-server.service’ requested by ‘:1.32’ (uid=1000 pid=1541 comm=“/usr/bin/gnome-shell”)
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:22:20 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.clocks’
Aug 08 17:22:20 white nautilus[2756]: Source ID 66148 was not found when attempting to remove it
Aug 08 17:22:21 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Characters’
Aug 08 17:22:21 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider’
Aug 08 17:22:21 white nautilus[2756]: Source ID 66156 was not found when attempting to remove it
Aug 08 17:22:21 white gnome-character[5234]: JS LOG: Characters Application started
Aug 08 17:22:22 white PackageKit[3824]: resolve transaction /51_bccedeea from uid 1000 finished with cancelled after 300ms
Aug 08 17:22:22 white systemd[1349]: Started app-gnome-org.gnome.Terminal-5311.scope - Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug 08 17:22:22 white gnome-software[1788]: internal error: failed, but no error code: cancelled
Aug 08 17:22:22 white dbus-daemon[1380]: [session uid=1000 pid=1380] Successfully activated service ‘org.gnome.Terminal’
Aug 08 17:22:22 white systemd[1349]: Started gnome-terminal-server.service - GNOME Terminal Server.
Aug 08 17:22:24 white gnome-shell[1541]: meta_window_set_stack_position_no_sync: assertion ‘window->stack_position >= 0’ failed
Aug 08 17:22:25 white systemd[1349]: Started vte-spawn-2611fa5d-a778-40c9-8438-86844d5a4c41.scope - VTE child process 5350 launched by gnome-terminal-server process 5229.
Aug 08 17:22:31 white gnome-character[5234]: JS LOG: Characters Application exiting
Aug 08 17:22:45 white sudo[5372]: joe : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/joe ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/apt install gnome
Aug 08 17:22:45 white sudo[5372]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by (uid=1000)
That screenshot looks like what happens when setting the GTK_THEME environment variable. Maybe that’s something you did by editing the .bashrc (or something like that) before a restart and then it only started causing problems after a restart.
Yes, I do remember playing around with ~/.config/gtk-3/settings.ini and ~/.config/gtk-4/settings.ini trying to get qalculate to have the dark theme. But I switched them back as they were. Both directories (gtk-3 and gtk-4) contain settings.ini and both are same with:
[Settings]
gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme=0
Debian package gnome is just a meta-package that depends on the standard distribution of the GNOME desktop environment (which includes evolution), so it’s absolutely correct that removing it’s dependency package evolution will also remove packager gnome. That should have zero impact on the OP’s desktop (except for the missing evolution, of course).
1 Like
Thank you Roderich, I wasn’t aware of this, I assumed gnome was the gnome desktop environment. I’ve updated the bugreport to reflect this.
This topic was automatically closed 45 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.