[SOLVED] Appbrowser won't load apps!

[philip]

I'm trying TC_1.3rc2, but this problem is also available in TC_1.2.

Symptoms: Appbrowser starts nicely in the X session, connects and lists TCE extensions no problem, but clicking the "Install" button triggers the disappointing popup, "An Error Occurred. Try Later." Obedient to a fault, I have tried many times, and waited for Much Later, all without success.

Background: This is all happening on a thin client that can't see the network with the default TC kernel. I boot with a different 2.6.26 kernel built for Gentoo, but use the TinyCore initrd straight from the factory. That works, mostly, but I don't get all the way to an X session on the first try. I get the console instead, with user tc logged in. Then I start X by saying "sudo ./.xsession". There is some stuff kicking around in a backup on /dev/sda3. That seems to get pulled in OK; in particular, my static IP address is getting remembered and loaded OK and networking is functional. (Without it, I would never see the latest apps listed in appbrowser.)

Questions: Is there some way to learn What Error Occurred in the appbrowser? Could my problem be a permissions issue? Which user is supposed to be running the appbrowser, the X session, etc? Why doesn't a command line intervention like "tce-load xonclock.tce wget install" seem to do anything? Should I be asking better questions?

Thanks for any ideas you may have.

[curaga]

The error might be because you are running things as root; variables might be pointing to the wrong way.

For tce-load, it has a check to not run as root.

[neonix]

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=782.0

[philip]

For tce-load, it has a check to not run as root.

Thank you! That's the key observation. Finding a way to run as some non-root user (like "tc") solved my problem.

Somehow my file /home/tc/.xsession had gotten itself an owner of 'root' and permission bits of (octal) 700. That made it impossible for user tc to start the X server. The problem didn't go away across reboots because the whole directory /home/tc is backed up every time ... flaky ownership and permissions intact. Changing the permissions on the .xsession file and restarting the X server as user tc has me back in business.

I'll mark this thread solved. Thanks again.

[neonix, thanks for pitching in. My save device /dev/sda3 is a partition on a USB key, so I have rw access. The thread you quoted appears to target a problem different from the one I reported.]