Metacity doesn't start / load when logging in (Debian)

So for some strange reason, (could be b/c I was installing things for conky?), after a reboot (left the suspend|hibernate|reboot|shutdown popup over 60sec so it shutdown automatically >_<;) metacity didn't start and I had to do a manual startup. So if you're in this situation then you've come to the right place. I went thru hoops to find it but here is a link to the bug report and yes I know it's for Ubuntu but it did solve my issue. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/metacity/+bug/550082

For some reason or another, something put in "Hidden = true" into my ~/.local/share/applications/metacity.desktop and that screwed up metacity's loading.

so instead of deleting the whole file, just delete that one line.
reboot and you should see your window borders again ;)

How to change the login screen / background for gnome (GDM3) the easy way (Debian Squeeze)

Like you, I've messed with the alternatives directory the /etc/gdm directory etc etc.

But I stumbled on an easy way to change the login screen wallpaper.

1. cd into /usr/share/images/desktop-base

2. Rename login-background.svg to what it really should be or whatever you want... spacefun-login.svg or ugly.login-bkgrd.svg.

3. Make a new symlink to the wallpaper you want, to /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg

e.g. ln -s /path/to/new/background /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg

That should do it. I've checked with a few different pictures and every time I log out, it shows the new linked background.

cheers.