Hallvard

Yippeee!!! :D I think I've solved the problem (more or less, and at least for now)... I first logged into "root" as usual (from the command line, then entering "startx"), and removed a few file names that I've heard mentioned in these discussions. I can't remember exactly which ones off-hand (maybe I should have taken a note of it!).... Anyway, I believe it was "kdm" and "kdebase" as well as other files starting with the same names. Then I reinstalled it (again, I should have taken notes as I might not have installed the same programs back), went to the Mandrake configuration panel to make sure the users were all set up etc. After a reboot I was able to get in via the login manager (though a different looking one than I've used in the past). So all's well, but being urged to reinstall Mandrake from scratch and not knowing exactly what I've done I have a feeling I'll have to do that sooner or later To prepare for backing things up, now or later, I have some questions: 1) Apart from the obvious "home" directories for each user, which folders do I need to look through to see if I've installed some additional files that won't come with the Mandrake installation? 2) Will a TAR'd file (as suggested here) survive being transferred to a Windows hard drive? I suppose that keeping everything inside a compressed file as this is (why not use ZIP by the way?) will protect it, bypassing any problems such as different naming formats etc. 3) CDs here) and I've set up each user as before it's time to decompress the TAR files for each user and put everything back where it's supposed to be. I suppose Mandrake creates a lot of default setup files, so what can I overwrite with my backup files, and what do I need to stay the way it is, so as not to mess up Mandrake again? 4) Anything else I need to keep in mind? I hope this is the last time I have to reinstall the whole operating system from scratch (I thought this kind of stuff only belonged to Windows).

I'm pretty sure I haven't, even though others have suggested that this might be the source of my problems as well. I'm worried about files that I may be missing out on, and programs I've installed. Is there a "log" file of stuff like that so I can check instead of guessing and trying to remember exatcly what I've placed where? I know I've added a lot of additional wallpaper files, and audio files etc. And those aren't in the "home" directories, so would I need to backup my entire Linux hard drive somehow? A real hassle. Well, if I can get it working again and it keeps working in the next month I won't have to mess around with reinstalling it all. I'll try to get this working first. As for "kdm-config" -it's not available via the "install" menu in KDE. I've set URPMI up to read from the installation CDs. I'm worried that I might be getting into problems by downloading stuff from the urpmi mirrors on the net. With the installation CDs I know I'm fine. Anyway, is the program actually called "kdm-config"? I also tried searching for "gendkconfig" without any positive results. Should it be part of the Mandrake 10.0 installation CDs?

Done, for all accounts. Didn't fix my problem though. I also added a new user, then selected it from the login manager. Same problem as before. After a few seconds I get returned to the login manager. Can someone tell me (in layman's terms please -I'm no hacker) what exactly goes on "under the hood" when a user logs in via the login manager? I'm not interested in the really deep stuff, but rather get an idea of which files are read/accesses, programs run etc. as I have no idea what the login manager does right now, so I don't even know where to begin to look.

Yes, but once I have the "properties" window open for one of the users' "home" directories, what is it exactly that I'm looking for? The ownership? Permissions? In case ownership is the thing to look for.... all user's "home" directories have their own names in both "user" and "group" ownership.

For some unknown reason a while back I was no longer presented with the Mandrake login manager, but instead a very basic login window, and then entering "Ice WM" instead of KDE as I've always used. I got some help with this and have now re-installed KDM which has given me the Mandrake login window as well as KDE back, but I'm no longer able to login via the login manager (this applies to all users including "root"). What happens is that I select the user I want and enter the password as usual, everything seems to work -the screen goes blank, changes colours etc. and I'm awaiting the "KDE loading" window, but instead I return to the login manager. I've tried this with all users -same result, and I'm sure I have the passwords right (if I didn't the login manager would tell me right away). So someone suggested to me I open the /etc/inittab file with a text editor and change the following line: id:5:initdefault to.... id:3:initdefault ... which I've done, resulting in a command-line interface login instead. So every time I boot into Linux now I enter the username and password from the command-line, which works perfectly. I then enter startx which starts KDE, gives me my usual desktop etc. :P Everything within KDE seems to work as before. It's just the login procedure which is a mess. So what could be wrong with the login manager? Some configuration files perhaps? As a relatively new Linux user I'm not too much into this command line and setup stuff, so I'm stuck and need help, please. Thanks.

Maybe I should do that. My biggest fear is of course that I find out after I've reinstalled Mandrake that I didn't back things up properly after all. I did a mistake this time around thinking I had backing up (by copying my "home" directory), then deleting the "invisible" files in my original home directory as suggested in this thread. Well, turns out that I hadn't made a backup of everything, but fortunately I had made an equally big mistake when trying to delete stuff, which I hadn't, so I was lucky and didn't lose all of my mail anyway! The second problem is that I simply don't know how I can possibly back up a huge directory such as my (and all other users') home directories -I usually back up my files to CD-RWs, but this will end up as a total mess and take forever. Would it be possible to say compress each user's home directories (so as to keep everything intact within one file), then place those backup files on the Windows hard drive (I can access the Windows ME harddrive from Linux). When I'm done reinstalling Linux I can copy those files back into Linux, then decompress them and try to put everything back into place. Phew!!!! I'd rather not go through all of that though. I think I'm going to create a new thread here about all of this as the subject is more precise now -I've narrowed down where the problem lies.

I don't think it had anything with the installation of new programs, but rather that I messed around with other things at the time. The two that I can think of: 1) I wanted to add new "login icons" (you know, the icons that represent each user in the Mandrake login window), and upon being told exactly where this directory was I found old, outdated users' icons, so I removed them, thinking I would do some "housecleaning". I also replaced one of the users' icons with a scanned image I did myself, only that in hindsight I see that I had the size wrong -I was misinformed about that. 2) I had installed the NVIDIA driver, which worked fine. But in order to get a "dualview" setup (i.e. watching DVDs from the computer on my TV, connected to the computer) I had to edit the "XFconfig-4" file, and got some help with this from a newsgroup, even though this is basically unknown territory for me. Could it be that these two things have caused all my problems? Yes, all the files and folders starting with "." in my home directory ("/home/hallvard/). Well, I also have stuff like my email messages there, which I definitely don't want to lose! I understand that these are programs' settings for that user, but surely, say a messed up setting for "Kmail" won't affect the login procedure. Besides, I created a new "test" user from scratch, and that didn't act in any different way than my existing accounts, so my guess is that it's either a missing application regarding the whole system, or the setup file(s) for the whole system are messed up. My biggest problem (apart from the obvious login problems) is that I don't have enough knowledge to know what all these different setup files do, such as "Xfconfig", "XFconfig-4", "inittab" and so on. Huh?? I was expecting something along the lines of: cp /home/backup_15_11-04/hallvard/.* /home/hallvard/ ... or something like that. I know enough to say that "cp" is the command for copying, but I'm frustrasted about not knowing the correct syntax, which is why I also find using the command line so irritating and frustrating. I used to mess a lot around with computers years ago, but now I'm more into using them as tools to get something else done if you know what I mean. Anyway, enough whining.... I understand that there's basically no way to get around using the command line when things get messed up like now, so I'm trying to do my best, so I can eventually get that graphical user-interface back!

Beats me. It's probably what came on the 10.0 CDs and what Mandrake 10.0 is built upon. Just done that now and it installed perfectly. I now have all 3 choices of login manager as before! I've tried the 3rd choice as well now (KDM -KDE Display Manager), but I'm still not able to log in. Same problem as before. Another question: I removed all my "." (invisible) files and folders from one of the users, but made a backup copy of that whole home directory (I hope I did it correctly). Now I want to copy back all the "." files and folders. How do I do that? The original home directory (where there are no "invisible" files/folders any longer) is /home/hallvard/ The backup (where I hopefully managed to back up everything, but not 100% sure as I'm not too experienced with Linux commands) is at: /home/backup_15_11_04/hallvard/ What I want to do is copy back only the "invisible" files and folders. I want to leave the rest alone in case I haven't managed to back everything up correctly.

Hmmmm..... that's strange. I enter the command, wait for around 6-7 seconds, then I get the prompt back, without any results or anything. kdebase-kdm-config-file-3.2-79mdk mdkkdm-9.2-21mdk # urpmi kdm Everything already installed # .... so not much information there. kdebase-kdm-3.2-79mdk I hope you're wrong. We'll see. I'm not sure what you mean. Should I enter "kdm" in the "search" area or manually browse through everything there?OK, if I do that, I get the same result as I've mentioned earlier in this reply: kdebase-kdm-config-file-3.2-79mdk mdkkdm-9.2-21mdk Moving on.... If I try to remove the first of the two ("kdebase-kdm-config-file-3.2-79mdk") I get the following dependencies (I wish I could simply copy/paste this, but there's no possibility to do that from the alert-window that comes up, so I have to enter it manually: Because of their dependecies, the following package(s) also need to be removed: kdebase-progs-3.2-79mdk, kdebase-servicemenu-10.0-7mdk, mdkkdm-9.2-21mdk, mdklaunchhelp-9.2-7mdk (CANCEL) (MORE INFO) (OK) Then... if I try to remove the second choice ("mdkkdm-9.2-21mdk") I get this: Because of their dependecies, the following package(s) also need to be removed: kdebase-kdm-config-file-3.2-79mdk, kdebase-progs-3.2-79mdk, kdebase-servicemenu-10.0-7mdk, mdklaunchhelp-9.2-7mdk (CANCEL) (MORE INFO) (OK) Phew! That's a lot of cryptic filenames to proof-read!

No, I got some help setting up the URPMI stuff so that I would use the CD-ROM drive instead of the Internet, so I did a "urpmi kdm" command as I had done (unsuccessfully) before, and this time it worked perfectly! This means that I now have 2 login manager choices: 1) MdkKDM (Mandrake Display Manager) 2) XDM (X Display Manager) I'm still missing the 3rd one though, which fellow Mandrake users have told me is: KDM (KDE Display Manager) Anyway, bypassing the login manager works fine, so my guess is that there's some sort of configuration problem. I know I've seen an option somewhere in the Mandrake configuration that allows you to set each users' default desktop (KDE, Gnome etc.) -where is it? Perhaps it'll help redefine what Mandrake should do with a user after the password/username has been entered.

One step further, closer to the goal I think.... :D Someone gave me a few suggestions which has brought some positive results: 1) I booted the Knoppix CD, then mounted the "hdb" (I think it was "hdb1", but it might have been "hdb6" -I forget) hard drive and made it able to write to. 2) From the command-line (Konqueror won't let me log in as root, or I haven't found a way to do that yet) I first do a "su" (super-user), then enter the command: kwrite /mnt/hdb1/etc/inittab 3) This opens up the "inittab" file where I change the following line from: id:5:initdefault to..... : id:3:initdefault .... and save the file of course! 4) Reboot into Linux, log in (as root or any other user) using the command-line. This logs me in! 5) I enter the command "startx" which starts KDE and my desktop appears! So what's left is the login manager. This is where I'm stuck.

OK, I've started Knoppix and have access to the "hdb" hard drive where Mandrake Linux and all my files are. But in order to fix all of this I'm guessing that I have two possibilities: 1) become a Linux expert so I know exactly which setup files I need to reconfigure by hand or.... 2) be myself (a "novice newbie", or maybe just even a newbie still) and somehow run the configuration programs from the Linux hard drive that affect all of this stuff. I would prefer option no. 2. But how (if it's possible at all) can I run programs from the Mandrake harddrive using the Knoppix desktop? :o I've tried running "kcontrol" for example, but that only starts Kcontrol from Knoppix, affecting Knoppix itself. I need to have it affect the users that are on my harddisk. As for re-installing everything from scratch. That's something I really don't want to get into unless I've exhausted every other possibility. I've put a lot of work into my Linux setup (with the help of other people online), and it would be hard to get everything back the way it was. So I'd rather not do this unless I'm absolutely sure there's no other way around it. Since I was so close the other day when I managed to get the KDE desktop to appear I feel that the solution is right around the corner :D

Disregard that question. I found out that by right-clicking on the "hdb6" desktop icon I got an option named "change read/write mode". I'm now busy making a backup copy of a user directory before I delete all the invisible files.

OK, I'm writing this from Knoppix (I can't believe a complete operating system including all the needed software can be installed and used from this single CD!) Anyway, I've tried to delete stuff from the harddisk, but I get an error message saying that it's a read-only system: root@ttyp0[hallvard_bak]# rm -rf .mcop rm: cannot remove `.mcop': Read-only file system root@ttyp0[hallvard_bak]# (I entered an "su" to enter as the root user after opening a command-line window) Is the read-only thingy because I've booted from the Knoppix CD (which of course is read-only)? Regarding "XFdrake". Sorry, I've tried so many things that I've forgotten to comment on everything. Yes, I believe I did try it, but I didn't have any success. Can't remember what happened: I think Mandrake didn't find it or something. Is there a way I can boot with the Knoppix CD, and access my hard drive as if I was booting into Mandrake itself? Is there a way I can create a Mandrake boot disk with only the minimal stuff on it? Or use the installation CD? I've used the "rescue" command to re-install the LILO bootloader, but perhaps the same CD can be used to give me the Linux command line, without the limitations that Knoppix seems to give. That way I could log into a user, delete the mentioned setup files, then try again. I really don't feel like giving in just yet, reinstalling Mandrake from scratch. I almost had it yesterday, but probably shouldn't have logged out right away without asking here first. As for the "dependency hell" stuff.... to me it seems like Mandrake refused to install "mdk" (after I had issued the "urpmi kdm" command) because the dependencies were wrong, meaning that nothing should have been installed. The software has probably been downloaded and is wasting space, but hasn't been installed. I say this because installing the same stuff directly from my Mandrake 10.0 installation CDs worked without a hitch, so I can't have done too much damage (I hope). That's why I don't want to reinstall all of this -after all, I've spent quite a lot of time setting everything up, downloading additional software (that I don't remember the names of now) etc.

But I can't log in! How can I do this in Konqueror when I can't even get past the Mandrake login window? I do have an idea though..... I may be completely misinterpreting the situation, but I have a feeling I've reinstalled everything I now need to make things work again, but in the process of it being damaged (not sure how that happened in the first place), some of the configuration files got damaged as well, as you're pointing out. So...... if I can only get access to the Linux files/folders I should be fine, right? I have an idea: I have this "Knoppix" CD which is Linux without any installation. I tried booting with it just a moment ago, and I was able to access the stuff on my hard drive, but there seems to be 2 partitions actually!!! Most of the stuff (including "root") seemed to be on "/mnt/hdb1/" while the users (in "home") seemed to be on "/mnt/hdb6". Strange as I always thought everything was on the same drive. In any case I think I'm able to access the drive in question. Does this help in any way?