KDE is mostly dead [solved]

[lrsach01]

I've done something bad. Yesterday I ran Update and had several kde updates to run. So I did. Unfortunately, when I started my computer up this morning, I've lost most of the KDE functions. Al most all of my menu items are gone. I cannot run anything from the main menu. In the task bar, OPen Office, terminal, XMMS are all gone and replaced with a folder that has "Taks Management" and "Communications" subfolders. The only Icon I have left is Firefox. Everything seems to be OK accept the menu stuff. I was able to get a command line by using the "Run Command" from the main menu (its the only thing that runs) and running "kdesu konqueror." From there I was able to call a terminal. now what? Did my update have anything to do with the problem? How do I get the menus back? What about starting the Menu Editor from the command line?

[ChrisM]

What version of Mandrake are you using?

 

When you say things are gone - what do you mean (i.e have they been replaced with another icon, or gone altogether?)

 

On mdk9.2 there is a bug which when you install, replaces menu icons - this can be recovered.

 

A couple weeks ago using mdk10.1, I ran an update and lost a number of apps (firefox/thunderbird/staroffice 7)/email settings/bookmarks/work - never been able to recover any of them.

 

Back using an old box with 9.2 at the mo.

[lrsach01]

I'm using 10.1.

 

All the menus look as if they are limited default menus.

 

Multimedia has only the sound submenu. Sound has only Amarok. The rest are similar. Only one or two programs remain. All menu icons have been replaced with the default folder icon.

[ChrisM]

If the icons have been replaced with the little blue folder, it sounds similar to the 9.2 problem. This can be recovered (well, it can in 9.2 anyway). I'm not saying this will work in 10.1. I'm not sure it will return missing apps though. If you do it, make sure you back all your data up first.

 

---

 

1) Reboot, at lilo prompt press ESC key

2) at the new screen type 'linux 3' (without the ' ' )

3)su>root

4)type: update-menus -v (after a while this may appear to hang, just press enter key for it to continue)

5)exit from su

 

6)enter username & pswd

7)again, type: update-menus -v (and as per above)

8)exit

9)type: startx

 

(and just to be doubly sure, MCC>bugfix/security update)

 

This should at least return your application icons (well, as I say, it works for 9.2).

 

It might be worth hanging fire and seeing if you get any other suggestions.

[kmack]

There are a couple rpm's missing right now that are making this a bit of a hassle. Apparently some configs get hit worse than others. I have a couple new quirks after updating, but not as bad as yours.

 

I expect in a couple days there will be some fixes to this, but the weekend will slow things down. Several have reported this to Mdk Security maillist and to the KDE maintainer. Wish I had better news than this, but that is the skinny. If desperate, guess you could uninstall kde and go back to the previous version, but that is a bit touchy to do unless you feel very comfortable with cli or using another desktop manager.

 

Maybe they will get us 3.3 faster and that will redo things too.

[lrsach01]

Thanks ChrisM!

I didn't get all of my icons back, but I did get 99.9% back. :) Mainly I lost a few from the panel. No biggie. Thaks a bunch!

[ChrisM]

Glad to hear it worked out :)