KDE messed up in 2007 Free [solved]

[dude67]

I'm a real newbie and green to Linux world even though I have used Mandriva 2006 Free for almost a year now.

 

I updated to Mandriva 2007 Free a few days ago from a DVD-version DL'ed from an official site. Everything was great - all personal settings were fine and dandy. I'm using KDE as my major GUI. But KAT was a problem. I seem to remember de-activating KAT in 2006 also as it kept crashing.

 

Now it also crached KDE Daemon and I was unable to use my external USB mass memories (I have three external USB HDs - Brand LaCie). It either said that KDED is not running or Mediamanager was not installed. After I started KDED again, it usually worked fine. On other occasions I got the message "Permissions denied", when I tried to access my desktop shortcuts to the external USB HDs.

 

To see if an update would help I wanted to update to KDE 3.5.5 and had a go with the MDE 3.5.5 KDE through the directions from this post https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=36298&hl=

That really messed up my KDE...

I couldn't have multiple desktops, I couldn't move any of the windows that I opened, the last application was alway on top... And most likely some of the privileges were changed (if I remember correctly).

I tried to un-install KDE in total and managed that. At first I reinstalled KDE, but it was the same MDE version that was there earlier. I tried to unmark the MDE path from the update, but obviously I was unsuccessful.

 

Then I urpme'd again the whole KDE now using what what was suggested at MDE site: http://www.mde.djura.org/kde_install_2007_32.html

I used "init 3" to access non-graphical interface. I then uprme'd the whole KDE and urpmi'd it back again, using only the original (official) mirrors (and not from MDE path).

 

Now I'm unable to start any GUI: No Ice, no KDE, no Gnome - no nothing!

 

I booted the PC and got only text interface to Mandriva. No matter what I tried last night I couldn't get any graphical user interface running. I tried as a regular user and as root. Nothing.

 

It was kinda late in the evening, so I might have missed something, but any ideas are really welcome.

 

I would like to

1) Get the GUIs up and running

2) Get the old cofiguration of KDE back

3) Perhaps eventually get KDE 3.5.5 running. At least get my external USB HDs showing.

 

Help, please!

Edited December 7, 2006 by dude67

[dude67]

Update:

No change in the situation.

 

I tried re-installing 2007 from DVD - no luck. At first it said there was something wrong with the bootloader. There was an error saying that /dev/sdc1 could not be found. So I removed the reference to sdc1 (it was named alt2_windows2). Then no errors found in bootloader. Still no graphical user interface.

 

I then added MDE updates and ran urpmi --auto-select. Took awhile to DL everything - still no KDE or any other GUI.

 

When I type Xorg in console as su, I get a deep blue screen (not the BLUE SCREEN) with the cursor as an X in the center of the screen. And no, I'm not able to move the cursor.

 

What to do; how to get KDE running?

:wacko:

[AussieJohn]

Are you certain the problem is kde related ???.

If I were you, I would do a reinstall but this time include the basics of Gnome as well so you can attempt to log into GDM (Gnome) and hence Gnome desktop. If you cannot then it is evidence that the problem is common to both Desktop forms and the problem lies deeper.

It sounds like a video driver problem to me because it seems that X is not working. The fact that your machine worked with an earlier Mandriva version doesn't help or tell us anything and is irrelevant anyway.

 

You haven't told us anything about your system and its hardware and until you do most of us will not even know where to start.

 

John.

Edited December 8, 2006 by AussieJohn

[dude67]

Thanks AussiJohn, I'll try starting Gnome when I get home from work. Just to be sure: do I just type in GDM, or Gnome (or how do I start it up)? I'm sorry, but I'm fairly green to the console side of Linux... :o

 

No, I'm not sure it's kde, but it's kded I had problems with. It may be related to my display driver as you suggested.

 

One more thing: Last nigtht when I tried several times to get it up and running, I found that autofs failed to start. Does that tell you anything?

 

This is the basic HW:

Display card: Club 3D radeon X700 Pro 256 MB PCI-e (ATI)

Processor: Intel P4 HT 3.0 GHz

Motherboard: ABIT AG8V 3rd eye

Memory: 1024 Mb 400MHz DDR

System: Dual boot with WinXP Home & Madriva 2007 Free

[AussieJohn]

When you do the reinstall, in the post selection part that you do just before you finally reboot, select Gnome as the default.

This should boot you straight up to the Gnome login if all is Ok.

If you get to a login screen ok then at the bottom there is usually a tab you can press on to select the window manager of your choice. For Kde it is kdm and Gnome it is gdm

 

I note your video card is an ATI. This where other posters will need to come in since my experience is only with nvidia.

 

Select gdm.

 

We can start from there.

John.

Edited December 8, 2006 by AussieJohn

[ianw1974]

Did you check your ISO MD5SUM before you burnt the disk? Sounds like you could have a corrupted iso, and when burnt is causing you problems with your packages.

 

If you're a real newbie, I would forget trying to upgrade to KDE 3.5.5 for now until you've gotten used to using Linux a bit more first.

 

Did you upgrade from 2006? Or did you do a clean install? Upgrades can have little niggling problems, and it's better to do clean installs. Also, if you had KDE settings in your user directory, it's best to clear these and start with a fresh user directory so that you don't get problems because of KDE 3.4 settings trying to be used in KDE 3.5.x

[dude67]

I'll try that with the re-install, AussiJohn. Thanks.

 

Ian: No, I didn't... I know it was there, but I didn't check the sum. Do you reckon I should DL it anew and after verifying the checksum trying to install it again. If the MD5SUM doesn't match, I'd need to DL it again before burning it - is that it?

 

And yes, I upgraded. The thing is, I wanted to keep all the personal files and stuff (e.g. e-mails etc.). I thought that upgrading is the only way of keeping personal data - am I wrong in assuming that?

 

You may be right about the KDE 3.5.5 update thing. It was just that I was a bit frustrated with the problems I had and thought it might have helped. Well, it didn't...

 

One more note though on the ATI card: Is there something wrong with the ATI chips as I couldn't get 3D desktop running. I just got a message that it cannot be chosen for this card... In Win side it operates just great (I hate to say...). Perhaps ATI is not the best choise for Mandriva or Linux in general?

[ianw1974]

Normally, you can do this from the command prompt on a running Linux system:

 

md5sum nameofdownloadedimage.iso

 

and you can then match the output with the text file that was alongside the download iso to see if it matches.

 

If it does match, then you're all set to burn the disk and install.

 

Understand what you mean about keeping all your data and stuff. This is what I tend to do.

 

First, I boot my system in single user mode, or even from a LiveCD is good enough. When the /home partition is mounted, I rename my /home/ian to /home/ian.old.

 

I then start a new install of Mandriva 2007 for example, format the / partition, but I don't format /home - to keep the data. I then add my user "ian", which creates a new /home/ian but I still have /home/ian.old with all my files, etc. Then when I'm finished, I just copy the directories from /home, which for me is normally

 

/home/ian.old/Documents

/home/ian.old/Download

/home/ian.old/Music

/home/ian.old/Pictures

/home/ian.old/Video

 

I don't tend to have other folders, but if you do then copy these. The hidden folders, you never copy, unless of course it's emails like for Thunderbird, then you copy the .thunderbird folder to your new user BEFORE running Thunderbird for the first time. When you run it for the first time after copying, it automatically picks up all your emails, etc.

 

Of course, if not using Thunderbird, then you need the relevant directory for the app your using. That way, you get all your data, but you get rid of some config crap that might cause problems with the upgrade from KDE 3.4 to KDE 3.5. Although, an upgrade *should* migrate all the config files for you, but you never know if it does it right or not.

[dude67]

Thanks Ian for the tip, I'll try something along those lines, when I get a new copy of the 2007 Free. I'm DL'ing it currently in WinXP, but with BitTorrent it takes something like 24 hours to DL... I tried a direct DL of the iso, but it didn't work. In Mandriva I used KGET, which is a nice little programme for the purpose.

 

I couldn't get any GUI running, so there's something really wrong with the system. I tried with the rescue option, but it failed. There was some fatal error, but cannot remember what it was.

 

I'll let you know, when I get it burned (after verifying the md5sum... ) and try re-installing Mandriva 2007.

[ianw1974]

Find an app for Windows called md5summer, this will check the md5sums for you.

[mystified]

ian I don't understand why you do that. If /home is on a separate partition, which by default in Mandriva it is then all of your stuff is preserved and there's no need to do anything. It saves your desktop settings and everything. Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

[ianw1974]

Yes it's preserved, true, but the problem can come with conflicts from previous settings for Gnome/KDE for example.

 

Or even, if for example like today, I moved my system from Fedora to Mandriva. Whilst technically there might not be any problems, there is every chance there could be. If I move my ian to ian_old, I can create a clean ian directory, move my files over, without any conflicting config from previous installs of software.

 

For example, maybe Fedora 6 has later version of KDE. I then install Mandriva 2007, and have config files that are for a version of KDE higher than what I have with Mandriva. :)

[dude67]

I got a new copy of the Mandriva 2007 Free DVD. But it is all the same - no help. I cannot get any configuration option for the graphical UIs... I can only get the video card configuration options and they seem fine to me.

 

If /home is on a separate partition, which by default in Mandriva it is then all of your stuff is preserved and there's no need to do anything. It saves your desktop settings and everything. Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

Am I correct in assuming that I can make a total installation (OK, perhaps not formating /home partition) and still keep all my former data and files?

 

How do I start Gnome? I tried entering "gdm" and "gnome", but it didn't start anything. I didn't try Xorg this time around, but I'll try that again soon.

[Ixthusdan]

I see a multitude of misunderstanding in this thread.

First, I recommend forgetting what has been. Both mde and upgrades create plenty of issues without anything else.

In your /home/username directory, find the hidden files, .kde or .gnome, (notice the dot) and rename them . Your previous desktop settings are not going to work. Do a fresh install and then come back here. Do not do anything else.

There are several things at work here and in order to solve the issues, we need to slow down and take one step at a time.

There is nothing remarkable about the hardware, so the issue is probably misunderstanding. ;)

[mystified]

Am I correct in assuming that I can make a total installation (OK, perhaps not formating /home partition) and still keep all my former data and files?

 

Yes, as long as you don't reformat /home and it's on a separate partition everything there will remain untouched. If you do decide to remove your old .kde settings then open konqueror and chose view and you will see show hidden files so click on that. You'll see folder called .kde in your /home directory so delete that. KDE will automatically create a new .kde. You might wait to see if it causes a problems first though. I've upgraded from 10.1 to 2006 and still kept my old settings without a problem. HTH