Levrie Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 I'm Mandriva 2006+PP user having used MDK for several years and now I've experienced a very disturbing occurence. Whislt not a 'boffin' I've installed/unistalled via MCC software for several years without a problem. Last week I wanted to remove my openLDAP package and used MCC in the usual way. I selected just the 1 package and then..... MCC proceeded to removoe 450mb of software. I did not stop it as I thought that MCC was just reporting incorrectly. Mandriva2006 now boots only to ICEWM and whilst I can see my data is still there (thank heavens) I do not know how to recover my KDE desktop without a complete reinstall of Mandriva. Is this necessary? I then used the install disk to see if that would kick it all back in, I did not select the INSTALL nor the format partions option. Just the UPDATE. It then just proceeded as normal and changed nothing. Still booted to ICEWM. I've tried to startkde etc and now have reached my level of incompetence! Is there any way I can recover my KDE desktop without major surgery? I dont know how to do the install without MCC. All help appreciated! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misfitpierce Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Well inside iceWM you could maybe try reinstalling all the KDE files by URPMI'ing this: task-kde I asked how to add to gnome install and that does it so maybe if you redownload all the files it will allow you to select it from session manager at login screen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levrie Posted April 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Thanks for the suggestion. It did'nt work though. I need to know how to get the KDM working again via the command line and my cdrom as I have all the original cds. Any ideas? David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mhn Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Thanks for the suggestion. It did'nt work though. What didn't work? Do you get any error-message when installing or you mean you don't get to kdm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 As long as you can launch the MCC, you can reinstall the KDE desktop with a few clicks. I know it is annoying what happened to you, but it can be fixed easily. If you somehow uninstalled the mcc, the you can use urpmi from the terminal and install the draktools and/or KDE. "urpmq kde" will list all KDE packages. "urpmi kdebase" should install a basic KDE desktop, the full KDE stuff can be installed with urpmi kdebase kdeutils kdeaddons kdeaccessibility kdegames kdegraphics kdebase-kdm-config-file kdebase-kdm kdemultimedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levrie Posted April 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Thanks Arctic/Mhn I will try your suggestions and feedback later today. Some of the applications ie KMail Kontat work if I invoke from the command line so all is not lost!!! I just a little scared in case I damage the system any further as so far apart from KDM/Draktoos/MCC etc. All looks to be in place. Thanks chaps. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted April 15, 2007 Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Like artic says.. the best way is urpmi the missing KDE stuff.... the more you use the install CD IMHO the more chance of loosing actual data.... Remember to try the startkde from RL3.... when you do this.... its possible that even after its put back you might need to tweak the X config and kdm config to actually start it.... i.e., you could get to the pount of fixing it and not realise then keep doing stuff :D when its actually all-but-working and just needs the menu entry :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levrie Posted April 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Thanks Gowator/Artic et al I've tried the suggestions and the command line came back with 'required dependencies older than already installed...... y/n. I said no until I checked what the implications of the Y would be!!! Could I get caught in Dependency Hell? I'm encouraged that you guys don't think it's too much of a problem to sort out... I'm just a little timid. Gowator...... what do you mean by RL? and what's your thought's re the Menu entry? Can you provide a little more explicit help now you've seen the above cl response, guys? Thanks again David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted April 15, 2007 Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 When it asks for dependencies, answer with "yes". As I do not know exactly which packages you had (not) installed, I added the full KDE stuff list. Thus it might add the one or the other app which was not previously installed (including dependencies like some libraries). You can remove things again later if you want. But let's first try to reinstall the packages that you need for a working KDE desktop. Usually there is no dependency-hell. That dated back to the days before tools like urpmi, yum, smart et all were available and you had to install rpms manually one by one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted April 15, 2007 Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Gowator...... what do you mean by RL? and what's your thought's re the Menu entry? Sorry... I'll explain but don't get distracted... keep following artic for now... RL=run level (a linux machine usually has 5... and usually 4 is unused) .. 1= single user only 2= multiuser 3=with networking 5=GUI (0=stopped and 6= in reboot) these are not hard and fast, just conventions.... When each RL is reached it runs scripts which start services... so from 3->5 it should start kdm or the defined login manager (like xdm, gdm mdkdm)... even if that login manager fails it can prevent you starting from the CLI... because it just keeps running... indeed its prety much an endless loop until its killed... so if the worst happens in X it takes you back to login.... (or you press CTRL+ALT+BKSPC) or select restart X server etc. etc. So if you are trying to check if kde is working its best to make sure kdm isn't already running... you can just startkde.... (because when it is working this is the script will start it from the login manager).... Now the nice part.... you don't need to worry about the menu editing ... if you can get KDE running you can use the KDE control panel to select this... so really what Im saying is just concentrate on getting KDE up and running... then you can do the twiddly bits from the KDE GUI... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted April 16, 2007 Report Share Posted April 16, 2007 When you selected openldap to uninstall it using MCC it is obvious that you missed seeing the popup that would have Listed every dependency to be deleted as well. If you deleted it using cli then you are unlikely to get such warning. In the future you need to give close attention to this or you will do the same again sometime in the future. If you have a particular partition for /home and your data such as music and pictures etc on seperate partitions then you may save more time by simply doing a clean install. Going through the upgrade routine won't fix things. If you still have K3B still usable then to be extra sure, burn your important data to cds or dvd just to be extra safe. By the way, openldap is tied to a whole swag of packages especially kde stuff so it is no wonder you are presently in a pickle. Don't feel too bad. We all have done something like this ourselves in the past. Welcome to the club. :D Good luck. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted April 16, 2007 Report Share Posted April 16, 2007 John makes a good point.... if your data is safe sometimes a reinsatall is just quicker and easier... it really depends just how much you tweaked and stuff after install. Almost always my first install of ANY distro leaves a few things I'd like to change.... its just the nature of distro's ... One tip is to change the default for downloaded rpm's.... so instead of being deleted after urpmi installs them they are kept in the cache on /var... so long as you have plenty of space.... you can set the defaults to --noclean and then if you decide on a reinstall but you already spent a long time adding a few packages and downloading them you can really quickly reinstall the base and reinstall everything you had on top..... Not having used the new package manager GUI I'm not sure where to set this although it can be done by editing a config file, its proably available in the GUI too. If you deleted it using cli then you are unlikely to get such warning. Not really last time I used it it lists each package being upgraded or deleted... A text Y/N or a dialog box make little difference if the user can't be bothered to read them.... I should know...Ive done stuff like this myself both with and without the GUI.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levrie Posted April 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2007 Gentlemen, Thankyou all so far. I've carried on with Artic's suggestions and now have the following to report. This time I pressed yes after the urpmi kde.... etc. It than said the usual about older dependencies required ...... Still continue y/n. I answered yes and then.. It said 'all packages already loaded' and did absolutlely nothing. I can see most of my stuff but I do have some items in the / and various etc items and many that I've probably forgotten about as this install was Perfect until my ldap unistall. Bummer! I'm very careful before I press buttons and when I removed my ldapxxx there was no addtional warning to be seen. all my /home directories are intact. I would love to just reinstate my desktop. any more ideas? Soon to support Mandriva with another purchase too!!! Thanks chaps David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted April 17, 2007 Report Share Posted April 17, 2007 It said 'all packages already loaded' and did absolutlely nothing. Quite interesting. Either, the desktop is still there or the packages are stored in the cache and aren't used somehow. Please do the following first: We have to be sure that KDE really got uninstalled (As I see it, we haven't verified that yet). When the system boots up, please press CTRL+ALT+F1 in order to drop to the command line. Log in as root user and launch startx or startkde (in case starx launches IceWM) Alternatively you can try to start KDE apps like Konqueror or Kcontrol from IceWM. If KDE or the apps load, then we only have a configuration error that we have to fix. That would also explain why urpmi does not install the packages (because they are already in place). If If it does not start, then you should launch urpmi --clean urpmi kdebase kdeutils kdeaddons kdeaccessibility kdegames kdegraphics kdebase-kdm-config-file kdebase-kdm kdemultimedia the "--clean" command will clean the cache, so urpmi will download a fresh set of packages that will work well together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levrie Posted April 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2007 Artic, Thanks for sticking with this. I've done as you suggested. No luck with startkde etc When in the ICEwm I can load apps like Kmail Kontact but not Kontrol nor Konqueror, alas. Before I do the urpmi --clean etc. I thought I'd better refer back to you just in case you needed to know this! Regards David It said 'all packages already loaded' and did absolutlely nothing. Quite interesting. Either, the desktop is still there or the packages are stored in the cache and aren't used somehow. Please do the following first: We have to be sure that KDE really got uninstalled (As I see it, we haven't verified that yet). When the system boots up, please press CTRL+ALT+F1 in order to drop to the command line. Log in as root user and launch startx or startkde (in case starx launches IceWM) Alternatively you can try to start KDE apps like Konqueror or Kcontrol from IceWM. If KDE or the apps load, then we only have a configuration error that we have to fix. That would also explain why urpmi does not install the packages (because they are already in place). If If it does not start, then you should launch urpmi --clean urpmi kdebase kdeutils kdeaddons kdeaccessibility kdegames kdegraphics kdebase-kdm-config-file kdebase-kdm kdemultimedia the "--clean" command will clean the cache, so urpmi will download a fresh set of packages that will work well together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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