Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Lisi
Am Donnerstag, 6. Oktober 2011 schrieb Lisi:
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Look at the logs (/var/log/messages), if nothing's in it, run memtest. Could be a good idea to make a backup ...
Nik
Lisi
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On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:32:50 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Am Donnerstag, 6. Oktober 2011 schrieb Lisi:
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Look at the logs (/var/log/messages), if nothing's in it, run memtest. Could be a good idea to make a backup ...
Thanks, Nik. Will run memtest overnight. I'll look into logs in the morning.
Lisi
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Lisi
I would strongly suggest checking the RAM and your hard disk both for any problems. KDE3.5 and Lenny, while outdated, are very stable.
Tim
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:33:14 Timothy Pearson wrote:
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Lisi
I would strongly suggest checking the RAM and your hard disk both for any problems.
Thanks, Timothy. I checked the RAM over-night. HDDs (1 for /, 1 for /home) will be checked over the next 2 nights, probably in that order.
KDE3.5 and Lenny, while outdated, are very stable.
I know - that is why I continue to use them. This is why my first thought was hardware.
I'm outdated, my desktop is outdated, Lenny and KDE 3.5.10 just complete the picture. ;-)
Lisi
Hi Lisi
Try creating a new user and see if it happens again. If it doesn't your share directory is messed up. Rename it .old and copy what does work from it to the new share dir.
Good luck
Kate
On Thursday 06 October 2011, Lisi wrote:
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
The most benign reason I can come up with is that the CMOS battery needs changing. Something is obviously on the way out. Motherboard also springs to mind. :-(
It could, of course, be software related. I just can't think what!
All other ideas and suggestions for solving this gratefully received. If the advice is bin the thing it will only echo my fears. I built this box about 8 years ago, so something crucial dying is not impossible.
It would happen now. :-( I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet. I have had to give up driving because my eyesight has deteriorated, I live in the country and my husband (i.e. my transport) is away for the next 2 weeks.
My, the gremlins are having fun. ;-(
Lisi
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Hi, Kate!
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:44:23 Kate Draven wrote:
Try creating a new user and see if it happens again. If it doesn't your share directory is messed up. Rename it .old and copy what does work from it to the new share dir.
Thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I am currently working my way methodically through the suggestions you have all so kindly made!
Lisi
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:23:11 Lisi wrote:
I am in the middle of something that is important to me, and has a deadline of Monday, which I am not going to meet.
In situations where the software is messed up and I don't have enough time for troubleshooting, my solution is to run from a live CD. If it's software, not hardware, then that will provide a stable platform for getting your work done. Troubleshooting can wait until you have done enough to meet your deadline.
Good luck
Neil
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:23:11 Lisi wrote:
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
I ran memtest overnight from Thursday to Friday. No errors. It was only 6 passes, so is not definitive, but it is a good indication that the memory is OK.
I have looked at the log as suggested by Nik. I can see nothing, but then I don't know what I am looking for.
And last night I ran (from a Live CD, so outside the system): first smartctl, which found some errors, and then badblocks, which didn't.
So I imagine that I should start looking for a new hard drive? :-( I do worry a bit in case it is something more major. And I may change the CMOS battery first.
smartctl is obviously warning me: the drive is on its way out, so do something about it. I shall try to limp to next Tuesday, since it will mean a lot of sorting out. (Acquire the HDD, install Squeeze/Trinity, try to use my present /home and all the data on it etc.)
That would also, of course, sort out the software. Provided that I don't go and restore some faulty configurations. I shall anyhow try the viable part of Kate's suggestion. Kate - I realised that the fault is too intermittent to show up in a hurry. We are talking days, not hours. And I, as me, need to access my data etc.
I am still open to suggestions!!
Thanks all for your invaluable help.
Lisi
I had a drive die on my too, thankfully I didn't have all the problems you did. Sorry lass. And data retrieval was a snap.
Be happy, you're running linux and not windows, data retrieval would be a nightmare. Assuming it was possible.
I wish I could help, I have some spare healthy HDs I could have lent you.
If you're in the US, take advantage of the memorial day sales coming up.
Also, don't buy any HD with a less than 5 year warranty. They are more likely to fail within the first 90 days of operation (cheaper - none mission critical, consumer level construction).
Seagates, Western Digitals and Maxtor (Seagate) are my favs.
I hope all goes well.
Kate
On Saturday 08 October 2011, Lisi wrote:
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:23:11 Lisi wrote:
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
I ran memtest overnight from Thursday to Friday. No errors. It was only 6 passes, so is not definitive, but it is a good indication that the memory is OK.
I have looked at the log as suggested by Nik. I can see nothing, but then I don't know what I am looking for.
And last night I ran (from a Live CD, so outside the system): first smartctl, which found some errors, and then badblocks, which didn't.
So I imagine that I should start looking for a new hard drive? :-( I do worry a bit in case it is something more major. And I may change the CMOS battery first.
smartctl is obviously warning me: the drive is on its way out, so do something about it. I shall try to limp to next Tuesday, since it will mean a lot of sorting out. (Acquire the HDD, install Squeeze/Trinity, try to use my present /home and all the data on it etc.)
That would also, of course, sort out the software. Provided that I don't go and restore some faulty configurations. I shall anyhow try the viable part of Kate's suggestion. Kate - I realised that the fault is too intermittent to show up in a hurry. We are talking days, not hours. And I, as me, need to access my data etc.
I am still open to suggestions!!
Thanks all for your invaluable help.
Lisi
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Thanks for your help and support. I appreciate it. :-)
Lisi
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
If you do not hear a clicking noise from your drive, then I'd say you make a 1:1 copy with a live CD (e.g.: puppy linux), replace your old drive with the new one and keep going till you find time to reinstall.
Nik
Am Samstag, 8. Oktober 2011 schrieb Lisi:
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:23:11 Lisi wrote:
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with. Applications that were working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one "set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop" showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
I ran memtest overnight from Thursday to Friday. No errors. It was only 6 passes, so is not definitive, but it is a good indication that the memory is OK.
I have looked at the log as suggested by Nik. I can see nothing, but then I don't know what I am looking for.
And last night I ran (from a Live CD, so outside the system): first smartctl, which found some errors, and then badblocks, which didn't.
So I imagine that I should start looking for a new hard drive? :-( I do worry a bit in case it is something more major. And I may change the CMOS battery first.
smartctl is obviously warning me: the drive is on its way out, so do something about it. I shall try to limp to next Tuesday, since it will mean a lot of sorting out. (Acquire the HDD, install Squeeze/Trinity, try to use my present /home and all the data on it etc.)
That would also, of course, sort out the software. Provided that I don't go and restore some faulty configurations. I shall anyhow try the viable part of Kate's suggestion. Kate - I realised that the fault is too intermittent to show up in a hurry. We are talking days, not hours. And I, as me, need to access my data etc.
I am still open to suggestions!!
Thanks all for your invaluable help.
Lisi
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On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
Tim
On Saturday 08 October 2011 22:10:36 Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
Thanks, Tim. I can't afford to not use my main workhorse this week, so I must just be extra careful with backups of my important data. Would it be likely to help if I keep the box running permanently instead of shutting down over-night etc.?
Lisi
On Saturday 08 October 2011 22:10:36 Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail
any
second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
Thanks, Tim. I can't afford to not use my main workhorse this week, so I must just be extra careful with backups of my important data. Would it be likely to help if I keep the box running permanently instead of shutting down over-night etc.?
Lisi
It depends on the failure mode. If it is a mechanical failure (IMHO less likely with your symptoms) then keeping the box on 24/7 prevents sudden mechanical death at power-on. If it is bad disk material, then shutting the box down overnight will lessen the amount of corruption from the OS normally writing its files to the disk.
Tim
Thanks for such a fast reply, Tim. I shall shut down more often than usual, rather than less than usual.
Lisi
On Saturday 08 October 2011 23:17:23 Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 22:10:36 Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail
any
second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
Thanks, Tim. I can't afford to not use my main workhorse this week, so I must just be extra careful with backups of my important data. Would it be likely to help if I keep the box running permanently instead of shutting down over-night etc.?
Lisi
It depends on the failure mode. If it is a mechanical failure (IMHO less likely with your symptoms) then keeping the box on 24/7 prevents sudden mechanical death at power-on. If it is bad disk material, then shutting the box down overnight will lessen the amount of corruption from the OS normally writing its files to the disk.
Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
You said you ran smartctrl which found "some errors", but you didn't say how many or how serious. Most hard drives will be expected to develop bad blocks over time: they're normally found by the drive and mapped away to never be used again.
Have you done an fsck on the file system?
I always install two hard drives in desktops and use software RAID-1 for redundancy in case of a failed drive. RAID is not just for servers :)
On 9 October 2011 00:29, Steven D'Aprano steve@pearwood.info wrote:
Timothy Pearson wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2011 19:41:56 Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
I have one on order!
Lisi
In my experience if the drive is going to die completely it will do so without much warning. The bad sectors you are experiencing are more like a cancer (dying R/W heads, bad disk surface, one or more head crashes in the past, etc.) and will continue to spread. The less you use the disk the better, as each write access will likely corrupt more sectors.
You said you ran smartctrl which found "some errors", but you didn't say how many or how serious. Most hard drives will be expected to develop bad blocks over time: they're normally found by the drive and mapped away to never be used again.
Have you done an fsck on the file system?
I always install two hard drives in desktops and use software RAID-1 for redundancy in case of a failed drive. RAID is not just for servers :)
Well, I installed a new drive (twice the size of the old one, but small by today's standarsd at 160GB. I then tried to install an OS.
After trying 4 times with Lenny and having it fail each time, and having major problems with the partitioner, I decided that Lenny as Old Stable might be OK ot use, but apparently not to install. So I tried Squeeze. Apart from a small glitch over network card drivers which didn't cause any real problems, I was presented with a system that the installer reckoned just needed to reboot.
Since when I have had major problems. X is a mess. The log-in screen flashes, flickers and is useless anyway because the mouse and keyboard are dead. I had uswed LXDE for teh instalation, so nI relogged in at teh CLI and installed Trinity, hoping that kdm would be better than gdm. It was. It flickered less than gdm. But it still didn't allow me to do anything.
Attempts to install an xorg.conf that I know works with that monitor and video card nall failed for different reasons. When I log in at the CLI I get SOSs from the kernel about missing mod files.
There is obviously more than just the HDD wrong with this machine, and I still fear the motherboard. So next I will try the CMOS battery, and if that doesn't work I shall have to decide what to about/with that desktop.
I feel that at this stage I am clutching at straws. Ideas still welcomed! I haven't yet reached the stage where I am quite ready to pension the old girl off.
Lisi
On 10/20/2011 01:25 PM, Lisi Reisz wrote:
There is obviously more than just the HDD wrong with this machine, and I still fear the motherboard. So next I will try the CMOS battery, and if that doesn't work I shall have to decide what to about/with that desktop.
Even if the CMOS battery is dead it won't make the system unstable; it'll just use default values for everything. But if the clock is still keeping time, the CMOS battery is OK. The clock is the first symptom of a dying battery.
I'd reseat the CPU, memory, and all cards, then swap in a different power supply; sometimes a power supply will die a slow death and make things weird for a while. And swap in different memory if you have any, or if no extra memory, take half of it out and test with the other half, then swap.
21.10.2011 02:12, Dan Youngquist wrote:
Even if the CMOS battery is dead it won't make the system unstable; it'll just use default values for everything. But if the clock is still keeping time, the CMOS battery is OK. The clock is the first symptom of a dying battery.
I'd reseat the CPU, memory, and all cards, then swap in a different power supply; sometimes a power supply will die a slow death and make things weird for a while. And swap in different memory if you have any, or if no extra memory, take half of it out and test with the other half, then swap.
I second all above. Exhausted CMOS battery would lead to the "CMOS checksum error" message each time you completely poweroff your workstation (i.e. turn it off and remove the 110/220/240V (whatever is used in your country) voltage from being provided to the power supply unit. Even when CMOS settings are lost worst problem you would hit is system trying to boot from incorrect boot device, incorrect settings for the operation mode of your SATA controller (might switch into "IDE/Compatibility" mode from "Native/AHCI" one) and some linux services hanging at startup due to not being prepared to find system time to be way back into past.
My general experience in diagnosis of "magical problems" suggests that the first candidate to blame usually turns out to be faulty memory modules (you had tested it and proven that's not the case - 6 memtest86+ passes are good enough to be sure that the memory is OK with 99% probability), then comes the slowly dying power supply unit and third one to blame are usually bad/oxidised contacts. If you've got some spare and known to be functional PSU to test with - that would be your best bet to start with. It wouldn't hurt in any case to eject and insert back CPU, memory and all other ejectable expansion cards your system is equipped with. Booting from live CD of one of the LTS distros and trying to work at that environment for a while would also help to distinct if your problem is caused by hardware or by software.
Good luck with your fight for stability, I know how bad is it to have faulty system.
On 08/10/2011 20:41, Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Well, looks like the harddrive. Get a drive now, your's could fail any second.
If you do not hear a clicking noise from your drive, then I'd say you make a 1:1 copy with a live CD (e.g.: puppy linux), replace your old drive with the new one and keep going till you find time to reinstall.
Nik
Copying 1:1, strictly speaking (e.g. using dd), a defunct disk could lead you to obtain a clone that is less functional than the original. I had the problem because of bad sectors on a huge xfs logical volume (lvm). I was simply unable to mount/check/restore the clone xfs volume after cloning it with dd. I ended to reformat the new hdd manually and make copies with rsync which, at least, was able to copy 99% of the files, except the files written on bad blocks.
Nicolas
09.10.2011 01:59, Nicolas Bercher wrote:
I was simply unable to mount/check/restore the clone xfs volume after cloning it with dd.
Most common problem with using dd to close faulty volumes is that people use conv=noerror and not conv=noerror,sync which results in DD not writing zeroed blocks to the copied image in place of unreadable source blocks. Also copying process from faulty source should be iterative, starting with full image copy using big block size and then trying to retry copying bad block using 512 bytes size. Using specialized tools like dd_rescue are also of a big help.
I had one case when I had been facing faulty harddrive that had been returning garbage data when trying to read bad sectors instead of reporting the system about unreadable block. Key point to dig the data from it was to create ~20 copies of disk image from it and then use statistical methods to determine which data for each sectors to use.
On 06/10/2011 23:23, Lisi wrote:
Hello, all.
This is a KDE problem, not a Trinity one, but I know of nowhere else that would give me a sympathetic hearing. ("KDE 3 is dead already. Scrap KDE 3 and go to KDE 4.")
Hi,
Yes, you're certainly right, this is the right place!
Do you have parts of KDE4 installed? Even if your situation seems more serious than what it ought to be, I feel that these changes could come from a bad mix of KDE3 and KDE4 programs. Do you use a pure Lenny install or do you use other repositories such as testing, unstable, etc. ?
Silly questions: are you sure to log in as the expected user? Did you do some tricky things with uids, user accounts, /home directories, etc. ? Does your ~/.kde folder seems ok, or quite empty/new/fresh. Can you recognize anything personnal in there? (mostly in ~/.kde/share/apps/<any_app_you_use_and_customised>/)
Also, I have had bad adventures while I inadvertently modified /tmp perms:
$ ls -ld /tmp
must mention: "drwxrwxrwxt" and "root root".
What's the problem with your CMOS battery?
Nicolas
Thanks for the reply, Nicolas.
On Saturday 08 October 2011 23:04:18 Nicolas Bercher wrote:
Do you have parts of KDE4 installed? Even if your situation seems more serious than what it ought to be, I feel that these changes could come from a bad mix of KDE3 and KDE4 programs. Do you use a pure Lenny install or do you use other repositories such as testing, unstable, etc. ?
Pure Lenny, except for a couple of Lenny-backports.
Silly questions: are you sure to log in as the expected user?
Yes. I have it going straight to the desktop without going via logging in.
Did you do some tricky things with uids, user accounts, /home directories, etc. ?
I removed a large chunk of data from /home, but /home isn't on the dying disk.
Does your ~/.kde folder seems ok, or quite empty/new/fresh. Can you recognize anything personnal in there?
Yes. Some desktop backgrounds that I had imported.
(mostly in ~/.kde/share/apps/<any_app_you_use_and_customised>/)
Also, I have had bad adventures while I inadvertently modified /tmp perms:
$ ls -ld /tmp
must mention: "drwxrwxrwxt" and "root root".
It does.
What's the problem with your CMOS battery?
Nothing, I hope. But a dying CMOS battery can sometimes cause strange problems, and it is cheap (and usually easy) to change it.
But there is no point in worrying about anything else while I know that the hard drive is flaky. There may well be something else the matter, but I shall be able better to see the wood for the trees by dealing with things one at a time and seeing whether each of them works, before carrying on.
Lisi
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Alexey Loukianov -
Dan Youngquist -
Kate Draven -
Lisi -
Lisi Reisz
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Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Klepp -
Neil Youngman -
Nicolas Bercher -
Steven D'Aprano -
Timothy Pearson