KDE panel and menus broken... AGAIN!

Yesterday I upgraded kdelibs3 to 3.5.0-31. Why did I do such a foolish
thing. I was running a previous 3.5.0, but I saw in YOU that there was
a security upgrade for 3.4.???, which I had superseded with 3.5.0.
Thinks: maybe O should get the latest version of kdelibs3 3.5.0, just in
case. So I did, using YaST2. I resolved the dependencies (there were
none, as I recall) and went on my merry way, without a reboot.

This morning, I accesses the calendar from my panel, and sometime when I
wasn't watching, the panel disappeared. It hasn't been seen since. I
have restarted X, rebooted, blown away the .qt directory, blown away the
tmp, socket and cache directories within .kde, upgraded everything with
kde or qt in the name to the latest available versions. Still no panel.
The only way I can use KDE is through the command line, of via the few
applications that autostart, and the few application icons I have on my
desktop.

This has happened to me before, and I re-installed the system. Yet
again, I blew away the .kde and .qt directories and got KDE back. Not
this time. (I haven't blown the whole .kde directory away, because I
don't want to lose the limited functionality I have.)

Once upon a time, the redhat guys invented RPM, so that we could install
software in a way that managed dependencies for us. It used to work.
Why doesn't it work any more?

Any suggestions as to how I can get my desktop back, or failing that,
how I can switch to gnome, without having to re-install?

Peter

Peter B. West wrote:
> Yesterday I upgraded kdelibs3 to 3.5.0-31. Why did I do such a foolish
> thing. I was running a previous 3.5.0, but I saw in YOU that there was
> a security upgrade for 3.4.???, which I had superseded with 3.5.0.
> Thinks: maybe O should get the latest version of kdelibs3 3.5.0, just in
> case. So I did, using YaST2. I resolved the dependencies (there were
> none, as I recall) and went on my merry way, without a reboot.
>
> This morning, I accesses the calendar from my panel, and sometime when I
> wasn't watching, the panel disappeared. It hasn't been seen since. I
> have restarted X, rebooted, blown away the .qt directory, blown away the
> tmp, socket and cache directories within .kde, upgraded everything with
> kde or qt in the name to the latest available versions. Still no panel.
> The only way I can use KDE is through the command line, of via the few
> applications that autostart, and the few application icons I have on my
> desktop.
>
> This has happened to me before, and I re-installed the system. Yet
> again, I blew away the .kde and .qt directories and got KDE back. Not
> this time. (I haven't blown the whole .kde directory away, because I
> don't want to lose the limited functionality I have.)
>
> Once upon a time, the redhat guys invented RPM, so that we could install
> software in a way that managed dependencies for us. It used to work.
> Why doesn't it work any more?
>
> Any suggestions as to how I can get my desktop back, or failing that,
> how I can switch to gnome, without having to re-install?

Removing ~/.kde/share did the trick, and took all my configuration with
it, of course. Easier than a re-install. This is a very nasty habit of
KDE's.

Peter

Peter B. West wrote:

> Removing ~/.kde/share did the trick, and took all my configuration with
> it, of course. Easier than a re-install. This is a very nasty habit of
> KDE's.

You could have renamed the the directory in stead of removing it and moved
your configuration back.

Otherwise I always keep KDE updated via YaST and
SUSE's ..../supplementary/kde repository. I never had any problems with
that.

Olav
--
I'm online of course

Olav P. wrote:
> Peter B. West wrote:
>
>
>>Removing ~/.kde/share did the trick, and took all my configuration with
>>it, of course. Easier than a re-install. This is a very nasty habit of
>>KDE's.
>
>
> You could have renamed the the directory in stead of removing it and moved
> your configuration back.
>
> Otherwise I always keep KDE updated via YaST and
> SUSE's ..../supplementary/kde repository. I never had any problems with
> that.
>
> Olav

I was using supplementary/kde.

Peter

Peter B. West adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:


>>>Removing ~/.kde/share did the trick, and took all my configuration
>>>with it, of course. Easier than a re-install. This is a very nasty
>>>habit of KDE's.


Peter,

If you do a YOU it will always try and keep your system in-line with the
original install base versions, it has always done and always will, if
you step from the install base by using different versions then it will
break your system, once you have installed anything that is not SuSE10
then you have to pick each update once you have checked that it is the
correct one.

If you want bleeding edge stuff and the ability to update and *upgrade*
then use apt, plenty more ways to b0rk your systems with that :-)


caveat emptor.
--
Mark
Twixt hill and high water
N. Wales, UK
Novell Support Forums SysOp

Peter B. West wrote:

>> SUSE's ..../supplementary/kde repository. I never had any problems with
>> that.
>>
>> Olav
>
> I was using supplementary/kde.

Did you add supplementary/KDE it as an installation source and then choose
"upgrade if newer version is available" in Software Administration in YaST?

Olav


--
I'm online of course

baskitcaise wrote:
> Peter B. West adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:
>
>
>
>>>>Removing ~/.kde/share did the trick, and took all my configuration
>>>>with it, of course. Easier than a re-install. This is a very nasty
>>>>habit of KDE's.
>
>
>
> Peter,
>
> If you do a YOU it will always try and keep your system in-line with the
> original install base versions, it has always done and always will, if
> you step from the install base by using different versions then it will
> break your system, once you have installed anything that is not SuSE10
> then you have to pick each update once you have checked that it is the
> correct one.
>
> If you want bleeding edge stuff and the ability to update and *upgrade*
> then use apt, plenty more ways to b0rk your systems with that :-)

My beef is with the RPMs. They provide for dependencies, supposedly,
and there are per- and post-install scripts which are there to sort out
the details. I was upgrading from one version of 3.5.0 to a later
version. Either the guys putting these things together are not doing
their homework, or the dependencies are getting too complex to manage.

See also soon-to-be-posted ongoing gripe about mplayer.

Peter

Olav P. wrote:
> Peter B. West wrote:
>
>
>>>SUSE's ..../supplementary/kde repository. I never had any problems with
>>>that.
>>>
>>>Olav
>>
>>I was using supplementary/kde.
>
>
> Did you add supplementary/KDE it as an installation source and then choose
> "upgrade if newer version is available" in Software Administration in YaST?
>

Yes. Can't see such an option. I do see a "Check dependencies" button
and an "Autocheck" tickbox. I've never used them. Yet every time I try
to get any software, I
1) get a list of unresolved dependencies, and
2) have to tell YaST *not* to install sensors, which is rumoured to have
extremely detrimental effects on ThinkPads. Perhaps this is an example
of the infamous "Law of Variable Conformity". (See "1066 And All That"
by Sellars and Yeatman).

Peter

>>
>> Did you add supplementary/KDE it as an installation source and then
>> choose "upgrade if newer version is available" in Software Administration
>> in YaST?
>>
>
> Yes. Can't see such an option.
>

That option is available when you right-click a package name.

In Yast/Software Management, choose 'zzz All' in the Package Groups,
right-click any of the packages listed and choose 'All in This List', then
choose 'Update if newer version available'. You can then sort the list by
clicking the blank square in the title bar left of the 'Package' column.
The packages that will update have a 'z' next to them.

If you don't want a particular package to update, I believe you can just
click its icon to change it to a checkmark instead of the 'z'.

HTH

Patrick

--
No problems, only solutions.