Hi, I have a weird problem going on here, btw I am running openSUSE 12.1 64-bit, I was using my computer as usual, the only thing I did differently was that I also logged in to my root account but I did not delete or modify anything important, I just felt like changing the window themes, colors, cursor, etc of my root account. As soon as I finished decorating it I shut down my computer and didn’t use it for a few hours. Later when I decided to use it again, I log in to my regular account and I find that the icons for chromium, konsole, dolphin and the system settings are pretty much not there, they were replaced with a white icon with a question mark, when I clicked on them a window appears displaying this: “Unable to run command specified. The file or folder file “///usr/share/applications/kde4/(name of application).desktop” does not exist.” Now, I know those applications weren’t deleted from my computer because, when I search the name of the application on the search of the application launcher, even though the icon doesn’t appear (they’re missing on the application launcher as well) instead it says run (name of application) and when I click it it opens the application. In fact I am using chromium right now since it saved the sites I was browsing before what happened…so it sort of is like if the icons of those applications suddenly disappeared.Anyways…can anyone please help me with this? Thanks in advance 
xxrevenge0 wrote:
> can anyone please help
Try this
Right click the menu button, > edit applications
From the TABS on the top > edit
then > restore system menu > then save
Did it, but didn’t really fix anything >.> Thanks anyways
Don’t really know what haappened. Though I never login as root. And as for changing the look of root… !?
You could try creating a new user called ‘test’
login with it and see if it looks normal
If it does, would you be prepared to try a new .kde4 in your normal login? (Do you understand what that means)?
I made a new user, it’s the same. Isn’t it possible for me to re-create the missing .desktop files that went missing in the /usr/share/applications/kde4 folder? (chromium, konsole, dolphin and system settings)
I don’t completely understand what you mean in that last sentence. 
On 09/05/2012 05:16 AM, xxrevenge0 wrote:
> can anyone please help me with this?
this will be very helpful once you recover from this problem:
you should never log into KDE/Gnome/XFCE or any other *nix-like system’s
graphical user interface desktop environment as root…
doing so 1) opens you up to several different security problems if you
(for example) browse the net, 2) too many, far too easy ways to damage
your system no matter how careful your actions (for example: normal
icons might be replaced with a white box with a question mark inside),
3) anyway logging into KDE/etc as root is never required to
do any and all administrative duties, 4) and, not even logging in as
root just to see if it works as root is useful, because the “yes” or
“no” learned is almost always totally useless in finding the
problem giving the symptoms–while, logging into the GUI as root to
learn the yes/no could cause the next adverse symptom.
so, always log in as yourself, and “become root” by using a root powered
application (like YaST, File Manager Superuser Mode) or using “su -”,
sudo, kdesu, or gnomesu in a terminal to launch whatever tool is needed
(like Kwrite to edit a config file)…read more on all that here:
http://tinyurl.com/593e4c
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh
http://tinyurl.com/4nsaqst
http://tinyurl.com/665h5ek
http://www.linfo.org/root.html
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
additionally: after logging into KDE/Gnome/etc as root, if you
experience problems (for example, with uncommanded file ownership and
permissions changes) and if you can provide us with details of what you
were doing while you were logged in as root, that would help us identify
if there’s a bug that needs to be fixed…thanks for your help…
i would try to help you fix the problem you caused by logging into the
DE as root, but i honestly have zero idea what parts of the system you
corrupted…
On 2012-09-05 10:05, dd@home.dk wrote:
> i would try to help you fix the problem you caused by logging into the DE as root, but i honestly
> have zero idea what parts of the system you corrupted…
I doubt it was caused by merely login in as root - if it were, it is a reportable bug.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 2012-09-05 08:36, xxrevenge0 wrote:
> I made a new user, it’s the same. Isn’t it possible for me to re-create
> the missing .desktop files that went missing in the
> /usr/share/applications/kde4 folder? (chromium, konsole, dolphin and
> system settings)
Mmm.
Run
# rpm --verify --all
It should list the missing files, which you should be able to reinstall.
>
> I don’t completely understand what you mean in that last sentence.
Pointless, the new user has the same problem.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 09/05/2012 01:04 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2012-09-05 10:05, dd@home.dk wrote:
>> i would try to help you fix the problem you caused by logging into the DE as root, but i honestly
>> have zero idea what parts of the system you corrupted…
>
> I doubt it was caused by merely login in as root - if it were, it is a reportable bug.
i agree that logging in as root may not have directly caused the
problem, but it certainly gave the user the power to ruin his system
(rather than just his /home)…and, i have no idea what the user may
have done to spoil the system.
–
dd
On 2012-09-05 14:45, dd@home.dk wrote:
> On 09/05/2012 01:04 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> I doubt it was caused by merely login in as root - if it were, it is a reportable bug.
>
>
> i agree that logging in as root may not have directly caused the problem, but it certainly gave the
> user the power to ruin his system (rather than just his /home)…and, i have no idea what the user
> may have done to spoil the system.
Yes, of course, it has its dangers. You can drag an drop by accident an entire system directory, for
instance, so it is something to avoid - however, I had to do that some weeks ago. An unfinished
upgrade left X non workable for any user, and had to use root’s - simply because I needed a big
screen with many opened terminals in order to do the repairs, pasting text from one terminal to
another, comparing old/new configs… I finally breathed peacefully when I could log as plain user.
It has its uses, in emergencies, and being aware of the dangers, but its best to avoid.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 09/05/2012 08:59 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> and had to use root’s - simply because I needed a big
> screen with many opened terminals in order to do the repairs, pasting text from one terminal to
> another, comparing old/new configs…
avoidable: boot with a live CD (as a user) and then open and use all
the root powered GUI x-terminals, text editors and file managers you
wish to do the comparing and fixings???
hint for comparing configs: kdesu kdiff
–
dd
On 2012-09-06 11:00, dd@home.dk wrote:
> On 09/05/2012 08:59 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> and had to use root’s - simply because I needed a big
>> screen with many opened terminals in order to do the repairs, pasting text from one terminal to
>> another, comparing old/new configs…
>
> avoidable: boot with a live CD (as a user) and then open and use all the root powered GUI
> x-terminals, text editors and file managers you wish to do the comparing and fixings???
Impossible. I need access to the actual rpm database, run queries, detect what packages that need
upgrading, run zypper or yast…
I would have done that if it would have worked.
>
> hint for comparing configs: kdesu kdiff
>
Yagh. Try ‘meld’ instead and you will see wonders. Also as root :-p
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 09/06/2012 01:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
> Yagh. Try ‘meld’ instead and you will see wonders. Also as root :-p
looks to have about the same feature set as kdiff (and several similar
available free for OS/2) i’ll give it a try next time i need a file
compare util… thanks!
–
dd
On 2012-09-06 17:39, dd@home.dk wrote:
> On 09/06/2012 01:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>
>> Yagh. Try ‘meld’ instead and you will see wonders. Also as root :-p
>
> looks to have about the same feature set as kdiff (and several similar available free for OS/2) i’ll
> give it a try next time i need a file compare util… thanks!
It is an editor: you can copy paragraphs from one version to the other, or remove, or type…
I can not try currently kdiff, I’m not at home and my mobile internet is limited.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 09/07/2012 02:27 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> It is an editor: you can copy paragraphs from one version to the other
THAT is cool! i don’t think any of the others i’ve used had that
feature…thanks!!!
–
dd
On 2012-09-07 09:16, dd@home.dk wrote:
> On 09/07/2012 02:27 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> It is an editor: you can copy paragraphs from one version to the other
>
> THAT is cool! i don’t think any of the others i’ve used had that feature…thanks!!!
I think I wrote about it in the upgrade wiki, and if not, I had the intention to do so.
Someone told me about that wonderful little program, in this forum IIRC.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 03:16:03 GMT, xxrevenge0
<xxrevenge0@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
>::Hi, I have a weird problem going on here, btw I am running openSUSE
>12.1 64-bit, I was using my computer as usual, the only thing I did
>differently was that I also logged in to my root account but I did not
>delete or modify anything important, I just felt like changing the
>window themes, colors, cursor, etc of my root account. As soon as I
>finished decorating it I shut down my computer and didn’t use it for a
>few hours. Later when I decided to use it again, I log in to my regular
>account and I find that the icons for chromium, konsole, dolphin and the
>system settings are pretty much not there, they were replaced with a
>white icon with a question mark, when I clicked on them a window appears
>displaying this: “Unable to run command specified. The file or folder
>file “///usr/share/applications/kde4/(name of application).desktop”
>does not exist.” Now, I know those applications weren’t deleted from my
>computer because, when I search the name of the application on the
>search of the application launcher, even though the icon doesn’t appear
>(they’re missing on the application launcher as well) instead it says
>run (name of application) and when I click it it opens the application.
>In fact I am using chromium right now since it saved the sites I was
>browsing before what happened…so it sort of is like if the icons of
>those applications suddenly disappeared.Anyways…can anyone please help
>me with this? Thanks in advance :)::
This is exactly why the advice is NEVER log in to a GUI as root. The file
ownerships and thus permissions got mangled.
?-)
On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:04:47 GMT, “Carlos E. R.”
<robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>On 2012-09-05 10:05, dd@home.dk wrote:
>> i would try to help you fix the problem you caused by logging into theDE as root, but i honestly
>> have zero idea what parts of the system you corrupted…
>
>I doubt it was caused by merely login in as root - if it were, it is a reportable bug.
OP did state that 'e made changes to the look and feel of the DE while
logged in as root.
?-(
On 2012-09-08 04:17, josephkk wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:04:47 GMT, “Carlos E. R.” <> wrote:
>> I doubt it was caused by merely login in as root - if it were, it is a reportable bug.
>
> OP did state that 'e made changes to the look and feel of the DE while
> logged in as root.
If that means the same types of changes you do as user, then they are stored in /root/.kde4 and such
and should not affect the system.
If it means altering system files, then it is indeed a problem, because a normal user simply would
not be allowed the change and the damage would be avoided.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))