Start Menu gone after update

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Maybe I should of left well enough alone, but in my quest to update my system there’s a problem. Last time I was messing with the 13.1 portion with updates, I shut the system down and it just kind of hanged. I pressing Ctrl-Alt+Fx keys to see if I could get a prompt where I could type shutdown, but either it didn’t work or I couldn’t get one. Now when I boot back to 13.1, the Start menu panel at the bottom was gone. An interesting thing was my QInternet for the modem was in a little square box at the top. It’s almost like the panel is somewhere, just not on this screen and so the QInternet decided to be helpful and make an appearance.

I tried to Add Panel > Default Panel and it added one with the start button a Red X. I removed the panel and added it again, and it made it work halfway good enough. It shows my previous tasks along the bottom, but when I click on any, it just ignores me. Like it’s on a different screen.

I found someone else had a similar problem, but when I tried to follow the suggestions, it wouldn’t work. If I go to Configure Desktop, it says “System Settings was unable to find any views, and hence has nothing to display.” Pressing Alt+F2 and entering “systemsettings” or “Configure Desktop” does nothing. I had used kfind on Alt+F2 before, but it doesn’t work either.

I did Ctrl+Esc to show system activity, selected Kate which I had running before to show application window, but it ignores me too. Did I mess something up with the updates or by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+ Function keys? If updates, maybe I should remove them one at a time until things work right? Seems like there was something I had installed about the KDE system. How do I remove them and get what was before? I was running some updates, but when I noticed it wasn’t downloading a delta but the whole multi-megabyte file, I aborted the update. I don’t think that causes a problem.

#2

If you create a new user and login there
How is it?

#3

I created a test user, and attempt to switch user. It brought up the Alt+F2 run window. So I logged out and in as the test user.

The same thing as when I logged in as Root. A blank screen except for the default folder view square (KInfo, etc). I notice when I right-click on the empty space of the screen, at the bottom it has “Unknown settings” instead of “Default Desktop Settings”. Seems like somethings wrong with the basic system rather than a user profile.

I logged out of the new test user and back into main user. My QInternet icon was gone from the screen and from the system tray. I went through the menu and noticed it’s icon was missing from it’s entry. When clicking on it, it never loads so I had to log in using my 12.3 system to post this.

#4

You might want to start again with 13.1
Making sure the install media is good and you format the target partitions

#5

In the original post it sounded like you may have shut the system down in the middle of n update. Never do that.

Also never log into the GUI as root you can cause serious damage totally by accident.

#6

If you do not mind spending the extra time, you might first just choose the “Upgrade” option on the 13.1 install DVD and let it run. Sometimes I find that will fix a problem such as yours, caused by an interrupted update. You will, of course, have to run most updates over again if the Upgrade option fixes the system, since a lot of it is set back to what is on the DVD.

= Important advice.

#7

I didn’t mean to convey that idea. It was after the chosen updates were completed and then when I went to shut down the system. And even the last time when I went to shut down the system, it seemed to hang. I went off and left it alone for awhile and when I came back, it was off. I’m just wondering if by choosing some updates and not others, could the system be unstable or is each update completely independent from any others?

I was about to ask, what if I’m really careful. But you did say, “by accident”. I used to log in as root from time to time when I first started with Linux. Lately, I never did except to check this start menu. Maybe there’s no real need to.

So am I really out of luck? Something is really messed up I have to start over? Any idea what could cause it to go wrong? That is, if I do the same updates, will this happen again? I’ve half a notion of doing NO updates. Any way to roll the system back, something like restore points?

#8

I have had any need ever, but did when I first started and didn’t know any better I did and did mess up things. One thing that happens is that when in a root owned GUI you can change ownership of files in a users directory with out trying this make the users GUI interface broken until the ownership is straightened out.

Well something is seriously broken if you, without making the needed change, can use startx as a user. The ownerships are not set correctly at least for a default installation. Figuring out what is broken can be a time consuming project. Up to you but If you don’t have the time or inclination to trouble shoot it reinstalling is the thing to do. As always it is your choice.

#9

On 2014-03-09 16:46, dt30 wrote:
> I’m just wondering if by choosing some updates and not others, could the
> system be unstable or is each update completely independent from any
> others?

Sometimes. Depends.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#10

Well, I took the advise and instead of keep fiddling with it and wasting time, I gave up and decided to start over. I tried the upgrade option first. It might have worked, but I got confused when the qinternet didn’t work. Later, I realized I had to set up the modem. But it threw me off when I tried running it and in the top left corner of the desktop it gave me a balloon message about having errors. It was like it was off the screen. And, when I logged in as the test user, there was still no start menu bar.

So, I did a fresh install with formatting the partition. Of course that brought back the start menu. But setting my system back up is a pain. I can see how doing an upgrade would be convenient. However, what would have happened if I did and messed it up. I would have had no working system. Too many times things have gone wrong that makes a fresh install more appealing to me. I also could imagine trailing trash from unused things accumulating over upgrades. Then there’s the issue of forgetting how to install a new system. It’s bad enough when I just did it a few months ago!

The first time, I believe mysql (or now maria) was installed fine. I might have forgotten a step, but there is no listing in run services for mysql. And now I’m a little shy about running anything as root, so don’t know if the following is what I need to do as root or not. And with the changes to mysql and the system, I’m not really sure of what command I should run. I did the following:

> /usr/sbin/rcmysql status
cat: /etc/my.cnf: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/var/run/mysql’: Permission denied
chown: cannot access ‘/var/run/mysql’: No such file or directory
Checking for service MySQL: unused
mysql.service - LSB: Start the MySQL database server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mysql)
Active: inactive (dead)

There is no /var/run/mysql nor /var/lib/mysql directories either.

#11

Sounds like something in your desktop config files was broken. That can happen for many reasons and is a good reason to make a back up when you have the the desktop set as you want.

Personally I like to change things around sometime just to have something different and once you know what you are doing it is easy to resetup a desktop from scratch.

#12

You have run:

sudo systemctl start mysql.service

to start it immediately, or

sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

to automatically start it at boot.

Or use YaST->System->Services Manager for that.

There is no /var/run/mysql nor /var/lib/mysql directories either.

They should get created when it is run the first time.

Regarding the start menu problem: most likely you had an incompatible mixture of packages installed.
Maybe you installed KDE from the additional repos, but didn’t upgrade all necessary packages or something like that?

#13

Regarding the start menu problem: most likely you had an incompatible mixture of packages installed.
Maybe you installed KDE from the additional repos, but didn’t upgrade all necessary packages or something like that?

That could very well be. I recall seeing a list of KDE-… patches and attempted to install some. I believe some small ones went through, but some of the large ones didn’t use deltas and started downloading huge files which I then canceled.

How do I back up my desktop files? All the “.” entries in home or just some of them? Or all of home? It would sound like a good thing to do before I start applying a bunch of patches. But since the new user didn’t fix things, I’m wondering if some other places were changed, too.

The mysql start command worked, but I tried the enable command and got the following:

> sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
mysql.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig mysql on
The unit files have no [Install] section. They are not meant to be enabled
using systemctl.
Possible reasons for having this kind of units are:
1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's
   .wants/ or .requires/ directory.
2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has
   a requirement dependency on it.
3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer,
   D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).

Which goes along with there being no run service entry for mysql in Yast. I don’t know what a unit file is nor where the [Install] section is. Or does rebooting and logging back in automatically start it since now the directories have been created with the start command?

#14

Well, it’s never a good idea to cancel an update in progress. You could (will) end up with an incompatible mix of packages.

How do I back up my desktop files? All the “.” entries in home or just some of them? Or all of home? It would sound like a good thing to do before I start applying a bunch of patches. But since the new user didn’t fix things, I’m wondering if some other places were changed, too.

I’m not sure what you mean with “backup my desktop files”.
But anything in your home directory won’t be touched by an update.

If a new user doesn’t fix things, it’s clearly a system-wide installation problem.

What version of kdebase4-workspace do you have installed?
And what kdelibs4 version?

rpm -q kdebase4-workspace kdelibs4

There would be a lot more KDE packages to check of course, but those are the most obvious now regarding your problem.

The mysql start command worked, but I tried the enable command and got the following:

> sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
mysql.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig mysql on
The unit files have no [Install] section. They are not meant to be enabled
using systemctl.
Possible reasons for having this kind of units are:
1) A unit may be statically enabled by being symlinked from another unit's
   .wants/ or .requires/ directory.
2) A unit's purpose may be to act as a helper for some other unit which has
   a requirement dependency on it.
3) A unit may be started when needed via activation (socket, path, timer,
   D-Bus, udev, scripted systemctl call, ...).

  Which goes along with there being no run service entry for mysql in Yast.  I don't know what a unit file is nor where the [Install] section is.  Or does rebooting and logging back in automatically start it since now the directories have been created with the start command?

You can ignore this.
Mysql still only has an old-style init script, and the systemd compatibility stuff had a glitch in that it erronously spit out that error message. It should have been enabled anyway, though.
I think this has been fixed already with some update (but I’m not sure right now).
And I am sure the mysql not showing up in YaST->System->Services Manager has been fixed by an update.

So did you already install all updates completely? :wink:
Maybe a “sudo zypper up” would resolve all your problems.

#15

I had thought I understood that, but maybe not. I didn’t interrupt or reboot the actual install part, but clicked on the cancel button during the download part. See, on dialup, it could be hours or days for an update, and when that started happening, I clicked the cancel button. That’s ok if you use the cancel button interface, right? And I uncheck all updates at the beginning, and only choose what appears useful and small. I had seen some KDE things that looked small and so checked them, but not others. That might have been the problem. And they weren’t as small as I thought, so when it said it was downloading 30 some megabytes, I clicked cancel.

I’m not sure what you mean with “backup my desktop files”.
But anything in your home directory won’t be touched by an update.

That was in response to gogalthorp. The idea was partial updates did some restructuring to the desktop config files. Of which, I don’t know what to back up since this could happen again so was hoping someone could tell me what I need to back up.

If a new user doesn’t fix things, it’s clearly a system-wide installation problem.

Which could be from those partial updates changing /etc or /usr config files?

What version of kdebase4-workspace do you have installed?

Well, since I reinstalled, it’s whatever the DVD is. I just trying to prevent from doing what I did last time.

You can ignore this.
Mysql still only has an old-style init script, and the systemd compatibility stuff had a glitch in that it erronously spit out that error message. It should have been enabled anyway, though.
I think this has been fixed already with some update (but I’m not sure right now).
And I am sure the mysql not showing up in YaST->System->Services Manager has been fixed by an update.

So did you already install all updates completely? :wink:
Maybe a “sudo zypper up” would resolve all your problems.
No! It would take weeks, or months! Actually, it would never complete, but keep timing out and starting over and over and… I had hardly done any updates. Only some I was pretty sure wouldn’t cause an issue. I was afraid to do any updates as if it starts taking a long time, I might have to cancel. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice the problem the first install as I was trying to get many of the updates before setting up the other stuff. Then I started adding some of the other updates, everything seemed ok until I rebooted.

I use the save option on the downloads for the repositories and saved that directory before reinstall and copied the files into the new. The updates I installed made me aware of what a highspeed connection would be like. It just flew in no time. Of course, some of those files are the ones which caused the problem and I don’t want to do them. Probably anything with KDE-?

#16

If you have limited bandwidth is may be better to uninstall appr and for updates vi Yast

If you have the install media full DVD you can do an upgrade (13.1 to 13.1) to get back it should not change anything on home if you made a separate home partition

If you only have a live DVD then you need to do an install but you will need to intervene and NOT format the current home but just mounted as /home and be sure that the partition selection is what you want since an install will think you want new partitions in most cases.

Always double check the partition scheme to be sure that is is what you want

#17

OK, if you only interrupted the downloading, nothing bad should happen.

But you have to be careful if you only pick single updated packages. They might not fit in with the rest of the system then.
Hard to say for this particular case without knowing exactly which updates you installed and which you didn’t.
But the start menu problem is indeed most likely caused by an incompatible mix of packages.

That was in response to gogalthorp. The idea was partial updates did some restructuring to the desktop config files. Of which, I don’t know what to back up since this could happen again so was hoping someone could tell me what I need to back up.

OK, but again, what do you mean with “desktop config files”?
If you mean your user’s desktop configuration, this is not changed by an update.
If you mean files in /usr/, they are of course changed, since packages install to /usr normally.

For /etc it depends, how the files are marked exactly in the package, and whether you manually changed them.
In this case RPM may overwrite the config file (if it’s not marked as config file, or if you didn’t change it), rename it as xxx.rpmsave and put the new one in place, or leave the old one as it is and copy the new one into the system as xxx.rpmnew.

You can search your system for xxx.rpmsave and xxx.rpmnew with the command “rcrpmconfigcheck”.

Which could be from those partial updates changing /etc or /usr config files?

No! It would take weeks, or months! Actually, it would never complete, but keep timing out and starting over and over and… I had hardly done any updates. Only some I was pretty sure wouldn’t cause an issue.

Well, but if you only apply partial updates, you really have to be sure what you are doing.
Especially with KDE, where there are over 100 packages which interact with each other.
And KDE’s plugin loader had a too strict version check until recently, which prevents loading plugins from 4.11.3 on 4.11.2 f.e. I think that this actually caused your problems. (this got changed for 4.12.2, which is of course not included in openSUSE 13.1)

I was afraid to do any updates as if it starts taking a long time, I might have to cancel. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice the problem the first install as I was trying to get many of the updates before setting up the other stuff. Then I started adding some of the other updates, everything seemed ok until I rebooted.

Right. The things that are already in memory keep running of course, untouched by the update.
That’s why you should reboot after applying at least certain updates, to actually use them.

I use the save option on the downloads for the repositories and saved that directory before reinstall and copied the files into the new. The updates I installed made me aware of what a highspeed connection would be like. It just flew in no time. Of course, some of those files are the ones which caused the problem and I don’t want to do them. Probably anything with KDE-?

Yes. If you install some KDE updates, you should better install ALL of them. See above.

#18

I looked and found a Yast-something and it looked like it addressed the run services. Installing it did list it and it was enabled. Thanks for the help.

I guess I need to ignore the KDE updates. I don’t understand about the backup of the desktop config files. Maybe I need to back up the whole system. I haven’t figured out how to do that. I guess I need to figure out some sort of external drive to buy.

I had forgotten about a separate home on the install. I should have known that and it would have saved redoing what I had just done on the new install. I have a separate data partition, but use the default home on the install partition for the configuration setups. I think I could have added a home directory, did an install, not format it, and been ok. Right?
(Although upgrading probably would have worked, but I was confused)

#19

It is good to have a separate home since that is where your personal data and configs live.

Your KDE configuration live in ~/.kde4
Note period and ~ is your home. Each user has their own configurations

KDE updates should be ok but you need to take care when you upgrade to a newer KDE version.