[suse 11.1 -- kde issue] messed up after update

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1

Greetings !!

How can I restore kde ?
I tried to update kde and now I have lost all the settings I previously had. I tried to rename the root folder to oldroot and then restart to have the system create a new root folder inspired by the skeleton folder but kde is still not working as expected… all the suse related stuff are gone (splash screen, login screen, …).

Is there a way to relaunch kde as it was installed for the first time ? I can manage the following stuff to link up all the 3rd party applications to be functionnal.

Thank you !

2

I will try to rename the kde4 folder first and then if this is not working as expected I give you news…

3

You really need to give a bit more information about the update you tried to do.

If you have a backup of /home, it should have your old kde settings in it and you could compare the changes that have been made and selectively restore those you want. I don’t recommend simply copying over you old kde files.

4

What do you mean by “the root folder”. I hope not the directory /, because that would cripple you system beyond recocnition.

When you as a user move ~/.kde4 to another name, KDE will create a fresh one with default values. Do this move while you are not loged in using KDE (this would remove the ground under KDE). Thus use Ctrl-Alt-F1 to go to logical console 1. Log in there with the user (not root), and do

mv .kde4 .kde4-saved

Type

exit

to log out and do Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get back to the GUI login.

This for a complete going back to the defaults. john_hudson’s advice to walk through the differences with you last backup before the problem occured, is of course less rigorous.

5

Ok, I’ll try this…

Of course I won’t rename other folder than the “root” folder as I use to connect to my system. I don’t like things like sudo commands, I take the whole responsabilities using **root **user login ^^

I thought also change the run-level to 3 from 5, but yes, I can switch to terminal session to do what is required to reset kde4 settings.

Something strange, when looking at the hostname that I choosed to display at the konsole prompt it changed to “record” instead of the hostname I used that must be “antares” (???)

thank you

6

So you are running the GUI as root? This is a bad idea for many many reasons. Not even touching on security risks, you can simple mess your system up by browsing the files. This could be the reason you are seeing problems.

7

By far a MUCH safer and middle-ground solution is to use the “su” command, which keeps your terminal session as “root”, so you can keep on issuing root-level commands without having to log in to your system as root, which will do very bad things in very short order.

8

Please when using the su commad, use it with -, thus:

su -

And all about it: SDB:Login as root - openSUSE.

9

Linux is fun as root lol

Anyway, you are probably right, even if is the really first time I get such an issue since I first used linux in 1998 !!

At this time I tried to install KDE 4.4.2 it is the same behaviour: the system menu (kde menu) is messed up, impossible to select correctly the items, sometimes there is no system menu on windows…

At this point I wonder if it wasn’t better to reinstall or repair the whole system from the install dvd.

I have no other idea to solve the issue… but running the system in level 3 lol.

The only things annoying me is that I used several third party applications but I don’t want to reinstall them… but I fear that I would be forced to suffer it…

That’s the game and I accepted the rules :!

10

Did you try hcw’s suggestion of moving out your ~/.kde4 folder and have KDE create a new one?

11

Please post output of


zypper lr -d

I do have a slight cold, yet I smell a repo problem.

12

thanx for your help but right now I’m working abroad so I’ll try this command once back home (this week) and then I’ll post the output…

I’m not enough skilled with x11 so I really need to dig to find out how troubleshoot this type of issue.

Anyway I can say with a certain degree of certitude that the issue is system wide… each user space suffer the same behaviour with windows with no menu, no system buttons, strange graphical behaviour when moving mouse on kmenu items (the selection area is shifted and this is impossible to select the correct item), the panel items can not be clicked, no way to configure the panel…

With such an issue the kde environnement couldn’t be used…

I’ll come back with all the informations needed to try help those who have same issue in the future…

thanx

13

Finally I got the different stuff you needed to try find a way to let me recover X11 environment that is fully functionnal.

I did several tests and this is always the same behaviour, the GUI is not responsive (clicking is possible but with delay of more than 10 seconds) that is probably due to a new feature that is building file indexes (??)

Is that possible to disable this feature at X boot ?

Otherwise when clicking on panel settings button there is no way to configure the panel (??)

When I got the hand on the system I launch konsole and I got it with the wrong hostname that I use to prompt. Additionaly there is no window (only menu titles) and no system buttons (no minimize, no maximize, no close)…

I got logs but which one do you believe will be helpfull to diagnose and troubleshoot ?

I got Xorg.?.log, messages, kdm.log, xdm.log,…

Anyway this is the zypper lr -d command output:

#  | Alias                   | Name                    | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type     | URI                                                                                        | Service
---+-------------------------+-------------------------+---------+---------+----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1  | 11.1 - VideoLan         | 11.1 - VideoLan         | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.1/                                   |        
2  | 20100401-174734         | 20100401-174734         | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE%3a/KDE4%3a/Factory%3a/Desktop/openSUSE_11.1/ |        
3  | KDE:KDE4:STABLE:Desktop | KDE:KDE4:STABLE:Desktop | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/STABLE:/Desktop/openSUSE_11.1/        |        
4  | Packman Repository      | Packman Repository      | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.1                                     |        
5  | VLC                     | VLC                     | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.videolan.org/pub/vlc/SuSE/11.1                                             |        
6  | apache                  | apache                  | Yes     | No      |  105     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache/openSUSE_11.1/                            |        
7  | ati_video_drivers       | ati video drivers       | No      | No      |  104     | rpm-md   | http://www2.ati.com/suse/11.1/                                                             |        
8  | devel:tools:building    | devel:tools:building    | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/tools:/building/openSUSE_11.1/            |        
9  | emulators               | emulators               | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators/openSUSE_11.1/                         |        
10 | installz_(local)_1      | installz (local)        | Yes     | No      |  103     | plaindir | dir:///home/installz/rpm/                                                                  |        
11 | mozzila                 | mozzila                 | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla/openSUSE_11.1/                           |        
12 | openSUSE:11.1:Update    | openSUSE:11.1:Update    | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.1/                                                  |        
13 | openSUSE_11.1-0         | openSUSE 11.1-0         | No      | No      |   99     | yast2    | dvd:///                                                                                    |        
14 | open_office             | open office             | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OpenOffice.org:/STABLE/openSUSE_11.1/            |        
15 | packman_belgium         | packman belgium         | Yes     | No      |  102     | rpm-md   | http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.1/                                    |        
16 | repo-debug              | openSUSE-11.1-Debug     | No      | No      |  100     | NONE     | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                             |        
17 | repo-non-oss            | openSUSE-11.1-Non-Oss   | No      | No      |  100     | yast2    | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/non-oss/                               |        
18 | repo-oss                | openSUSE-11.1-Oss       | No      | No      |  100     | yast2    | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                                   |        
19 | repo-source             | openSUSE-11.1-Source    | Yes     | No      |  100     | yast2    | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/                            |        
20 | repo-update             | openSUSE-11.1-Update    | Yes     | No      |   20     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.1/                                                  |        
21 | videolan_(vlc)          | videolan (vlc)          | Yes     | No      |  102     | rpm-md   | http://download.videolan.org/pub/vlc/SuSE/11.1                                             |        
22 | wicd                    | wicd                    | Yes     | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/system:/wicd/openSUSE_11.1/                      |        
23 | wine                    | wine                    | No      | No      |   99     | rpm-md   | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators:/Wine/openSUSE_11.1/                   |
14

@Knurpth, I hope you have a severe cold, this is not smelling, it is definitely stinking!

@soundlord, wait for Knurpht to recover from the shock he got seeing this. In the meantime you could study this extract from our stickys to new users:

IMPORTANT: Note repositories are in essence file servers on the internet containing applications, drivers, codecs, … etc … in this case, for openSUSE. and as a new user, when setting up your repositories by following the guidance in that page, initially set up only 4 repositories (repos). Just 4. No others. None! Those 4 are OSS, Non-OSS, Update, and Packman. Likely the 1st three (OSS,Non-OSS, and Update) are already in place and you only need to add Packman. Please note that adding other repositories can cause compatibility problems. You may add others when the time comes when you learn how to solve problems that may arise from having others. Until then, stick to only the 4 repositories. One may also have to briefly add other repos, install an app, and then remove the repos (for example for installing a graphic driver, or installing an updated alsa sound driver). Once those 4 repos are setup, one can go to YaST > Software > Software Management and change the “filter” to “search” and do searches for specific applications for installation.

To begin with you could throw dices (or use another method) to decide which of the Packan repos is superfluous.

15

Thank you for your help but I think I did a rookie mystake, my system now works only in run level 3 lol !!

Can you believe I could reinstall opensuse 11.1 kde (3.5 ?) only (in expert mode during installation) ?

The problem is that I updated lotta things since I installed suse (at the kernel, programs, libraries, …) and I fear to have to do the work again if things turned bad (that represents a lot of work).

Thank you again,

Soundlord