My PCLOS - KCLUG

11 Jun 2008


      June 11, 
  Christopher and others,
I didn't post details because the mere words are a bit moot _without_ the pix to go with them. That is why I have a "Draft" saved (as previously stated) to send anyone who may be interested. But here is the TEXT anyway, since you asked for it:
--->OK, this is what lead to what you see in those pix:
I tried to turn on my Screen Saver again. I had turned it off for the meeting the other night. I got pic #1.
SO, I went into Synaptic, searched for "Screen Saver" (minus the " marks, of course), updated the ones that had gold star (see pic #2 for error I got during that operation) and reinstalled the "kdeartwork" file (see pic  #3. for error I got during that operation).
Then I rebooted and got an error about the Desktop that I could not save cuz it popped up half way through loading the OS. Notice the 2nd Floppy Drive Icon added to the Desktop. I did NOT put it there myself but did add the 2 for ID purposes. Also notice my System Tray at the bottom of the screen. It's missing my FOUR desktop options as well as the Clipboard and Volume controls.
In addition, I can not get these tiny windows to move or expand and if I have two up at the same time like I did earlier at the writing of the main part of this explanation with Firefox open and my Error msgs Folder open the windows will not exchange being on top so I can close the folder. (I'm presently on my Windhozed machine.) I must click File and then Exit to get out of Firefox and then the same with the Folder window.
Also, my Mahjongg and Shisen-Sho games open small and are unplayable. I  haven't tested any other apps. I feel lucky to be able to have done what I have so far.
AND... when I shut the thing off the screen goes weird looking and Verbose mode looks like so much snow with a few colored dashes thrown in.
$64,000 QUESTION: Is all of this fixable?...or do I have to start all over again with a fresh install of the OS???????????????????????????????????
Thank you in advance for any help you can try to give me.
Julie
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--->UPDATE:
Billy answered with this:
"pic 1 shows a missing library.  Have you recently "yum remove"'  d
something or removed something with the pagkage manager?  Add it back,
and stay out of the package manager.  It's a dangerous place.
pic 2 does not show an error.  redhat package manager recognises when
you have already configured something.  If you already have, but a
package update provides a config file with the same name as one you
the user have touched, it keeps yours in place so that your settings
don't change.  The 'new' config file that rpm installs will be named
<file>.rpmnew.
pic 3 shows the result of a package maintainer including a message to
be displayed with the install of their package, but not filling
anything in.  This error is nothing to worry about.  It's just some
PCLinuxOS developer who wasn't watching what he was doing, and another
package maintainer that missed the error.
firefox FUBAR does not show any problem with firefox.  What 'looks
FUBAR' is the absence of a window decorator.  Firefox does not have a
border of its own.  (Because I can tell it is firefox, it is hardly
beyond all recognition.)  It does not have a title bar, or the
close/minimize/maximize buttons on its own.  These graphical elements
are called "window decorations" and are provided by the window
decorator.  In your case, the window decorator and window manager are
one program, called kwin, which is a core element of KDE.  You don't
explicitly say, but I'm willing to bet no other windows at the time
had their decorations either.  It's hard to say why the window
decorator died.  It may have been because of the library from pic1
being missing.  It may be because of propriatery plugins, like
Yahoo's.  You can easily get your window decorator back by logging out
and back in.  If the problem persists, before reinstallign the system,
try logging in as root, removing your normal username, deleting the
/home/username directory, and making a new user.
Once rebooted does not appear to show any error.  Please clarify
what's wrong in this picture."
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NOW:
What Billy said about pic 1 _*I*_ did not do. THAT is what prompted me to try fixing this on my own.....
However, there where some of the guys who worked on this computer at the meeting the other night and I have no idea what may have happened then as they were all using command line stuff. (You guys know who you are and maybe you can shed some light on what you tried and why?)
What Billy said about Firefox is inexplicable to me since I have absolutely no way to resize the window when it opens nor can I move it by any means. All other windows appear and act the exact same way.
Yahoo has nothing to do with it. I installed the Yahoo stuff on there a long time ago with _*NO*_ resulting problems. As a matter of fact, I've been using the laptop exclusively for internet browsing and e-mail for a couple of months now until this current problem showed up.
The "Once rebooted" jpeg shows my desktop. It shows an EXTRA "Floppy" icon that just showed up there all by itself. I guess Billy forgot my explanation of that when he responded to me on that issue.
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NEXT:
When I tried to do what Billy suggested I found that I could NOT do it. Somewhere a while back I mistakenly set a 'log box' to come up when I go into "Root". NOW that 'log box' hides where I need to navigate, appears as a BLANK box containing NOTHING, and hides the place to manually exit the Root window that is open.
Because of this, I made the mistake of trying to boot into SAFE MODE. I'd didn't know it was yet another place where nothing but command line is allowed. In order to get out of it I had to MANUALLY shut off the computer by pressing the Power Button.
NOW the computer will NOT even turn on!!! Every once in a while it makes a noise so my guess is that it is in a sort of 'sleep mode' or something. I have it UNplugged and am waiting for the battery to run out if this is the case. Otherwise I'll try to reboot the thing again tomarrow to see what happens then.
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SO:
Now you have all the sordid details that I can give at this point.
Remember, Christopher ASKED for me to "try posting a more detail description of the issues" I'm having.
Again, THANK YOU all in advance for any help you may be able to try to give me.
Julie