On Sunday 16 February 2003 2:21 am, Curtis Rey wrote:

Ok, now I'm using apt-get/synaptic to update some packages. I update a few odd things and a fair amount of gnome stuff. Along with this I update the "susewm" package and my problems start. I'm in gnome when I do this.

So, go to log off and back into KDE from gnome. Well Whoopie, screen goes blank, no KDM, keeps flickering, and then I see it start - I figure o'k it had to reinit or something to that nature. But Nooooooooo!

I boots straight into Gnome2. So, where did KDE go, I look at the gnome menu pulldown and All the KDE entries have disappeared except the X apps and gnome --- Huh???

So, run "susewm --help" to get a take on the and it give a list, of course, of options. I see a list of WMs to point it to, I see KDE, I type "susewm kde" and it tells me it can't copy "/opt/kde/share/applnk/Settings//.directory " So, I thing "ok, let's "rm -R /tmp/* etc... and the same for my /home/<username>/.mcop and .mcoprc and .kde/share/sockets-* and tmp-* etc.., etc.., but nope.

So, anyone have a clue how to fix this?

TIA, Curtis. (on the edge of pulling hair out)!

Ok, with a little direction from Anders I figure out the apt-get removed some key kde packages while performing an upgrade. I have solved the problem by reinstalling the KDE packages, seems the key packages were the kdelibs3 and kdm, along with a few others. Here are some log files.

From /var/log/localmessages:

Feb 16 01:07:46 linux checkproc: checkproc: cannot stat /opt/kde3/bin/kdm: No such file or directory Feb 16 01:19:16 linux checkproc: checkproc: cannot stat /opt/kde3/bin/kdm: No such file or directory Feb 16 02:02:18 linux checkproc: checkproc: cannot stat /opt/kde3/bin/kdm: No such file or directory

From /var/log/messages:

Feb 16 01:00:00 linux kdm[25145]: Cannot execute '/opt/kde3/bin/kdm_greet' Feb 16 01:00:00 linux kdm[25137]: Greeter exited unexpectedly Feb 16 01:00:00 linux kdm[25137]: Abnormal helper termination, code 1,signal 0 Unfortunately, I don't have a print out of "rpm -qa | grep kde" but the printout the follows is markedly longer than that of last night which consisted of about only 6 or 7 kde packages vs the present. kdeartwork3-sound-3.1-62 kdeaddons3-games-3.1-10 kdegraphics3-devel-3.1-62 kdeutils3-devel-3.1-58 kdebase3-ksysguardd-3.1-51 kdenetwork3-lisa-3.1-61 kdelibs3-3.1-46 kdelibs3-devel-doc-3.1-46 kde2-compat-devel-2.2.2-375 kde2-compat-2.2.2-348 kdeaddons3-kate-3.1-46 kdeaddons3-kicker-3.1-46 kdeaddons3-konqueror-3.1-46 kdeaddons3-sound-3.1-46 kdeadmin3-3.1-51 kdeartwork3-3.1-62 kdeartwork3-xscreensaver-3.1-62 kdebase3-3.1-51 kdebase3-devel-3.1-51 kdebase3-extra-3.1-51 kdebase3-kdm-3.1-51 kdebase3-nsplugin-3.1-51 kdebase3-samba-3.1-51 kdebindings3-c-3.1-33 kdebindings3-java-3.1-33 kdebindings3-mozilla-3.1-33 kdeedu3-3.1-63 kdegames3-3.1-62 kdegames3-arcade-3.1-62 kdegames3-board-3.1-62 kdegames3-card-3.1-62 kdegames3-tactic-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-extra-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-fax-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-kamera-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-postscript-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-tex-3.1-62 kdegraphics3-viewer-3.1-62 kdelibs3-cups-3.1-46 kdelibs3-devel-3.1-46 kdemultimedia3-devel-3.1-62 kdemultimedia3-midi-3.1-46 kdemultimedia3-sound-3.1-46 kdemultimedia3-video-3.1-46 kdenetwork3-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-chat-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-devel-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-dialup-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-lan-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-mail-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-news-3.1-61 kdenetwork3-query-3.1-61 kdepim3-3.1-62 kdepim3-kpilot-3.1-62 kdepim3-organizer-3.1-62 kdepim3-sync-3.1-62 kdepim3-time-management-3.1-62 kdesdk3-3.1-65 kdesdk3-devel-3.1-65 kdesdk3-translate-3.1-65 kdetoys3-3.1-61 kdeutils3-3.1-58 kdeutils3-extra-3.1-58 kdeutils3-laptop-3.1-58 So, it is safe to assume that during a dependency check while updating either the various gnome packages or the susewm file that, for what ever reason, apt-get/synaptic determined that it need to remove some essential KDE packages/files. Hmmm, I don't know of any apt-get log that I can use to determine what it did (if anyone does please let me know). Be careful. Apt-get/synaptic is a nice tool overall but has been know to perform actions such as this in the past and can potentially hose your system. Luckily, I have only to replace some kde packages - it might have been much worse. Cheers, Curtis.