<SOLVED> Desktop Reverted To An Old Desktop

[joechimp]

A mod please put this somewhere else if you feel it does not belong here. I though maybe software but oh well here I am here.

Yesterday my laptop was running the same as always. Good.

I did a routine synaptic update and it seemed to go all right. Everything seemed fine. I burned a data disk with K3b and that went ok. Did a bunch of other things and all went as usual. I had to go out early this morning and just turned my computer on late in the afternoon.

First of , my log in didn't take and I just re entered the info and it logged in.

Well, to my surprise and old version of my desktop screen was there. No idea what happened. I went into my file manager and things were screwy there too. Some of the things I saved in there yesterday are there but other things like an important 8GB file is gone.

My bookmark backups are almost a year old but I know I backed them up yesterday.

If I lose all that stuff, I am really in a mess. It's funny too, because I just was about to back up everything on an external drive that I hooked up yesterday.

The only thing different yesterday was plugging in the external drive in a usb slot. Don't see how that could affect anything.

Hope I am not just missing a simple fix that will make me feel stupid but I really don't care if someone can help me find my missing stuff.

Quite bizarre from my point of view.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.  

[chilly]

Does this help?
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,106393.msg908797.html#msg908797

[joechimp]

Thanks Chilly. It looks like that may have been what happened to me as well. I will try their fixes and see if they work for me.
I hate when stuff like this happens. Thankfully it happens far less than you know who ! 

[chilly]

No prob joe,i updated today and all my settings was gone including desktop icons,a bit strange your 8gig file was lost.
My setup is ok now after changing .kde4,my theme was there when i rebooted after i made the changes but my icons on the desktop had vanished,a few min's had them restored

[joechimp]

I am kind of curious as to why Archie chose to move this to Hard Drive Installation.


Just doesn't seem to be the right category. Has nothing to do with Hard Drive Installation. Or am I missing something?

[T6]

did you solved it?

[Archie]

I am kind of curious as to why Archie chose to move this to Hard Drive Installation.


Just doesn't seem to be the right category. Has nothing to do with Hard Drive Installation. Or am I missing something?

Heya joechimp,

The problem occurred on your install - not on Live, not on USB. It is not in any specific area - hardware or software rather kinda like an update glitch that was easily fixed. Definitely does not belong to the Sandbox. And as chilly had pointed out, the solution is in ...



BTW I was just guessing that you fixed your issue ... or you wouldn't be wondering why the thread was moved as the fix is more important than ... OMG it was moved! 

[joechimp]

No, I wasn't surprised it was moved Archie. I expected it to be as I had stated in my OP. You're right it really does not have a category.

No T6, Haven't fixed it yet but I will. Just need to find where my missing files went and then restore my desktop to the way it was.

Thanks Archie and Chilly. I appreciate it.

[T6]

if you had files on the desktop, afik, those are not touched by the change, links to those files can be what you are looking for?

once you restore .kde4.bak you will recover those

[txm0523]

I had a similar problem about 2 weeks ago after an update. What happened to mine was that, for some weird reason, (not my doing) the update caused the kernel version to be downgraded. My login, desktop and also shutdown did not work properly or was really messed up. Once I finally got the system up and running, I went into Synaptic and searched for kernel. I checked the box to install the 2.6.38 kernel ( this was somehow unchecked after the update ). Rebooted and then everything was back to normal.

Hope this helps.

txm0523

[joechimp]

Thanks to all that helped. Getting the desktop back was an easy fix because of the fine help here.

There are a couple missing files still. I need to do another search and see what has become of them. I can live with it if they are gone.

Thanks again

[johnmart]

Joe you mentioned about an external USB HD.
Any chance you were saving or moving to that device and it was interrupted before it completed?
Just a thought.
John

[Archie]

I had a similar problem about 2 weeks ago after an update. What happened to mine was that, for some weird reason, (not my doing) the update caused the kernel version to be downgraded. My login, desktop and also shutdown did not work properly or was really messed up. Once I finally got the system up and running, I went into Synaptic and searched for kernel. I checked the box to install the 2.6.38 kernel ( this was somehow unchecked after the update ). Rebooted and then everything was back to normal.

Hope this helps.

txm0523

Now that would be unusual. Kernels cannot be downgraded from any updates as it is a completely separate process. I suspect that you may have booted with a previous kernel which is still installed in your system. But you stated that you had to reinstall 2.6.38 which was no longer in your system. How that is even possible is beyond the capability of Synaptic. Changes in GRUB has nothing to do with updates either.

Something really did mess up your RPMS database. Still that does not explain about the kernel.

[joechimp]

Joe you mentioned about an external USB HD.
Any chance you were saving or moving to that device and it was interrupted before it completed?
Just a thought.
John

No, I only plugged it in to see if it had anything on it. The funny thing is I was going to transfer some of the bigger files the next day but that procedure had not been started in anyway.
Strange things just happen from time to time. Just look at the previous post. Now that is a strange occurrence. A kernel change.
Thanks for taking the time to make that suggestion. 

[txm0523]

@ archie,

Yes I will admit that it was very unusual. I actually was running the 2..6.38 kernel and all was fine. On my starup menu all that was listed there was the latest version of PCLOS. I don't have any other OS running. Just PCLOS. After an update, I had issues with the desktop and system not shutting down. The issue about not shutting down was investigated through the forums and I found postings that said to update the kernel. I did check as many things as I could and did find that the system kernel was indeed running at a lower version. I can't explain why that occurred. I am by no means a systems expert, but I know enough to check a few things out. I actually had to re-install the 2.6.38 kernel and reboot. Then the issues I was having were resolved. Still trying to figure out why that happened. Stranger things have happened. I love using PCLOS and I think it's one of the best distros out there. Just anxiously waiting for the newest version to come out. In the meantime, will enjoy my stable system. Thanks to all who work and bring PCLOS to us.

txm0523