[Solved] Suddenly boots to a corrupted desktop

[wharfhouse]

Hi Guys,

Total disbelief here... had a beautiful desktop based on Zen and been tidying up the Main Menu using the 'alacarte' menu editor.  Been doing this in dribs & drabs over some weeks... never been a problem and well pleased on how I can get a minimal look to the menu.  I recently done another tweak as in hiding menu entries under "Administration" since they also appear under Gnome Control Centre which is a lot prettier and silly to have two listings of the same.

The changes took immediate effect and just what I wanted, and I shutdown the system quite pleased with myself!  Now it suddenly boots to an almost frozen desktop... unresponsive other than mouse, desktop icons missing, some panel icons missing all frozen.  The png background still OK, Compiz can still rotate the cube to the 3 other desktops OK, but no more than that.

Ctrl+Alt+F2 brings in a black screen of nothing.  REISUB will reboot for a repeat performance, and booting into Safe Mode now goes nowhere!

Any ideas??? I thought I was starting to get the hang of Linux but now I'm completely flummoxed!

[Vorteggs]

I would try to start the desktop environment from a console before logging in.
For that I would go to a console (Ctrl-Alt-F(1-6)) and run the command for starting the desktop. After that I'd look for error outputs.
Alas I don't remember the command name.

[Vorteggs]

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/how-to-start-gnome-or-kde-command-line-468648/
Have a look at reply #4 please.

[kjpetrie]

When you say booting into safe mode goes nowhere, how far does it get? (Press Esc to see the messages if they're hidden behind a splash screen.)

[wharfhouse]

Kopernik & Mr. Petrie, thanks for your help.

Kopernik as I'm the only user I have autologin enabled so it boots straight to the (broken!) desktop.  I tried the Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6 thing hoping to get to a bash prompt but no, which is why I tried to boot into safe mode and was rather surprised when that failed... I think that's when I realized I had a serious problem  ... I just can't see how altering the menu system legitably could do so much damage!

I must admit kjp I didn't press esc to see any hidden messages when booting into Safe Mode... I've learned something from that... I didn't realize that Safe Mode had a splash screen as it's always black other than the first few lines of text!

I'll try that next time sometime over the week-end when it's quiet.  Thanks.

[djohnston]

I would try to start the desktop environment from a console before logging in.
For that I would go to a console (Ctrl-Alt-F(1-6)) and run the command for starting the desktop. After that I'd look for error outputs.

I think you mean not logging in via GDM on console #8? Commands cannot be run from a virtual console until a user has logged in.

[j-retired]

Kopernik & Mr. Petrie, thanks for your help.

Kopernik as I'm the only user I have autologin enabled so it boots straight to the (broken!) desktop.  I tried the Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6 thing hoping to get to a bash prompt but no, which is why I tried to boot into safe mode and was rather surprised when that failed... I think that's when I realized I had a serious problem  ... I just can't see how altering the menu system legitably could do so much damage!

I had trouble like this, so now I NEVER set autologin - it's more trouble than it's worth! Without autologin, if anything goes adrift it's easy to sort out.... well, easIER !!!
 
j

[wharfhouse]

I had trouble like this, so now I NEVER set autologin - it's more trouble than it's worth! Without autologin, if anything goes adrift it's easy to sort out.... well, easIER !!!
 
j

Thanks for that pearl of wisdom j-retired  certainly worth consideration.

However, I had a play over the week-end and rather than waste any more time struggling to get to the point I was before the system crashed, I did a re-install. I read in earlier days of installing Linux to put my home folder on a separate partition. Magically, all my settings were retained including my re-configured Main Menu! Well blow me down with a feather!   It took only five minutes to re-install... job done.  OK I have to re-install some applications (can these go on a seperate partition as well to save re-installing?) and reconfigure my video adapter and mouse, but I'm getting a dab hand at this now! 

[kjpetrie]

Glad you found a quick way to get back up.

Putting applications on a separate partition isn't practical because they install different files in multiple places so you would need half a dozen partitions and then they'd include most of your system as well.

What you can do to ease recovery after system loss is to remaster your system and store it on a CD, DVD or USB stick. This means you re-install your system rather than the standard downloaded pclos. Search the forum for remasterme and mylivecd for information on that.

[wharfhouse]

Putting applications on a separate partition isn't practical because they install different files in multiple places so you would need half a dozen partitions and then they'd include most of your system as well.

What you can do to ease recovery after system loss is to remaster your system and store it on a CD, DVD or USB stick. This means you re-install your system rather than the standard downloaded pclos. Search the forum for remasterme and mylivecd for information on that.

Thanks Mr. Petrie... +1  I'll definately be doing this 

Sorted!