LinuxQuestions.org

Distro for very old laptop

Cloud13 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:28:53 GMT

Hi.

I'm pretty new to this Linux stuff, but I'd been hearing a lot about it lately, so I decided to read up about it. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

Now, my main computer is a fairly recent Vaio, but I don't want to go through the bother of backing up all my files and partitioning and what not if I'm not going to like Linux.

However, I have an ancient Toshiba Satellite laptop that'd I'd be willing to make some adjustments to. It has a relatively small amount of files, so it'd be easy for me to back up.

So I was wondering which distro would work best for it, that is, for the most part, user friendly. I am willing to learn about how to use it, with all the commands and stuff, that's one of the things I found interesting.

Here is a spec sheet for said vintage laptop. It's the CDT model.

Really long link to specs

Thanks for any help.

Yo yo yos

Cloud13 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:27:04 GMT

New here, obviously. Mostly using this so I can use a URL in my other topic for some specific help.

LFS chapter 5.14 install fails

glentrob — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:17:54 GMT

Everything has been okay in steps leading up until the make install step of bash-3.2. That step errors due to an apparently missing file. I am building on an ubuntu 8.04 system. I'm composing this on a windows box (where my email is) and I think something got lost in pasting from linux to wordpad. The test -z line file was probably something like t.gmo rather than en@quot.gmo. In any case, the fail messages begin in make[2] and are shown below with the missing file being t-ru.gmo:

lfs@front-office:/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2$ make install
.
.
make[1]: Entering directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/builtins'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `install'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/builtins'
( cd ./po/ ; make DESTDIR= install )
make[1]: Entering directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/po'
test -z "en@quot.gmo en@boldquot.gmo ru.gmo" || make en@quot.gmo en@boldquot.gmo ru.gmo
make[2]: Entering directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/po'
make[2]: `en@quot.gmo' is up to date.
make[2]: `en@boldquot.gmo' is up to date.
rm -f ru.gmo && : -c --statistics -o ru.gmo ru.po
mv: cannot stat `t-ru.gmo': No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [ru.gmo] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/po'
make[1]: *** [stamp-po] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2/po'
make: [install] Error 2 (ignored)
lfs@front-office:/mnt/lfs/sources/bash-3.2$

Any ideas?

kde4.1.2 in current --- AmaroK crashes kded4

grissiom — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:17:51 GMT

Every time I launch Amarok there will be a dialog window tell me that kded4 has crashed. When I choose "show detail" button, it will say the trace back is useless or sort of that. Does anyone have any idea?

Hello Folks!

evaluatinglinux — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:03:15 GMT

Hello all you wonderful people of LQ.

One your members George Alexander referred me here. He was telling me how helpful and wonderful all you people are.
:)

I've been working on Linux for a while now - especially since most of the J2EE applications I write are hosted on the clients Linux boxes. But, its only yesterday (and after a lot of coaxing from George) that I decided to try out Ubuntu Linux on my home PC.

Whether I will love it and stick on to it - Only time will tell. But, I just hope in case I run into any serious roadblocks - just like you helped my friend - you lovely ladies and gentlemen here would help me too!
:)

Keep smiling!

With Best Regards,
Thomas Abraham

LXer: First ALP Linux smartphone?

LXer — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:00:01 GMT

Published at LXer:

An Israeli firm will ship a smartphone that runs Linux to the Russian market, according to industry reports. Possibly manufactured by Sharp, Emblaze Mobile's "Edelweiss" phone will offer GPS and an unprecedented 854 x 480 touchscreen, while running the Access Linux Platform (ALP), reports suggest.

Read More...

Connecting to IBM AS400 db2 database from perl

keysorsoze — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:53:57 GMT

Hi, I need to perform a query against a DB2 database to extract some user information. I am having problems connecting to the DB2 database. My question is is the following query even possible? I have the db::db2 module installed along with the ibm DB2 UDB Application Development Client version v8.2.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use DBI;

my ($hostname,$port)=('192.168.x.x',446);
my ($username,$password)=('ibmuser','as400pass');

$dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:DB2:mydatabase:hostname=$hostname;port=$port","$username","$password") or die "Couldn't connect to database: $DBI::errstr\n";

Please let me know if this type of connection is even possible. I am trying to connect to this as400 from a linux box to extract some user information but first is to establish connectivity to the box. I have used telnet to connect to port 446 on the as400 with success, but fail when trying to run the script with the error below:

Name "main::dbh" used only once: possible typo at ./as400.pl line 11.
DBI connect('mydatabase:hostname=192.168.x.x;port=446','ibmuser',...) failed: Total Environment allocation failure! Did you set up your DB2 client environment? at ./as400.pl line 11
Couldn't connect to database: Total Environment allocation failure! Did you set up your DB2 client environment?

Thanks for any assistance if possible.

how sendmail works on Linux?

jfernandez — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:51:58 GMT

Hi,

I have CentOS 5 and it automatically contains sendmail. I'd like to try the email in my home network, but I don't have a domain name. Is it possible to do that? Can I use a fake domain like www.example.com, and setup sendmail so I can send/receive emails with example.com domain? Do I need dovecot too? Can I use Postfix? It seems it's anther SMTP server, just like sendmail.

I have no experience on linux email server. Can somebody help pointing out where I shall start? Thanks.

JF

Kernel 2.6.27 compile problem

IRIGHTI — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:37:14 GMT

Hello all,

When I try to compile 2.6.27 from my config from 2.6.26.5 and after running "make oldconfig" the compile fails with no reason and goes back to bash.

I tried a "make mrproper" and recopied over the 2.6.27 config I configured but it stops in the same place:

Code:

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_mac_clut224.c

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_parisc_clut224.c

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_sgi_clut224.c

  LD      drivers/usb/core/usbcore.o

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_spe_clut224.c

  LD      drivers/usb/core/built-in.o

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_sun_clut224.c

  LOGO    drivers/video/logo/logo_superh_clut224.c

  LD      drivers/usb/built-in.o

  CC      drivers/video/logo/logo_linux_clut224.o

  CC      drivers/video/cfbfillrect.o

  LD      drivers/video/logo/built-in.o

  CC      drivers/video/cfbcopyarea.o

  CC      drivers/video/cfbimgblt.o

  CC      drivers/video/console/bitblit.o

  CC      drivers/video/vesafb.o

  LD      drivers/video/fb.o

  CC      drivers/video/console/fonts.o

  CC      drivers/video/console/font_8x8.o

  CC      drivers/video/console/font_8x16.o

  CC      drivers/video/console/softcursor.o

  LD      drivers/video/console/font.o

  LD      drivers/video/console/built-in.o

  LD      drivers/video/built-in.o

  LD      drivers/built-in.o

root@toxicslurpy:/usr/src/linux#

bzImage is not created and there is no error at least on the screen.

Any ideas? This is on Slackware 12.1, with make version 3.81.

Nothing in /var/log/syslog or messages.

I'm stumped.

APM: Change Power Button (etc) function?

shadowsnipes — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:16:55 GMT

Is there a way I can change APM's default action executed when the power button is pressed? On my computer it puts it in standby, but I would rather that it shut down instead.

I know ACPI can do this, but the computer concerned is old and APM works more reliably on it.

Thank you in advance for any help.

help re losing internet connectivity (snort/pppd/pppoe related??)

callagga — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:12:09 GMT

Hi,

I've been occasionally losing internet connectivity. The ADSL connection seems itself to be OK (per my ADSL modem D-LINK, DSL-504T, interface), however either a router (www.clarkconnect.com, which terminates ppp connection), or ADSL modem (in bridge mode) reboot seems to clear things.

"snort" seems to be restarting in the mix of things and I was hoping someone could take a look at my logs below and see if they could spot anything? Logs are below. (REPEATING BITS REMOVED TO LOWER SIZE OF LOG)

Note, there are two points in the morning logs marked below. One when I restarted modem to fix issue, and 2nd time I restarted ClarkConnect router to correct issue.

ROUTER LOG
================================================================================
Oct 12 08:32:41 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 08:32:41 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 08:32:41 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
Oct 12 08:32:48 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 08:32:48 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 08:32:48 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
<
Oct 12 08:54:34 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 08:54:34 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 08:54:34 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
Oct 12 08:57:20 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Oct 12 08:57:20 home dhclient: DHCPACK from 10.1.1.1
Oct 12 08:57:20 home dhclient: bound to 10.1.1.2 -- renewal in 1472 seconds.
Oct 12 09:21:52 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 09:21:52 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 09:21:52 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
<
Oct 12 09:48:00 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 09:48:00 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 09:48:00 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
Oct 12 09:51:13 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Oct 12 09:51:13 home dhclient: DHCPACK from 10.1.1.1
Oct 12 09:51:13 home dhclient: bound to 10.1.1.2 -- renewal in 1414 seconds.
Oct 12 10:01:19 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPDISCOVER(eth1) 00:12:5a:b9:1d:14
Oct 12 10:01:19 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPOFFER(eth1) 10.1.1.111 00:12:5a:b9:1d:14
Oct 12 10:01:19 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(eth1) 10.1.1.111 00:12:5a:b9:1d:14
Oct 12 10:01:19 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPACK(eth1) 10.1.1.111 00:12:5a:b9:1d:14
<
Oct 12 10:18:04 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 10:18:04 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 10:18:04 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
Oct 12 10:18:25 home pppd[1842]: No response to 5 echo-requests
Oct 12 10:18:25 home pppd[1842]: Serial link appears to be disconnected.
Oct 12 10:18:25 home pppd[1842]: Connect time 186.0 minutes.
Oct 12 10:18:25 home pppd[1842]: Sent 12656857 bytes, received 325184364 bytes.
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: pcap_loop: recvfrom: Network is down
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Final Flow Statistics
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Frag3 statistics:
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Total Fragments: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Frags Reassembled: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Discards: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Memory Faults: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Timeouts: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Overlaps: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Anomalies: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Alerts: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: FragTrackers Added: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: FragTrackers Dumped: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: FragTrackers Auto Freed: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Frag Nodes Inserted: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Frag Nodes Deleted: 0
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: ===============================================================================
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: INFO => [Alert_FWsam](FWsamCheckOut) Disconnecting from host 127.0.0.1.
Oct 12 10:18:25 home snort[3454]: Snort exiting
Oct 12 10:18:25 home kernel: device ppp0 left promiscuous mode
Oct 12 10:18:25 home kernel: audit(1223770705.685:5): dev=ppp0 prom=0 old_prom=256 auid=4294967295
Oct 12 10:18:25 home NET: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-post : updated /etc/resolv.conf
Oct 12 10:18:27 home dnsmasq[3379]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
Oct 12 10:18:27 home dnsmasq[3379]: ignoring nameserver 10.1.1.1 - local interface
Oct 12 10:18:28 home adsl-stop: Killing pppd
Oct 12 10:18:28 home pppd[1842]: Terminating on signal 15
Oct 12 10:18:28 home adsl-stop: Killing adsl-connect
Oct 12 10:18:31 home pppd[1842]: Connection terminated.
Oct 12 10:18:31 home pppd[1842]: Modem hangup
Oct 12 10:18:33 home pppd[1842]: Terminating on signal 15
Oct 12 10:18:33 home pppd[1842]: Exit.
Oct 12 10:18:33 home pppoe[1856]: read (asyncReadFromPPP): Session 366: Input/output error
Oct 12 10:18:33 home pppoe[1856]: Sent PADT
Oct 12 10:18:35 home dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 10.1.1.1 port 67
Oct 12 10:18:35 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPREQUEST(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12
Oct 12 10:18:35 home dnsmasq[3379]: DHCPNAK(lo) 10.1.1.2 00:07:e3:cc:eb:12 address not available
Oct 12 10:18:35 home pppd[16525]: pppd 2.4.3 started by root, uid 0
Oct 12 10:18:36 home pppd[16525]: Using interface ppp0
Oct 12 10:18:36 home pppd[16525]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/0
Oct 12 10:18:36 home pppoe[16526]: PPP session is 337
Oct 12 10:18:38 home pppd[16525]: PAP authentication succeeded
Oct 12 10:18:38 home pppd[16525]: local IP address 123.233.121.32
Oct 12 10:18:38 home pppd[16525]: remote IP address 10.20.20.210
Oct 12 10:18:38 home pppd[16525]: primary DNS address 203.12.160.35
Oct 12 10:18:38 home pppd[16525]: secondary DNS address 203.12.160.36
Oct 12 10:18:38 home NET: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post : updated /etc/resolv.conf
Oct 12 10:18:39 home firewall: succeeded
Oct 12 10:18:40 home dnsmasq[3379]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
Oct 12 10:18:40 home dnsmasq[3379]: using nameserver 203.12.160.36#53
Oct 12 10:18:40 home dnsmasq[3379]: using nameserver 203.12.160.35#53
Oct 12 10:18:55 home firewall: succeeded
Oct 12 10:19:06 home firewall: succeeded
Oct 12 10:19:06 home snort: snort shutdown failed
Oct 12 10:19:07 home kernel: device ppp0 entered promiscuous mode
Oct 12 10:19:07 home kernel: audit(1223770747.015:6): dev=ppp0 prom=256 old_prom=0 auid=4294967295
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17399]: Initializing daemon mode
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: PID path stat checked out ok, PID path set to /var/run/
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Writing PID "17400" to file "/var/run//snort_ppp0.pid"
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Parsing Rules file /etc/snort.conf
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: ,-----------[Flow Config]----------------------
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: | Stats Interval: 0
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: | Hash Method: 2
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: | Memcap: 10485760
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: | Rows : 4099
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: | Overhead Bytes: 16400(%0.16)
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort: snort startup succeeded
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: `----------------------------------------------
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Frag3 global config:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Max frags: 65536
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Fragment memory cap: 4194304 bytes
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Frag3 engine config:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Target-based policy: FIRST
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Fragment timeout: 60 seconds
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Fragment min_ttl: 1
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Fragment ttl_limit: 5
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Fragment Problems: 1
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Bound Addresses: 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Stream4 config:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Stateful inspection: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Session statistics: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Session timeout: 30 seconds
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Session memory cap: 8388608 bytes
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Session count max: 8192 sessions
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Session cleanup count: 5
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: State alerts: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Evasion alerts: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Scan alerts: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Log Flushed Streams: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: MinTTL: 1
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: TTL Limit: 5
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Async Link: 0
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: State Protection: 0
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Self preservation threshold: 50
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Self preservation period: 90
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Suspend threshold: 200
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Suspend period: 30
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Enforce TCP State: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Midstream Drop Alerts: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Server Data Inspection Limit: -1
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: WARNING /etc/snort.conf(373) => flush_behavior set in config file, using old static flushpoints (0)
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Stream4_reassemble config:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Server reassembly: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Client reassembly: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Reassembler alerts: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Zero out flushed packets: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Flush stream on alert: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: flush_data_diff_size: 500
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Reassembler Packet Preferance : Favor Old
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Packet Sequence Overlap Limit: -1
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Flush behavior: Small (<255 bytes)
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Ports: 21 23 25 42 53 80 110 111 135 136 137 139 143 445 513 1433 1521 3306
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Emergency Ports: 21 23 25 42 53 80 110 111 135 136 137 139 143 445 513 1433 1521 3306
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: rpc_decode arguments:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Ports to decode RPC on: 111 32771
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: alert_fragments: INACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: alert_large_fragments: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: alert_incomplete: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: alert_multiple_requests: ACTIVE
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: telnet_decode arguments:
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Ports to decode telnet on: 21 23 25 119
Oct 12 10:19:07 home snort[17400]: Portscan Detection Config:

RHEL5 - I have RHEL5 DVD , how i install ofice packages like SPREADSHEET ETC,

bharath@linux — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:04:44 GMT

Hello everybody ,

good day to all , this is Bharath Shetty

I am a new to this forum and also like to get informations from the experts .

RHEL5 - I have RHEL5 DVD , how i install office packages like SPREADSHEET ETC, after i have installed the RHEL5 SERVER.

Does this package come along with the same DVD.

pLS help

LXer: ASUS Eee PC S101 - Australian specs

LXer — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:50:09 GMT

Published at LXer:

An ASUS public relations representative in Australia has released details of a new ASUS Eee PC, the S101. Whilst an official release date was not stated, it is understood that the device is soon to be released in Australia. The spokesperson said that "the S101 is unique to the Eee PC family in terms of its design. Its focus is more as a luxurious Eee PC".

Read More...

Stopping of the run

sarayazdani — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:48:31 GMT

Dear All,

I am using Dell Latitude D620. I have installed open suse 11.0 successfully. I have downloaded a source package of a program which deals with physical calculations with alot of iterations.

In the middle of the run, I encounter the following problems:

1. segmentation fault
2. restarting of the laptop
3. stopping in one status

I have ran the same input in another computer with no problem. (with similar cpu and ram).

Please let me know how I cansolve the problem.

Regards,
Sara

gnome-panel above windows title bar

maiden2 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:20:10 GMT

Hi all,
I'm a Ubuntu Intrepid user, starting from some recent system upgrade, I begun to have the same desktop problem I had more time ago with early Hardy Heron releases:

when I launch applications, their windows randomly appear on the upper-left corner of the screen, but with the title bar hidden by the gnome-panel.

system equipements:
Video card: GeForce 9500 GT
Drivers up to date from new Intrepid repository and verified with the nvidia recomended
Accelerated driver enabled

My very boring workaround consists in moving the panel on the bottom screen side, so I can see the windows title bar again, and drag it just under the panel but not behind.

I'll be sincerely grateful to those who will give me a hand