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Well, another chapter in the on-going misfortunes I like to call my life:

You may recall, last time, on planet Whatthehell'swrongnow:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=473291

K7Vmm MoBo - 266 across the board - 100 Gig Maxtor - half a gig
Ram - AMD Athlon 1800+ - Mandrake 10.1 - on Comcast Lines

This time, I seem to have something similar cropping up -
except it's different - but it's the same....

Let me explain:

When I had the original problems, that trashed not one, but two hard drives
(leaving me with the brand new one I'm using now)

When those problems cropped up, what I'm about to describe were the first set of "symptoms"
that signaled the downfall of the old hard drive, etc.,etc.,etc....
and went "away" just before the problems began.

THIS time, the symptoms are back, and they're stronger in this system with the new hard drive,
than they were in the old one...

I lost the ability to enter root
and the ability to SU in a Terminal
and the ability to access my CD Rom
or read any CD that previously was easy to read
or access my Floppy
or my file system (tells me I don't have permission to access "/")

OR - even shut down, I have to do it manually....

In fact - that option seems to have gone on vacation not only from my start bar,
but from the log-in page as well....

The really odd part is, that I have almost the exact system sitting next to it
that I don't allow to make outside connections on (records and Business files),
and I'm running the exact programs, and using the exact files on it
as the one that's on-line....

In fact, except for the fact that the other system doesn't have a cd burner,
the only uncommon thread is one's on-line, and the other isn't....

Do I need to push this thing in the bushes and shoot it -
or can I just kick it in the pants, and flip the switch -

????????

I'm worried it will just be the same thing all over again - except this time, I backed up everything,
so I don't lose $30 grand in software a second time....

Anybody got any ideas what's going on here ???????????

Is there life after 40 ?

Did JR REALLY get shot ??

Is there HOPE for my System - or is it time to move on ???

hhhhhheeeeeeeeeellllllppppppp...........

PLEASE ????

I refuse to give up !!!

PM
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My first instinct is your mobo is a lemon, but I wouldn't think that would cause all of your symptoms, but it could cause some of them. What distro are you using? Is it the same distro that broke the last 2 hdds? Perhaps you should switch distros? If that's not it, then maybe you really should just get a new computer, your situation almost sounds hopeless.

Are you really that old? Rock!

I'm only 22, I only know the show off of TV Land. Still could dig it though, especially the clothes.

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Mandrake 10.1

Actually, I'm 60, and I've been using Mandrake since something like v5.2

If you go back thru the old thread, where this happened before,
I had several different versions, trying to avoid this problem, but it didn't work...
I had put on W2K to check out all the WinDoze software I had for my Mall,
before I posted it, so I knew it was OK to recommend

That's when the original problem cropped up - I caught what I think
was some kind of virus - it ate a hole thru all my WinDoze Files,
and then proceded on to the partitions, including the Nix partitions....

What I wound up with, was a sort of vegetable soup of programs and Software and Articles - couldn't tell a player from the equipment
so to speak....

I gotta admit - the first time it caught me by the short hairs -
but lesson learned, and I do daily back-ups now, sometimes even more,
if I'm working on a lot of stuff (depends on how much Email I get -
with my mall just open this month, I'm averaging anywhere from 1,000
to 3,000 Emails a DAY)

And, I'm doing it all by myself - wrote the html and the Java for 40
stores, wrote all the Articles, the PDFs, tested every product posted
on my mall myself, etc., etc...

Right now, I'm in the middle of setting up all the advertising
by myself too....

Then, you probably don't remember Will Robinson, and his side-kick
the Robot - I sort of relate to that myself, and I'm not
gonna leave the Robot on a deserted planet by itself -

I'll fix this, or I'll die trying....

PM
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Mandrake 10.1

Actually, I'm 60, and I've been using Mandrake since something like v5.2

(Actually, I think I have 5.0 or 5.1 on a floppy somewhere around here)

(edit: found it - looks like 2.1 or 2.2)

If you go back thru the old thread, where this happened before,
I had several different versions, trying to avoid this problem, but it didn't work...
I had put on W2K to check out all the WinDoze software I had for my Mall,
before I posted it, so I knew it was OK to recommend

That's when the original problem cropped up - I caught what I think
was some kind of virus - it ate a hole thru all my WinDoze Files,
and then proceded on to the partitions, including the Nix partitions....

What I wound up with, was a sort of vegetable soup of programs and Software and Articles - couldn't tell a player from the equipment
so to speak....

I've been thru the entire system, MoBo, Hard Drives, Memory Sticks,
even tested the capacitors for leaks and fading - nothing -
everything's solid

I gotta admit - the first time it caught me by the short hairs -
but lesson learned, and I do daily back-ups now, sometimes even more,
if I'm working on a lot of stuff (depends on how much Email I get -
with my mall just open this month, I'm averaging anywhere from 1,000
to 3,000 Emails a DAY)

And, I'm doing it all by myself - wrote the html and the Java for 40
stores, wrote all the Articles, the PDFs, tested every product posted
on my mall myself, etc., etc...

Right now, I'm in the middle of setting up all the advertising
by myself too....

Then, you probably don't remember Will Robinson, and his side-kick
the Robot - I sort of relate to that myself, and I'm not
gonna leave the Robot on a deserted planet by itself -

I'll fix this, or I'll die trying....

PM
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Are you still dual booting with Windows? I assume you would be, since a lot of times you really don't have a choice with software you have to pay for. If this computer is your work computer your internet business, my best suggestion is to get a mac. The new dual core intel macs are top notch. If I had the moeny I would get one for myself. The Adobe (and others) software for webcreation on the mac is top notch as well.

Back to fixing your Linux. The virus idea seems like a stretch to me, this time anyway. After reading your previous thread I'm amazed. I've never heard of a virus that could eat a partitions it couldn't mount. (windows dosen't come with the proper software to mount nix paritions) Are Fedora and Mandrake the only two nixs you've tried? BSD might be a good option in your situation.

I'm sorry but switching distrobutions is the only answer I can come up with. You have me stumped.

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Penguin:

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm just poor white trash, and I can't afford a new mac - or the time to learn how to use it - I'm in the middle of opening up and an Ad Campaign right now - and probably for the next 6 Mos. till it stabilizes....

Besides, I don't do Mac....

Funny - your sig says your a Gentoo user, tho....

And, no - I'm NOT dual booting anymore - I have far too much on this system to risk doing that again.

It's not the first time MicroSnore has done that (or something like it) to me - I learned early about "Uncle Bill" and his wonder programs....

Never shoulda let the snake back in the house....

Last Computer Fair I went to, I peeled off the backing on a case sticker that said: "Linux inside" and stuck it square in the middle of my forhead, and people looked at me like I was a flasher or something....

I don't need Adobe or any HTML Editors - I've been writing my own html code in notepads so long, I can set up 40 Web Sites in 28 days - create the code, trouble-shoot, post, up and running.

I'm a little bit slower in Java, tho...

I've tried all the flavors I could get to operate on my system - College, Yes (hated that one), Knoppix, Debian (not a bad distro...), Fedora, Red Hat (liked that one), Lynspire, Ark. Movix, Morphix, Devil, DragonFly, Mepis, Irix, Lycoris. Ubuntu, Red Hat, Xandros, Suse, and plenty more - even tried Rock Cluster to see if I could multi-task several single CPU based systems together (I built and run a 15 system LAN for the Church) - I like Xandros, Ubuntu and Mandrake the best, tho..... I'm running Mandrake 10.1 right now in this system, and it's purring (that is, until this shift in my files...).

I just don't know enough about Unix or Minix to talk to this thing the way I'd like to - might take a course or two over at the local community college this winter, if I can squeeze in the time....

If I didn't know better, I'd be a paranoid tweek, and blame it on the Govt, but I'm running thru an old 386 sandbox that's turned off, with a wake-on-lan modem and no hard drive, and it's been rock solid for the last several years....

I bring it up with a distro on a floppy, log-on, set up the other system, shut it down, pull the floppy, and use the other system to cruise the Net....

Works GREAT....

Never had ANY problems - no hacks, no trojans - no cracking - till I put that damn W2K on the system -

Now - if I need to check anything out, I install it in my daughters game system running '98 - I got that OS down pat, so I just re-install it over itself if anything starts to show up missing....

I'll just do a back-up twice a day, and keep an eye on it - maybe buy a back-up HD just in case.... 100 Gig Maxtors are going for $59 around here now - I just got too much else to do - even a simple HD swap would take up time away from setting up the Mall, and I can't affort that right now.... I'm working 12 to 14 hours every day on the Internet for the moment, and when you're old and fat, that's a strain trust me in that one....

PM
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Personally I'm not really a Mac fan. I would much rather have a linux box, but on the same hand I understand the benefits and positives of owning one.

I lost the ability to enter root
and the ability to SU in a Terminal
and the ability to access my CD Rom
or read any CD that previously was easy to read
or access my Floppy
or my file system (tells me I don't have permission to access "/")
Any error messages that could give us a clue?

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Nothing significant -

my "Home/User" file on the desktop is accessible now, for some strange reason, but when I try and log-in as root, it tells me that I need to check my spelling, and when I try and bring up a CDRom to read a CD, it says:

unable to mount volumn
mount: /dev/hdc already mounted or /mnt/cdrom buisy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hdc already mounted on /mnt/cdrom

But, I get no Icon on the desktop, and I can't access thru Computer/filesystem - all I get is:

"The folder contents could not be displayed."
You don't have the permission necessary
to view the contents of "/".

So, I log-out to go into root, and it won't take the password (that I've been using for 2 or 3 years)....

??????????????

BTW: is there a cli line I can enter to shut this thing down, or do I have to keep hitting the button and going thru the unclean shut-down routine every time I want to cycle ??

PM
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From the command line:

shutdown -> obvious
h -> halt after shutdown (r -> reboot)
now -> when to do it

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Thanks Penguin -

Works like a charm (of course)



For some odd reason, my /home folder came back, but I still can't log-out normally or go into root....

Sa Lavie

PM
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The only thing that qualifies me to post a reply is that I do not have the problems you describe or anything like them (touch wood).

I notice from the previous thread that you were running an alpha version of some programme. If that's a habit, I'd lose it.

I've been advised to avoid updating or upgrading anything that affects hal or dbus. Chaos ensues.

I've found something similar with kde. There's a sticky on another forum about updating kde. My experience tells me it just is not worth the hassle.

The next version of the distro, in a maximum of 12 months' time, will include a new kde and what will be so different anyway? The same applies to a lot of other software.

So, make life boring in the OS department is my suggestion. Vanilla versions of everything.

In case you have a nasty, which seems unlikely, you could run an anti-virus scan. You could, perhaps more productively, install chkrootkit and run that. I installed it on Mandriva 2006 using Smart.

From somewhere I forget where I downloaded a pdf on the subject. From that I get this link:
http://www.chkrootkit.org/

[Much later] I've tracked down Linux RootKits For Beginners - From Prevention to Removal. For some reason, it's a pdf displayed on a web page. I downloaded it by saving a copy.

Break a leg.

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Got it - and I will put it to good use.....

Thank God you don't have my Computer problems, fortunately, I've got a 15 system LAN around to source from, so when one goes down, I just pull another out and use it, till I repair the first one...

But, they're Business and Church Computers that aren't allowed phoneline acccess, so I have to keep picking on this one computer to get back online.... someday, I'm gonna blow a tire out on it an I'll have to tear it down and return it to virgin status.... and I'll probably get a good chewing out too....

I'm running a test on the capacitors next, look for capacity variance - if that's not it, I've about exhausted all my avenues, but I've got a sneaky suspicion that capacitance (sp?) isn't the problem, because how can that effect the OS in this particular way ??

I mean, I can understand how that might be a problem if if the program keeps fading in and out, but I think I have a rogue element in here I'm just not identifying yet - something keeps changing the perameters of the game....

Do I really have to break my leg.... ??

(joke.....)

PM
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