Hi all, I am using Suse 9.3 pro. Two quick questions please

1 When I try something new, eg install a new program, sometimes I mess up and the next time I boot KDE will not start. I always end up reinstalling. I have had this prob for years, is there a way of getting my boot file working properly again?

2 I have a Yahoo email account. I have tried 3 different email progs so far to fetch my mail, so I do not have to keep going there. Each prog tells me it cannot log in properly. I know the details I entered are correct, so can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks, Mac

Please could be a little bit more specific? What do you mean by mess up?

What programs have you tried? I use Evolution and it never fails.
Maybe there are some special requirements by the server when setting up your account. Please post some more details . .

Thanks for reply.

I not sure how I mess up. The programs seem to install properly, however when I next re-start, KDE will not load. I suppose I am really asking how I get Linux to boot back into KDE from the command line. I know gui is init5, but I do not know how to find out what is wrong with KDE. Obviously this does not happen all the time. Thanks

So far, I have tried KMail, Sylpheed, and 1 other (sorry cannot remember name). I had not heard of Evolution, so I will try that one now. I believe the prob is something to do with authentication.

Thank You, Mac

1) That's quite strange -- are you sure it's KDE that's locking up and not X? If you can reproduce the error, where do you end up? Does the system start and you are given a CLI (Command Line Interface) when you expected a GUI username and password area to log into KDE? What login manager do you use (KDM, GDM, XDM, other...)? Are you still able to access the login screen or does that not even start? Chances are, if you can't even get into the login screen, let alone KDE, then there is something wrong with X, not with KDE. Check that this is the case -- if you are given a command line prompt, type "startx" into the prompt and see what happens -- if KDE starts, then great, if not, then it should give out some kind of error.

2) Check that you have entered all the details correctly into the configuration of Evolution, including POP3/SMTP information, etc etc. Good luck!

thanks for the tips;

The last time I had the prob, the suse login screen appeared, however when i had put in my details, the screen went black and then returned to the suse login screen. No error came up, it was stuck in that cycle. I could start as root, and get into kde, but i don't know how to sort my login account out, hence another reinstall. The reason I think its a prob with kde is that my system tries to start, but obviousy hits a line of code it does not like. Does kde have a start file, which perhaps I could look at as root, if it happens again?

Sorry for this stupid question. Will Evolution work on kde? I ask because when i went to install it, all the dependant files refer to gnome.

Thanks for your time, Mac

So we can assume now that the problem is with KDE, not with X.

Just did a google search, as I am unsure of the cause (I'm a GNOME user, not a KDE user) and the most common cause seems to be that your home directory may have magically become unwritable. Check:

$ cd /home
$ ls -l
drwx------ ... ... ... ... ... user // Where user is your user name
$

If the permissions are not "drwx" in the first four (doesn't really matter about the rest, but you might not want read permissions on your home folder for others, if you have other people using the computer) then you need to make sure that it is. Most likely, KDE is unable to write settings to your home folder when you log on, so it crashes. The reason why you are able to log in as root is because your "home" folder is actually located at /root.

Also, Evolution will work under KDE, but it is a GNOME application. You'll need GNOME installed (or at least the GNOME libraries) to run it. GNOME is a completely different environment, and may take up some disk space, if you are short on it. It's a shame, I find Evolution to be the best of the best, really -- if you like the combination of Address book, Calendar, Tasks and E-mail like in KMail, then this is for you.

However, I'm still convinced that your problem is not the client, but the settings. All of these clients work, if configured correctly. After doing some more google-ing, I found that, unfortunately, you need Yahoo's premium service to receive mail by POP access. You need to pay $19.99 per year, for this capability -- "Yahoo Mail Plus". However, there is an alternative:

http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/

Give it a try and let us know how you get on!

Hi, thanks again. At 1st glance I don't really understand ypops, but I have to go work. I will look at it over the next few days and let you all know. Mac