OK Konqueror crashed as I tried to write this a minute ago.

I have some files in my /home/[username] that are weird, some are name this:

È% @åž @€D @ÿÿÿÿ õ @!E•@†ßÿ¿

8ßÿ¿Ä–‰ ßÿ¿ 1ò Tßÿ¿Œ,5 †ßÿ¿pßÿ¿g - 1ò Œ,5 �

Some have a lock icon on them. I have no idea where they came from. I only installed Mandrake two days ago.

Anyone got any tips or info for me?

I have no idea, this is really odd. But if they have a "lock" icon on them, it might mean they were created by the root user.

No it's just me using the system and I know I didn't do anything as root or put the files there. I only log on as root ( I su to root ) within my non-root account when I need to. I can't even see the option to log on a root on the user log on screen.

My install is only a few days old so that makes it all the more strange, I could see if I downloaded something and forgot about it. I mean I am new to Linux, used it for years but never got far, so I could have done something to cause this but I can't see it in only a few days.

Could it be a virus? I don't detect any unusual disk activity or large amount of bandwidth when I'm not active on the net. I know Firefox and Konqueror are crashing like crazy. KDE crashed the very first time the desktop came up after the install! Not good.

I'm using Mandrake 10 the "download version" as they call it, which means no good apps I guess. It's not the Community version. It was downloaded off Mandrakes website.

(BTW English is my first language, but my previous didn't look that way! )

It's not a virus. From what I have read, there are like 40 virus programs for Linux out there, and all of them were created in a laboratory and none are being transmitted "in the wild."

Did you do md5sum on your .iso files after you downloaded them? Sounds like a corrupt install either from corrupt downloads or a hiccup during install.

No I didn't check the .iso's using MD5 I've never done that before, I guess I should read up on that and learn how to do it.

This install is the second after I messed up my dual boot. I reinstalled the OS wiping out the previous install, in order to get the dual boot screen to recognize my Windows XP drive (Primary Slave). If that's the reason doing yet another install wiping out Mandrake install #2 wouldn't solve the problem, or check the .iso's as you said, download new .iso's, check them and do it that way. Guess that's the whole reason for MD5!

Yeah I was wondering if there were any Linux viruses out there. I saw on The Screen Savers that it was rare but I thought they just said e-mail viruses were rare.

Went back and rechecked. MD5's matched.

So... I dunno.

Blech. This is out of my depth. If I saw this, I would back up data, delete partitions, and reinstall assuming something went horribly wrong.

Yeah this should be a new reality show...When Installs Go Bad!

Anyway, nothing too important on it and I can access everything, it still works, just weirdly.

Maybe I'll try SuSE or Fedora instead.

Thanks anyway people. Nothing to see here, move along.

End of post.