I run PCLOS with KDE on an old 700 MHz Athlon. I recently tried installing some new packages via the installer and got some error messages which made no sense to me and which I didn't write down (yeah...I'm stupid).

As a result, the next time I tried to open a PDF file, I got errors, KPDF opened, but couldn't locate the file I wanted.

So I figured I'd reboot and....

Everything runs great up to the point where the login menu appears.

When I enter the username and p/w, another error appears indicating that KDE can't start w/ an (OK) button. Pressing the OK button puts the machine into never-never land.

The background is the same as the login menu background. The mouse moves around, but that's it. No icons to click, no menus, no apparent disk access. It stays that way for as long as I have cared to wait. Using Alt-Tab produces a "no windows" indication.

Anyone have any ideas what is wrong and how I go about fixing it?

I'm a relative newbie. I still have the LiveCD I used to install so re-installing something shouldn't be a big problem if I can figure out where to start. I really don't want to have to start from scratch again if it's possible.

Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks.

login as root and create a new user ok. If this problem is happening as root then you have deleted the wrong files. if you login as root and the problems are gone then you have corrupted your .kde file it is a hidden file located /home/user name/ .kde
as root you can delete that then log back in as the user it will take you thru the kde setup. but be for you do if you can run in root. then add a new user then login. as the new user. there is a few things that may be happening let me know so we can start to figure out if it is the xorg or kde

yes boot up your computer so you have to have a console login then type kdm in kdm change your session type back to kde or click default seems you you are in wmv and you do not know how to use it or the scripts are there and the program isn't. if your in the wm session right click any ware or left click to get to your menues.

Not exactly sure what all that means, but I gave it an exploratory college try.

Booted up to KDE login gui. Tried to log in as root, same problem. The first big blue circle is displayed then an error window is generated which states

"Could not start kdeinit. Check your installation" w/ [OK] button.

Booted again into KDE login gui. Opened console without logging in (via icons at bottom of login gui screen) and got to full screen text mode. Was able to log in as both my normal user and as root with text prompt.

While logged in as root in text mode, entered 'kdm' and hit return, prompt came back but nothing more.

Sorry, but I don't know any more about how to change my session type or the scripts. I'm a noob who is tied to my GUI interface, for better or worse. I don't want to start guessing at commands in root for obvious reasons.

If you have any more suggestions I'd like to hear them. Please make the instructions very simple. Line by line entries and anticipate results would be greatly appreciated. Don't assume I know anything about how to use command prompt drive linux, because I don't.

Thanks again.

time to boot a live cd back up all the data you want to keep re install the system. i just do not think I could take you through how to use a maintenance mode on the boot up disk but if you want to fiddle with it go ahead.

Is it possible to only reinstall KDE from the LiveCD? If so, is there any trick to know or is it obvious?

If you don't mind my asking (I might learn something out of this), if I reinstall EVERYTHING will I lose my KMail mailboxes? I assume most of the data files I normally use are saved in my user directories, but I'm not sure of that by any means. Are the mailboxes saved on the user drive or the system drive?

When I back-up my data, can I leave it in the user folders or should I be safe and put it somewhere on my Windows drives and just start over from scratch with PCLOS/KDE?

Will a complete reinstall overwrite existing user folders or will it find them and include them in the new installation as established users?


On the good side, if I make enough stupid mistakes, I'll eventually learn something.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

boot the live disk and copy your .kde file the one you used to set it up the user mine is /home/drakeo/.kde save that it has all your set up for your mail. any time I change systems I take my .mozzila file with me so I do not have to enter all new passwords and set up mail. I use opera mail so I just copy my .opera file and put it on the next system if i have to put it under a another user name I just change the properties to match. this helps me because I have many systems on many hard drives.