ok, the other day I was trying to update gnome to 2.2. I used rpmdrake and when I selected (what I think was) Gnome 2.2 it told me I also would need to install a bunchload of other things, most looked to have something to do with X. I thought 'ok this seems normal' and continued. When nothing changed after i was done installing said files I decided to try to restart X, so I logged off, shutdown, and restarted. Now, I have my system set to display mandrake's user selection dealy (the thing that displays user names and their icons, you click on one, enter pass, and hit go), but when I rebooted it seems that on the screen where that shows it has an enlongated version of it. I see what looks like a very enlongated button on the bottom, and when I hit tab a few times it looks like another enlongated version of the wm selector shows up. I have not used this long enough for me to be able to navigate this just from memory (i.e. hit tab twice, enter pass, hit tab once, arrow down, hit enter) and if nobody can help me to fix this problem, maybe they can give me such instructions to start up the wm and maybe fix the problem =) Let me know if you need anything else, I've tried to be as descriptive as possible.

-AlThor880

to summarize:
using: mandrake 9.0
wm: gnome
did: update gnome to 2.2
happend: weird enlongated logon gui.



[edit] Also, I may have just missed it or something, but I also seem to have lost my bootloader, which is making it hard for me to get into windows or other linux modes[/edit]

AHAHAHAHA DUDE!!! this is exactly what happened to me too!! i tried to update gnome using urmpi but i messed up big time. I installed gnome-desktop package and apparently i was supposed to install more than one package...who woulda thunk it eh?.....anyways i restarted and i got this whacked elongated version log on screen....and unlike you i don't have the navigating steps memorized.... Anyways i think we probably missed some packages....when i get home i am gong to try to install all the packages with "gnome" in the name.....tell me if u get this figured out!!

can you get to console (never used graphical login) try hitting ctrl+alt+bckspc to see if you can just get to command line then login that way and do a startx or from teh command line make sure that you have downloaded all the files and installed them

yeah that's where i am kinda confused about..how do i know if i have downloaded all the required files?? o.O

i dont knwo so much about urpmi but you can most likely do a search of all packages with a keyword of gnome, if you have all the packages that come out of the search then you have all of them if you dont then you need to download them...maybe thats harder said than done...again i dont know much about urpmi

okay i did that and i get like 100 package names...oh boy this is going to take a LOOOOONG time! Ahahaha.....
plz someone kill me now....

hey, thanks for the replies, I was at school and posted that in my comp sci class =p Anyways, I'll try that ctrl-alt-backspace to see if I can get to comand line. see what I can do from there =) I'll post back if I can't figure anything out =)

-AlThor880

If CTRL+ALT+BKSP doesn't get you to command line, try CTRL+ALT+F2.

You should consider upgrading X as well, or reinstalling it at least so you get all your files updated and don't get the distortion. I would do a search for Gnome 2.2 on www.google.com/linux and see if there's any other packages you need to get install along with it or if you have to have certain versions of existing packages (i.e. XFree86, et. al.). Hope this helps.

ok, the ctrl-alt-backspace did not work, however ctrl-alt-F1 did, and inadvertantly I think I discovered the root of the problem. I was trying to run startx but it gave me the error that it was alread running, so I deleted the file it told me to and killed the proper process, in doing so I had to su into root and when I ran startx again I forgot to exit out of that. My root account is set up to run kde, so when it started up, it used kde (duh =p) and in kde every sort of menu item, or bar thingy (at the top of windows...?) was elongated the same way. After it finally stoped starting up, I logged back out and returned to the console where I exited from su. I then did startx again, and my normal account uses gnome so it started up that, and it (is) working perfectly fine, I'm using it now. I believe what happend when I updated gnome (update worked btw, I have 2.2 now =p ) it fubared something with kde. I think the problem with the logon gui is because I was using kdm as the logon manager. now, any way I can fix this? or for now at least, how to I change from kdm to something else, gdm perhaps?

-AlThor880


p.s. sorry for my longwinded paragraphs, but I just write what I think when I think it, and it turns out that way =/

the easiest way would be to just run gnome

I do run gnome, but my computer automatically starts up kdm when it boots up, and because kde is fubared for the moment it has the weird elongation problem. I normally would choose to use gnome from the menu in kdm, but because of the elongation it's all but impossible. I've heard of a gnome based login gui, and was wondering how to get my computer to start that up upon boot.

-AlThor880

I personally would stick to logging in "the old fashioned way" with startx. The only reason I say this is that it's harder to get to a command line when the GUI login screen is all messed up and you can't login.

However, I assume it could be done by reconfiguring your startup somehow. Does kdm start at boot or at start of X? If at boot, it would probably be in your /etc/rc.local file (might be /etc/rc.d/rc.local too). This will show you what other rc.* files it will call upon to run at boot up. I would look at the file, then look at all the other rc.* files it calls upon to see if I need to make any changes. Hopefully someone else will be able to explain this better than I'm doing right now (or correct me if I'm wrong). Hope this helps.

Hi (FYI Texicle it depends on how the run levels are defined, however kdm will probably start at the start of X, during the run level switch during boot up)

So, some elongated screens eh? Any screenshots? I'd like to have a peak if possible...

Anyway, when updating large desktop environments like Gnome or KDE you probably wanna update other large packages like X too (as suggested by Texicle up there). This will be a long and drawn out process, however, it's just the time it will take, not much from you if you are using Mandrake. Fire up a konsole or whatever terminal you like and su - to root. Then:
urpmi packagename
So if you wanna upgrade KDE:
urpmi kde
It will list some dependencies that need satisfying (quite a few hopefully) and just say "Y" at the end. It will download and install them all for you. So now you've got all your problems sorted right? Probably not. But with any luck you will be better off than you are now. If not, post back, I'll be glad to get deeper involved in this one. It was nice firing up Mandy to give urpmi a run again.

Cool

U got it updated?? How did u go through the update process?? did u use urpmi?? i am not sure if mine is updated or not since my KDE is fubared like yours and i am not sure how to get into gnome from command prompt.....

Try that and post how it went for you since i can't try it myself cuz i am at work..i will be home in about 8 hours...i will go try it then