Hi,
please bear with me i am a newbie.
I had an old iso for ark linux which i installed on my laptop.
it worked well; however, i wanted to upgrade the kernel and kde to newer versions. It was originally kernel 2.4.something and after apt-get dist-upgrade it is now kernel 2.6.17

[root@localhost arklinux]# uname -r
2.6.17-1arksmp

It is also kde 3.5.0-6
to me this indicates the upgrade worked however I tried to install firefox apt-get install firefox.
When I try to run firefox i get this error:

[root@localhost arklinux]# firefox
kbuildsycoca running...

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap
ICE default IO error handler doing an exit(), pid = 5911, errno = 0

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must ha ve a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:5919): Pango-CRITICAL **: _pango_engine_shape_shape: assertion `PANGO_IS_FONT (font)' failed

Pango-ERROR **: file shape.c: line 75 (pango_shape): assertion failed: (glyphs->num_glyphs > 0)
aborting...
/usr/lib/mozilla/firefox/run-mozilla.sh: line 131: 5919 Aborted "$prog" ${1+"$@"}
[root@localhost arklinux]#

Same happens if i try to run thunderbird

I tried to apt-get upgrade to see if anything was missing and i get this error:

[root@localhost arklinux]# apt-get -u upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be upgraded
bzip2 bzip2-libs
The following packages have been kept back
module-init-tools
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 removed and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 31.5kB/70.4kB of archives.
After unpacking 15.7kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Failed to fetch ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu/pub/a...-1ark.i586.rpm Size mismatch
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
[root@localhost arklinux]#
I tried running it with --fix-missing and still nothing. It appears to my newbie brain that the dist-upgrade broke my machine in some way.

any ideas????

Have you run "apt-get update"? It seems that your current list of packages is incorrect, try updating it.

yes, I have run apt-get update and watched it reload the package lists.

and what does "apt-get -f install" say?

Sorry to bug you and thanks for your help.
I realize its pretty late at night for you right now.
apt-get -f install shows the following:
[root@localhost arklinux]# apt-get -f install
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 removed and 3 not upgraded.
W: There are multiple versions of "gtk+" in your system.

This package won't be cleanly updated, unless you leave
only one version. To leave multiple versions installed,
you may remove that warning by setting the following
option in your configuration file:

RPM::Allow-Duplicated { "^gtk+$"; };

To disable these warnings completely set:

RPM::Allow-Duplicated-Warning "false";

W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems


The wierd thing is if i run apt-get update i now get the following:
[root@localhost arklinux]# apt-get update
Get:1 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586 release [1086B]
Get:2 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586 release [1084B]
Fetched 2170B in 2s (858B/s)
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib srclist
Get:1 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os pkglist [2489kB]
Get:2 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os release [37B]
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates pkglist
Get:3 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates release [31B]
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib pkglist
Get:4 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib release [35B]
Get:5 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os srclist [223kB]
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib srclist
Fetched 2205kB in 36s (60.3kB/s)
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
W: There are multiple versions of "gtk+" in your system.

This package won't be cleanly updated, unless you leave
only one version. To leave multiple versions installed,
you may remove that warning by setting the following
option in your configuration file:

RPM::Allow-Duplicated { "^gtk+$"; };

To disable these warnings completely set:

RPM::Allow-Duplicated-Warning "false";

W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

I did not get this message at the end previously.
It seems I need to remove a version of gtk - what do you think?

I looked up gtk+ to try to discover where my problem is coming from. It seems the gimp toolkit (gtk+) is made up of Glib, pango library and ATK library. This makes sense to me as pango shows up so often in the firefox error message above.
In your expert opinion would you say that this is probably the cause of my problems?

If so would removing one version of gtk+ solve this?
If 'yes' - how would i go about removing the package?

sorrry for not waiting for reply.
I used kynaptic (comes with ark linux as standard) i do prefer synaptic but will install that later.
I looked up gtk+ and noticed there were to install versions one was a 2.4 and the other a 2.8.something
I un-installed the version 2.4 and then went back to konsole
i ran apt-get update:
[root@localhost arklinux]# apt-get update
Get:1 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586 release [1086B]
Get:2 ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586 release [1084B]
Fetched 2170B in 2s (919B/s)
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/os srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/updates srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard/en/i586/contrib srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib pkglist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib release
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/os srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/updates srclist
Hit ftp://arklinux.oregonstate.edu dockyard-devel/en/i586/contrib srclist
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done

then i ran apt-get -f install
[root@localhost arklinux]# apt-get -f install
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 removed and 3 not upgraded.
[root@localhost arklinux]#

firefox still gives me errors:
[root@localhost arklinux]# firefox
kbuildsycoca running...
Launched ok, pid = 2732

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap
ICE default IO error handler doing an exit(), pid = 2729, errno = 0

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:2740): Gdk-WARNING **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap(): pixmap must have a colormap

(firefox-bin:2740): Pango-CRITICAL **: _pango_engine_shape_shape: assertion `PANGO_IS_FONT (font)' failed

Pango-ERROR **: file shape.c: line 75 (pango_shape): assertion failed: (glyphs->num_glyphs > 0)
aborting...
/usr/lib/mozilla/firefox/run-mozilla.sh: line 131: 2740 Aborted "$prog" ${1+"$@"}

any ideas???

Ok here is what i did to resolve this problem.

First i tried to upgrade my machine again and all my packages were up to date except module-init-utils. I tried to upgrade this package and was not able to. on checking around i noticed I also had modutils installed. I uninstalled modutils afterwhich I was able to perform an upgrade and my machine is stable and all packages are up to date.
next to fix my firefox problem, I uninstalled gtk+ use either apt-get remove gtk+ or use synaptic.
On uninstalling gtk+ it automatically removed gtk programs such as firefox, thunderbird, gaim, and a couple of others.
next I uninstalled pango.

Finally i did: apt-get install pango gtk+ firefox
after this firefox ran perfectly and i installed other gtk apps such as thunderbird, etc......

hope this helps other newbies who are having the same problem after doing an apt-get dist-upgrade.

thanks to all the people who offered ideas on how to fix this problem. Its good to be a part of a community where no-one looks down on us who are still learning and trying to find our way around.