Can anyone point me to the solution...?

One minute it worked perfectly - I could click on the hda1 or hbd1 or CDROM or Floppy icon on the desktop, and the relevant folder would open. I could copy and paste, move files around, and do all the file management things I want.

The next minute, clicking on a file folder on the desktop brings up the message "Sorry - Kdesktop. KDEInit could not launch'/mnt/hda1' " (or whichever drive I click on).

I tried various actions, none of which fixed it. Rebooting did not bring back the file folder function either. I can get to the folder contents by using File Manager in SuperUser mode, but shouldn't need to do that.

I've searched the forum and Google but found no answer.

What do I do to get the file folders back?

It's Knoppix 3.8.2 on an old Pentium 600MHz machine with 512MB of RAM and three hard drives, one CDROM drive, and one floppy drive.

Nobody know? I've searched, and found nothing on the web.

What I have found is that if I open Konqueror and TYPE in "file:" then I can TYPE the name of the drive or folder, and that will work. In fact, it will suggest a folder name, and clicking on the one I want from the suggestions, that will open. But if I click on the folder itself, I get - twice - the message that "KDEInit could not launch xxx."

Once I've typed my way down into the depths of subdirectories, the "Back" and "Forward" keys will move around the place, but the UP key gets me the "KDEInit could not launch xxx" again - twice.

Nobody know?

The other strange behaviour is that, coming back to the machine after 8 hours, neither Samba Network Neighbourhood nor File Manager Super User Mode would work - both showed the bouncing icon for about half a minute, then disappeared again. I can open a root terminal and run them that way.

Have I got a Linux virus from somewhere, or what?

Baffled!