Hi there all you Linux Lovers!
As a fairly newbie I come to you with somewhat of a problem.
Last week I upgraded my Ubuntu 8.04 to a 8.10. While my ever so loyal machine was performing this business, I started my diner, once in a while having a quick look at how things were going. And they were going fine. The last thing I noticed on the screen was that upgrading was at about 3 minutes from finishing, and when I got back to my PC I was confronted with a black screen. Later on I found out that the reason for the crash was a malfunctioning USB-hub in which my mouse was located.
Anyway, I couldn't get my Ubuntu running, the only thing I got to do was reach the log-in screen, enter my username and password, after which the screen froze.
Typing CTRL+ALT+F1 gave me a terminal window, but I had no clue what to go looking for or where/how I could find it.
In the mean time I re-partitioned the HD (75GB), placed the old Ubuntu on a 30GB partition and gave the other 45GB to a new partition on which I re-installed my Ubuntu 8.04.
Working from that partition I was able to find out that the old version had indeed upgraded to 8.10 but was missing the <gnome-power-manager> file.
My question now:
can someone explain me briefly if I can in any way restore that missing file or point me out some kind of tutorial where I can learn how to do it?
Untill now I have been looking through about a few hundred tutorials, but most of them are written by people who know the terminal inside-out, and frankly are not really easily understandable for newbies.
The fact is: in that old version I have many maps and files which I would like to save (yes, you are completely right: I should have saved them in the first place!) but some of them are for some reason write-protected and I do not know how to get root-priviliges to un-lock them.
I have launched this problem to "Ubuntu Forums" as well but I got the feeling that most uf them are more focussed onsolving the bugs in Karmick Koala. So if someone on this forum might give me a helping hand? I would be much obliged. Thank you in advance!!
Edit: maybe I should have launched this question through the "Newbie" section so I sent a copy over there.

Hello there!

Not sure why no one has replied to this thread a month later. However, it is a simple solution.
1) Open a terminal (Click the Ubuntu Menu Icon then Accesories)
2) Type in (or copy and paste)
3) Type in your password to authorize this action
4) Voilah! Problem solved!