So, today I went where no soul [at this computer] has gone before. My first attempt at unzipping and installing an application, and needless to say, it ended in disaster. I don't suppose the particulars matter, but just to clarify, I attempted to install SuperKaramba on my Mandrake 10.1 OS.

Coupla little mistakes, my fingers at times pushed buttons about a half a click ahead of my reading comprehension, and voila...newbie neurosis. In theory-it should work-but please note that there is no look of suprise on my face that it didn't.

Here's what I'm thinking. Rather than try to ID and connect a bunch of broken threads (of my making) thereby learning 10,000 new things I'm not ready to assimilate yet, couldn't I just destroy the relevant directories and just start from scratch? My concern with deleting files/directories is that somewhere a morsel remains, waiting to jump in the ointment at the worst possible time. My justification for the slash/burn and re-do idea is to keep it simple and on one level, keep it clean, and figure out where I went wrong the first time, reinforcing at least one little corner of knowledge.

Therefor, is my thinking a recipe for creating untold disaster, or can I do it (slash/burn and re-attempt) and live to tell about it?

Hi southsibling

I had a similar problem a while back when I accidently deleted some very important linked libraries on Mandrake 8. Well I just reinstalled and learnt from my mistakes - I keep a exercise book next to me and continue to write down what ever I learn and think I will use again into it - that way I will learn linux and it is such a fantastic OS even though at times I have a love-hate r/ship with it. All the best and start again!

Regards
Shelton.