Can't start Opera properly
 

(I guessing this is an rpm problem rather than an Opera problem, which is why I'm posting it here.)

A few weeks ago, my Mandriva crashed and had to be reinstalled.

I also installed Opera again. I had been running the Beta version (9.50, from memory), but I went for the stable version this time (9.26-1plf2008.0), as the Beta had been crashing a lot.

When it finished installing, it prompted me for what to do with the rpms. I was afraid of doing the wrong thing, so I did a bit of reading, but it was beyond my geekiness quotient. The dialog said what to do if unsure which was to delete the rpmnew, or the rpmsomethingelse... can't recall exactly, but I followed the instruction. That might have been a mistake since I was changing from the beta back to the stable release - in any case, Opera won't start properly.

If I try to run it, nothing happens visibly, but it does appear in the list of processes in System Monitor.

When I type opera in the CLI I get:

I tried removing and reinstalling Opera through Software Management, but no joy.

I'd rather not lose my settings (skin, wand, bookmarks) but I do have a backup of the .opera folder from before I used 9.50, if needed.

Any pointers? Guides you can point me to? Thanks.

Why not copy your .opera folder to another location then delete the one in your /home/username folder and try starting opera then. You can always salvage what you need from the copied .opera folder after.

want to know how to handle the .rpmnew thing...
 

That will be my last resort - but it will be easier if I know which file(s) caused the problems.

I also want to know how to handle the .rpmnew thing in future.

So, when a newbie gets one of those warnings after installing a package, how should they decide what to do?

Since the supposedly safe option (which I suspect caused my problems) involves deleting a file, it's not a simple matter of clicking a button to try the other option. And ideally, it should be.

You should compare the changes in the new file with that of the old. If you see no significant gain in using the .rpmnew file then you can ignore it. If you do decide to replace the old with the new, then backup or rename the old one just in case you want to revert back to it in the event of problems.

You might want to go back to using one of the beta versions of Opera. I am using 9.5 beta 2 on Mandriva SPring with no issues. The stable versions of Opera have issues with various Linux distros from my experience. a clean install of Opera would likely be easiest.

Thanks!
 

That's what I ended up doing, and it's running fine - thanks!


I tried - but this is not an option for a newbie or semi-newbie who doesn't understand this stuff.

That seems logical - it would be great if it did this automatically. As it is, this would mean hunting around for the files, which is a pain.

I assumed I was being given accurate instructions by a proper installer... so I followed them. I'll know better next time.

Normally when there's a newer version of a file, a window pops up and shows you the contents of the old and new file. After examining the proposed changes, one of the buttons on that window offers you the opportunity to accept and merge those changes into the old file. I don't know what's happened to that window or how to start it from commandline.

Also there's a command that you can run to merge all new versions of a file (including all of its changes) with that of the old (again I can't remember what that command is), keep and eye on this thread, if and when I find the info, I will post it here.

I agree that as a newbie, it's hard to know when it is safe to do something, to lessen the risks, backing up any files you intend to replace or make changes to can help in the event of things not going to plan.

I'll keep watching the thread, thanks.

Ok, I've found this for you to read: http://www.linux.com/feature/121476. It explains how to manually deal with .rpmnew and .rpmsave files. Although it mentions Fedora, it still applies to any rpm based distro.

The application that allows you to examine and merge configuration files is called etc-update. You run it from commandline as root with the command etc-update.

Check in the package manager if it's available for install. If it's not there, then you need to setup your software repositories (sources) to give you access that application and many many more.

Any of the two links in my signature will guide you through adding your repositories/sources.

Thanks
 

Thanks. It's good to know where exactly to go if I face the same problem again.

I checked the link... I guess there's no easy solution:

Armed with this list of differences, you can decide whether the .rpmnew file can be deleted, whether you should overwrite the new configuration file with .rpmsave, or create a new file that includes aspects of both the files you are comparing.

(Yikes!) So I will take the rational approach: close my eyes and hope the problem doesn't come back again. And if it does, I won't follow any dialog box suggestion that I delete a file. And if I still have problems, I'll have your link.

When dealing with the .rpmnew and .rpmsave files associated with a package update, if I am unsure of just will be the best thing to do, I use the file from the package I am installing. When running the updated package installer, I take the time to read the provided information before executing the package installation to better understand the reason for the update. If the configuration file is the reason for the update I always choose the new file. Even when I know I will be choosing the new file, I take the time to read the differences between the files. I want to know what changes are being made to my system and I want to have an idea of what to expect (if anything) when I run the updated application. Restoring any lost configuration is usually a fairly trivial matter and I believe I get a more stable result for my trouble. This is what works for me. I have been using Mandriva Linux since late 1998 (at that time it was Linux-Mandrake). I just realized that my tenth anniversary as a Mandriva / Mandrake user is coming up in November ...

Sorry for the digression :). The above logic has served me well. Your experience may be different.

HTH,