I have successfully upgraded from 7.04 to 7.10 without losing any of my saved data. It was a lengthy but simple process. However, there are now 2 packages that I have used previously that no longer function. Google Earth and mtink. The mtink is rather important for checking my printer ink levels but it will no longer recognise the printer. "Please make sure that mtink has enough right for accessing the device file" is the message. I have installed 'qink' from Synaptic but it will also not work. The message here refers to the 'device's port'. Google Earth just will not start. I get an 'initialising' message then nothing else happens. HELP!! Mary

Is there any error output? That might give some clues as to exactly why these programs aren't working.

(i.e. try starting mtink / google earth in a terminal window, and copy and paste the output...)

I did a clean install and installed the latest version of Google Earth which works well. What brand of printer do you have? If HP, the HP Toolbox works great.

Thank you for your replies. I have accessed both mtink and Google Earth in the terminal through desktop and the responses I got were
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Mtink
Type=Application
GenericName=
Comment=
Icon=
Exec=/usr/bin/mtink
Terminal=false
Categories=X-Debian-Apps-Tools
GenericName[en_GB]=
(END)
for mtink and
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Google Earth
GenericName=3D planet viewer
Comment=Explore, search and discover the planet
Exec=/home/mary/google-earth//googleearth %f
Terminal=false
MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/mary/google-earth//googleearth-icon.png
Categories=Application;Network
MimeType=application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml;application/vnd.google-earth.kmz;application/earthviewer;application/keyhole;
GenericName[en_GB]=3D planet viewer
~
for Google Earth. Perhaps there is another more suitable way to access them other than via desktop.
Mary

I have now typed /usr/bin/mtink into the terminal and the response is enclosed

/usr/bin/mtink: Symbol `_XmStrings' has different size in shared object, consider re-linking

Can't do the same with google earth because I can't find the file other than on my desktop. Mary

Ah, with google earth, did you try reinstalling it after you did the upgrade?

I've never used it myself but after looking it up on google, it seems you have to install it with a .bin file, there being no deb file you can download with synaptic/aptitude?

The reason I say that is that doing an upgrade like you have will only upgrade things you've installed with synaptic / aptitude: any software you've compiled from source, or from some alternative installation method (e.g. this bin file, or manually installing a .deb) will not automatically be upgraded.

Therefore, when you try running google earth (which was installed against the older libraries) against the new libraries you've just upgraded to, there are likely to be compatibility issues (To be honest, I'd be surprised if there weren't!)

(Probably) easy to fix! uninstall google earth and then install it again.

[ Note :In order to run google earth from terminal, type " googleearth " .
as you can see from
Exec=/home/mary/google-earth//googleearth %f

...the command is " googleearth " , and it's in the google-earth directory of your home folder. ]

Similarly, to uninstall, you can cd to /home/mary/googleearth, type " ls " to list everything, and you'll see an uninstall script, which you can run with " ./uninstall ".


For mtink, did you install it from synaptic/aptitude? try in terminal:

Thank you. I've done all that with mtink, result Quote: "No access to printer device file. Make sure mtink has enough right for accessing the device files. Refer also to the documentation" I haven't yet tried Google earth. I'm concerned about replacing the appropriate colour cartridge in my printer.

I have now tried Google Earth. I have uninstalled, re installed, switched off, switched on.The message came up Quote: Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display "0.0" I have done apt-get and get the message "xfree86-driver-synaptics is already the newest version."
And still no progress with mtink. Did I mention the printer I have is Epson Stylus Photo RX420 and is now not working at all because one of the 4 ink cartridges needs replacing and I don't know which one.

Could the mtink error be a permissions problem? Try running it with sudo in terminal, do you still get the same error? i.e.

As to the problem with google earth, I googled the error and found this other post on LQ. Do you have an nvidia / ati card? The following from that post may be relevant to you:


If you still have problems, perhaps you could post the output of this:

Thank you, Google earth now working, one problem solved. I did Sudo mtink and got the message Quote: '_XmStrings' has different size in shared object, consider re-linking.end of quote.

I googled the error, looks like its either a bug in a library called 'lesstif', which I suppose mtink must be dependent on, or mtink is having problems with lesstif.

You could have a go downloading the latest version of mtink and compiling it yourself: this might work. You may have to install some -dev packages with aptitude/synaptic though.

Remember that if you want to compile against a program you need to have its dev package too. (For lesstif, using packages.ubuntu.com and searching for packages called lesstif, that would seem to be lesstif2-dev)