Gnome & kde died after fresh install

[locutus]

I'm starting a new thread because I'm not sure if it's related to my previous kde installation problems.

I did a fresh download and fresh install of Mint 4.0-gnome. Seemed to work ok at first. Then I installed kde from synaptic. Upon rebooting error messages appeared even before the login screen appeared. Gnome was still the default window manager at the time. The messages were (in very large type; the 3rd line appeared to be cut off at the end):

/etc/gdm/failsafeXServer: line 47: [: too many arguements
Warning: could not retrieve EDID because get-edid is not installed (1)
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by a
Warning: could not generate /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe for vesa driver
100%
<EXIT>

I had run envy and installed updated nVidia drivers so I don't understand the 'vesa driver' part. Does this mean anything to anybody?

[Fred]

locutus,

What did you download to try to get KDE. KDE is not compatible "out-of-the-box" with Mint 4 Main. It isn't as easy as downloading and installing the Kubuntu desktop in Ubuntu.

Fred

[locutus]

OK, didn't know that. I tried, however, because my install of Mint-kde lasted for about 4 reboots then died altogether. And further reading of the Installation & Boot forum showed many, many other users who had the exact same problem. I asked in my kde thread if installing kde into Mint-gnome was likely to work but no-one replied, so I gave it a shot. I wasn't at all sure that the problems I had with this installation was related to kde or not.

So have you any answers to the kde problems, or shall I just wait for Mint-5? Sorry but I can't stand gnome. If nobody has good ideas to fix the kde, I'll just go back to Mepis. But I'd really, really prefer to get this fixed.

[Fred]

locutus,

Sorry, but I am not familiar with your other thread about problems with Mint 4 KDE CE. Could you give me a thread url where you detailed it or give me a brief summary?

I am running the new KDE CE version now and have had no show stopper problems. On the whole it runs pretty good for me. Better than most.

Fred

[locutus]

Hi Fred.
My kde thread is here:
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10503

Other threads about the same thing or even just not even getting installed:

http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10524
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=9366
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10331
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10258
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10330
http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10100

And all these are just from the first page of this forum's list. There were others when I looked yesterday that have by now been bumped to page 2 or 3.

[Fred]

locutus,

I looked at all of those threads you referenced. But, if I were just looking at yours, the one you listed first, I would suspect either a bad cd or incorrect UUIDs. You would get bad UUIDs if you partitioned, formatted, or installed another distro after you installed Mint.

Note: One of the threads you listed did turn out to be a bad cd. I helped him myself and when he re burned properly, it worked ok.

Having said that, all the posts you mentioned I am sure aren't bad burns. The problem with KDM not starting correctly could be a real bug or more likely a conflict with the drivers on your motherboard. If that's the case there isn't much I can do to help you. It could also be a conflict with the proprietary graphics driver. Proprietary drivers are notoriously buggy and problematic.

This is what I would do if I were you and had enough patience to try one more time.

Re download the Mint 4 KDE CE Final. Check the md5 sum. Burn it s-l-o-w, 4X, in a RAW mode. Then check the md5 sum again with the one on the Mint download site, just in case you made a mistake.

Try to do the install. If all goes well, update the install with the default Mint updater as it comes configured. Don't mess with the repositories. Don't do anything else. Run the system like this for several days, until it breaks or you are satisfied that it works ok.

This should tell you where the problem lies. If it breaks like it did before it is probably a motherboard hardware driver problem or a real KDM bug. If it is running ok then the problem is most likely proprietary graphics driver related.

Hope this was helpful.

Fred

[locutus]

Thank you for the reply and advice.

Actually, I just finished doing all that before I read your reply (I really wanna make this work!). This time 'round, I didn't activate ubuntu's universe and multiverse repositories; I left them as-is only adding the wine repository. All the extra software I wanted was actually in the default repositories, which (pleasantly) surprised me. I've been working on it for five hours, getting everything configured, installed, firefox and sunbird all confiigured....

So far, so good. I've rebooted a few times and no error messages.

I don't think it's a motherboard issue: all other distros I've tried worked fine. The Mepis install I've used ever since 7.0 beta 1 was released. Mepis I've found to be extremely forgiving about software bugs; I've been using all current issues foe three years and I've _never_ broken it. (Xandros on the other hand I could break in less than 10 minutes without even trying!). But I've found that Mepis does not handle Compiz well though, and Mint handles it excellently. That's why the change. I've been watching Mint since it debuted with Ada.

I did not install, reformat, or anything after either installations.

So, thanks again. Sorry to take up yor time, and we'll see if the current stability holds.

[Fred]

locutus,

No problem sir. I just hope it works out for you.

Fred