blank fluxbox after install

[pop]

Hi,

I've just installed the Elyssa Fluxbox edition. The liveCD worked fine, but after installing, I have what appears to be a default Fluxbox setup rather than the Linux Mint one from the CD - the menus are different, and don't have the web browser/terminal shortcuts, etc.; the Alt+1/2/3/4 /Ctrl+M keybindings don't work and all the networking/update tray icons are gone.
The first time I installed, Mint assistant hung when I pressed 'show sample fortune', and I had to reset. I thought maybe the incomplete setup had somehow affected how it had configured things, so I reinstalled but have exactly the same problem.
I installed Mint over my existing Ubuntu with / on a reformatted ext3, and have /home in a separate partition, which hasn't been affected at all.

Any ideas as to how I can get the Mint setup back?

Thanks,

[Husse]

/home in a separate partition

This is very good, but can also create big problems
As you can find in the wiki I now recommend you to have a separate data partition mounted in home instead
(wiki here http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... _partition )
I hope you can use the system at lest to an extent
Open home and move all hidden files and folders into a new folder (call it what you like)
Then reinstall (format / but of course not home)
I think that does it
Why? If you have not done this before there are settings in the hidden files and folders that can have malicious side effects

[pop]

/home in a separate partition

This is very good, but can also create big problems
As you can find in the wiki I now recommend you to have a separate data partition mounted in home instead
(wiki here http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... _partition )
I hope you can use the system at lest to an extent
Open home and move all hidden files and folders into a new folder (call it what you like)
Then reinstall (format / but of course not home)
I think that does it
Why? If you have not done this before there are settings in the hidden files and folders that can have malicious side effects

Yes I am able to use the system, thanks! I appreciate the wiki link, although I find the explanation of steps there a bit confusing. As far as I can see, the suggestion is to move all your actual files into a nested folder in your home, and to keep *that* directory on a separate partition. This means that home folder would really only be used for app-created settings, etc., while all my data would be another level down.

If this is the case, I don't think I want to have to organise my home folder that way - it is a lot of work to reconfigure every application that I use to put some of my settings in home, and maybe some data partially in another folder, to work out which is most appropriate where, and to remember to do this for everything I install and remove. It also means extra hassle when using any program that uses the home folder as a default and an extra layer of directory nesting any time I want to get to any of my stuff, which is not really ideal. On top of that, I would have to manually copy and merge all my program settings backwards and forwards any time I want to reinstall which removes half the convenience of setting things up separately to start with.

So, alternatives: as I understand it, the only problem is essentially that existing (hidden) settings files in your home folder do not get overwritten, e.g. if a fluxbox menu config was already there, it is left as-is instead of being replaced with the mint one. If this is correct, it seems that just removing/archiving the relevant directories and reinstalling would also solve this problem, so I guess I just need to know which ones.

Do you know which settings Mint Fluxbox installs itself? I'm assuming .fluxbox at the very least More specifically, which settings does Mint modify from the defaults? I'll try removing the current .fluxbox and reinstalling, and see if that works; if not I'll look around for the ones that look relevant and work up from there. Any pointers that people can give me would be much appreciated! I may end up having to reinstall a few times, but I'd rather invest a bit of time up front than have to work with the other system on a daily basis. Fortunately installation is nice and quick (and thanks to all the developers who worked to make it so! )

I'll post back whatever I find out, hopefully there'll be a minimal group of settings that need special handling.

Thanks very much for your help!

[pop]

/home in a separate partition

This is very good, but can also create big problems
As you can find in the wiki I now recommend you to have a separate data partition mounted in home instead
(wiki here http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... _partition )
I hope you can use the system at lest to an extent
Open home and move all hidden files and folders into a new folder (call it what you like)
Then reinstall (format / but of course not home)
I think that does it
Why? If you have not done this before there are settings in the hidden files and folders that can have malicious side effects

Hi,

I have solved this problem now. No reinstallation is required - I just deleted the .fluxbox directory from my home directory, and logged out and in again, and the mint default is created when it doesn't find anything.

After considering the partition idea you suggested before, I still think it's not a good plan - beyond what I said previously, one of the main purposes of keeping /home on a separate partition is to limit damage caused by corruption, and the root partition is the most likely victim of this. If you keep the /home directories on the root partition and only personal data separately, you increase the chances of wiping out everyone's settings if there were to be a problem with it, including customisations people have made to their apps, which are often substantial. Furthermore, it's really unclear what you should do with multiple users: are you expected to create a separate partition and reinstall your OS every time you want to add an account?

To be honest, I don't think you should recommend people do this ever, it seems like complete overkill for the problem of clashed .directories. I really can't think of any use for it that deleting/archiving a few settings folders wouldn't also accomplish. It's also a very non-standard way of setting a system up, and may well cause people problems later down the line if they want to use any other distribution.

[Husse]

Your views are appreciated.
I changed view after reading and participating in a long topic about this were the very knowledgeable forum member Fred advocated this solution. The main reason is the risk that strange things happen if you install (as you just experienced)
Not everyone can be expected to move away the hidden files which I think is necessary to do before a fresh install at least of a new version but probably many times with the same version as well
Not everyone can be expected to have a separate home partition either as long as Ubiquity does not suggest that as standard when you install (There is so much we would have made different if we had the resources - but for the time being the best is to build on Ubuntu - after all it is a good distro)
So it's hanging in the balance a bit which is best to do.
I tend to forget that fluxbox is a little bit different - removing the .fluxbox directory is something that I recognize now
In gnome it's not enough to remove the .gnome folder....