Problems post install... solved

[tenfoot]

As I thought the problem I reported in Software and Applications regarding the Package Manager was solved, I installed Elyssa on my main desktop. Apart from some silly errors on my part - I thought that copying my Home directory to a separate removable drive would be sufficiient and forgot that "copy" did NOT include all the hidden folders - all went well. Indeed, it did so for several days.

However, I know cannot access any drives. Clicking on the Computer icon on the desktop returns the error: Couldn't display "Computer:///" There is no application installed for this file type.

Going to Mint Menu and clicking on Computer returns the error: Couldn't display "Computer:" Nautilus cannot handle computer: locations

Inserting removable media of any type - CD or pen drive does not result in a display of that media, although with a USB flash drive inserted and using the terminal I get the following result.

zed@zed-desktop ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0c76:0005 JMTek, LLC. Transcend USB Flash disk
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 05e3:0702 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB 2.0 IDE Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 03f0:2f17 Hewlett-Packard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

When I insert a music CD I can play it through RhythmBox without trouble.

To try and solve what I thought was a similar problem to the previous one I have tried clicking on Reload Plugins - does nothing. And removing MintMenu from the Panel and then adding it again - does nothing.

The only actions I've done since installation are:
(a) automatic updates
(b) browsed the web using Firefox
(c) installed Gemini (an email/newsgroup client) and downloaded and read email and newsgroups
(d) loaded and updated my accounts in GnuCash
(e) tried to install Osmo (which installed and worked perfectly on Darnya) but there were so may dependencies missing from Elyssa that I gave up in the end.

I don't mind doing a complete reinstall if it is absolutely necessary, but I do wonder what has happened between Darnya and Elyssa (or Celena for that matter) that could be leading to these problems. Bearing in mind that I installed Celena (my first experience of LinuxMINT) and then Darnya and ran them flawlessly. At present I am feeling completely disillusioned with Elyssa.

tenfoot

[Husse]

You copied your home you say
Does this mean that you don't have a separate home partition? It should I suppose
Because this seems like an error that could be caused by some hidden file/folder, although .nautilus does not contain anything I would suspect to give this error. You still have the ".gxxx" folders....

[tenfoot]

You copied your home you say
Does this mean that you don't have a separate home partition? I should I suppose
Because this seems like an error that could be caused by some hidden file/folder, although .nautilus does not contain anything I would suspect to give this error. You still have the ".gxxx" folders....

Yes, I do have a separate home partition. When I did this installation I partitioned, as follows:
/dev/sdb1 ext3 /home 149.02GB
/dev/sdb2 extended --- 37.29GB (have no idea what this is)
/dev/sdb6 ext3 /./dev.static/dev 31.49GB (presume this is root)
/dev/sdb5 Linux swap 5.80GB

I don't know where the sdb2 without a mount point came from. As far as I was aware I just did partitions for root, home and swap.

When I "copied" home, I merely highlighted all the folders in the Home directory and copied them to an external usb hard drive, wrongly assuming, that all the "hidden" files would be copied as well. Obviously I was wrong. So I started with a new Home folder and just copied over the data I'd previously copied to the external usb external drive. Things like pictures, tutorials, clipart.

I'm sorry but I don't know what you mean by "You still have the ".gxxx" folders..."

I have now accepted that I 'stuffed up' in a big way and am reconciled to the fact that I have lost all the configuration data and anything else which would have resided in hidden folders - like all my emails.

What I am most concerned about is how I can access my usb pen drives through the gui. I have examined every item in the Control Centre and compared each with the same item on my laptop, which runs Elyssa flawlessly, but can find no difference. What I find difficult to understand is that Darnya never go me any trouble whatsoever. So my assumption, perhaps wrongly, is that something has changed which affects my particular hardware. But as my knowledge of Linux, other than as a user, is very limited, I have no idea how to trace any problem. If necessary, I will 'bite the bullet' and start again.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Regards from New Zealand on a very cool Friday evening.

tenfoot

[idiotkiwi]

Tenfoot,

Where are you?? If in the Christchurch area maybe I can help.

I dont know an awful amount but am pretty good at demolishing my system.

Regards

Euan

[Husse]

Ok I was thinking that you perhaps had a home partition that was left unformatted during install
Then there are settings in the hidden folders that remain but should preferably not be there - Your menu could still be named Daryna for instance...
The .gxxx folders are the .gconfx and .gnomex which probably would hold that setting

[tenfoot]

Tenfoot,

Where are you?? If in the Christchurch area maybe I can help.

I dont know an awful amount but am pretty good at demolishing my system.

Regards

Euan

In Auckland, unfortunately - no one in their "right mind" lives in Auckland

By some miracle I have managed to do a new install without trashing things, in the past. This time everything turned to "custard". Sometimes feel I should have been put out to pasture when I'd reached my "use by" date.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

I've now reinstalled Darnya on my Desktop machine, so that I have some assurance that there will be no problems.

I am going to use my laptop as a testbed. What I will do is a fresh install of Elyssa, which should give me no problems, and then progressively apply updates, 'cos I have a feeling that it is a file upgrade which may be causing the problem.

I'll report back later.

In the meantime, has anyone suggestions of a better approach to try and solve this problem, please?

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

As a follow up to my previous post.

Encouraged by my success in using Elyssa on my IBM Thinkpad T60 for quite some time without any problems, three days ago I did a complete new installation of Elyssa on my desktop (which has been running Daryna). Everything went well and I applied all the updates available, without the problems I had experience before - see my previous posts regarding Post Installation Problems - which meant I could access all my hard drives, floppy drive, CD drives and USB drives, play audio CDs etc.

However, this morning when I turned on the computer I had a white cross in a red square beside the Volume Control icon on the panel. Clicking on this lead to the following error message:

"No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found"

I then did the following:

(a) Went to Control Panel - Sound and found that Autodetect was chosen for each entry. Clicked on Play Sound. No sound at all.
(b) In turn, chose all the other options. Still no sound.
(c) Noticed that there was no device shown in the option Default Mixer Tracks.
(d) Went in to Control Panel - Services and found that Audio settings management (alsa-utils) was unticked. Clicked on Unlock and entered password. Was then able to Tick option and close window. Rebooted computer. Error still present.
(e) clicked on the Elyssa menu with the right mouse button and then on Reload Plugins
(f) removed the Elyssa Menu from the panel and then reloaded it and again went through (a)
(g) Went in to Package Manager and found that there were numerous GStreamer plugins installed. Marked them for reinstallation and clicked Apply. Rebooted computer. Error still present.
(h) Made a note of all the GStreamer plugins installed and uninstalled them.
(i) Installed all the noted GStreamer plugins
Rebooted computer. Error still present.

Whether any and/or all of the things I've done were necessary, I have no idea but at the time they seemed logical to me

However, nothing has changed. I still have the error message and no sound.

Any help would be appreciated.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

As a follow-up to the previous post, if I run Elyssa from the live CD I have sound. Indeed, I am listening to an audio CD at this very moment.

So, what, if any, upgrade file has caused the problem of no sound from the installed Elyssa?

I am at a complete loss and welcome any suggestions as to how this problem can be overcome.

Regards from New Zealand on a wet and miserable winter's afternoon.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

Yet another follow up to my posts regarding sound problems. This evening I downloaded the Ubuntu Full Circle Magazine, No. 14, in which there was a question regarding the absence of sound after an upgrade. I followed the instructions given in the answer by going into a terminal and logging in as root and then

$ find /lib/modules/`uname -r` | grep snd

which returned nothing, and then

$ sudo aptitude install linux-ubuntu-modules-`uname -r` linux-generic

which downloaded and installed the missing files.

I now have sound

tenfoot

[Husse]

Good that you found a solution - it's a solution I'm a bit reluctant to give as it may cause other problems
There are so many posts to answer now that this one must have been on page two when I search my posts until [kAIOSHIN] added his thanks