Stuck between a rock and a hard place

[jack rooster]

Hello. I've been using LM KDE as my main OS since 2012. I kept my Home folder on a separate partition so I can easily upgrade or re-install my OS, maintaining my settings and personal files. After 3 years, I decided to do a complete fresh install of KM 17.3 KDE, including the Home folder. There were a few little problems I thought might clear up with a fresh install of the Home folder.
Unfortunately, it's been a nightmare. Many features no longer work correctly. I can't disable the trackpad on my laptop, desktop panels resize themselves, deleted QuickLaunch launchers reappear, most of the add-on dialog boxes such as those for adding new widgets, themes, windows decorations either don't work at all or the results are mixed up (ex: icons mixed with widgets. I think the new KDE Store is the culprit here.), and I can't make bookmarks in Amarok anymore (I use Amarok mainly for listening to audiobooks). I haven't kept a list of what doesn't work since the re-install (but worked just fine before it), but it would be a very long one.
I re-installed LM twice (on the same day) with the same results. I tried LM 18 KDE but it had too many bugs and mainly, I couldn't install KDE-full (I use a lot of the KDE apps and don't want to have to install them one-by-one.) I don't like looking at a blue-gray desktop so I use tan (a combination wood/steampunk colors and theme) but many of the GTK apps show up in blue-gray and because the Add-on dialog box doesn't work, I can't add any new themes. What happened to 17.3? Any suggestions?

[trytip]

there are probably permission issues see first if there are

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find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

[jack rooster]

Not sure exactly what your command does. It just listed some files from two of my directories then stopped, but I saw this in the middle of the output, between the two directory listings: "find: `/home/ghb/.dbus': Permission denied" I use Baobab to manage my file space and have been getting permission denied messages there while trying to browse my Home directory. How do I fix this?

[Flemur]

Not sure exactly what your command does.

It finds files in your $HOME that you don't own: you should own all of them, so any files listed are potential problems - because they're usually owned by 'root' - from starting graphics programs with 'sudo' rather than 'gksudo' - and you're not allowed to write to them.

How do I fix this?

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sudo chown -R ghb:ghb $HOME

will make you the owner of all the files in your $HOME, as it should be.

[blue_bullet]

Not sure exactly what your command does.

It finds files in your $HOME that you don't own: you should own all of them, so any files listed are potential problems - because they're usually owned by 'root' - from starting graphics programs with 'sudo' rather than 'gksudo' - and you're not allowed to write to them.

How do I fix this?

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sudo chown -R ghb:ghb $HOME

will make you the owner of all the files in your $HOME, as it should be.

Good help, Flemur. I relearned something today. Good reminder that I need to review the linux commands every so often. Thanks.

[jack rooster]

I successfully changed ownership of the Home directory and both the "find" command and a Baobab scan ran cleanly with no errors. The most annoying issues I'm having is being unable to disable the trackpad (which I never use) and no being able to add bookmarks in Amarok. When typing, the cursor jumps all over the place. I changed the settings under System Settings. When I plug in the mouse a message pops up saying the trackpad has been disabled, but it still works. Also, I still cannot add bookmarks in Amarok (the reason I started using it in the first place) How can these be fixed? The settings add-ons dialog boxes still don't work either. Both the "Get New GTK Themes" and the "Ger New (Windows) Decorations" dialog boxes get stuck on "Initializing" (there are others but these are two I just tested. Any ideas on fixing these? These are things which worked well until the reinstall. Thanks.

[Flemur]

Also, I still cannot add bookmarks in Amarok (the reason I started using it in the first place) How can these be fixed?

Dunno anything about Amarok, but try starting it from the terminal so you can (maybe) see error messages.

[jack rooster]

Starting Amarok from the terminal I get:
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceAdded(QDBusObjectPath)
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceRemoved(QDBusObjectPath)
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address.
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action
**********************************************************************************************
** AMAROK WAS STARTED IN NORMAL MODE. IF YOU WANT TO SEE DEBUGGING INFORMATION, PLEASE USE: **
** amarok --debug **
**********************************************************************************************
then:

QWidget::setMinimumSize: (Media Sources dock/BrowserDock) Negative sizes (200,-1) are not possible
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (Playlist dock/Playlist::Dock) Negative sizes (0,-1) are not possible
Could not parse stylesheet of widget 0x1fb9b10
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (Media Sources dock/BrowserDock) Negative sizes (200,-1) are not possible (repeated many times)

then:

QWidget::setMinimumSize: (Playlist dock/Playlist::Dock) Negative sizes (200,-1) are not possible (also repeated many times)

I started Amarok with the --debug option, but was once scolded in this forum for posting the entire readout. How can I post it here? I know there's a way but I can't remember it (It was a few years ago.)

[Neil Edmond]

Put the relevant output in code tags.

[jack rooster]

I tried using the code tags

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....

but received an error message stating I was above the character limit.