Save the poor beast!

I got my Acer one this Christmas, and I am very tech csavvy with windows but not so with linux, so much so that I managed to loose all the desktop bits.


I only have a search bit in the top left and the task bar at the bottem.

Ive been able to get to xterm by seaching for it but things like alt-f2 dont work.

But the crazy bit is I cannot get the recovery disk to boot properly in anything. I get to the screen just after you choose to make a usb key and then nothing no loading.

I tried it on 2 standard desktops, 3 dell laptops including a p4 and a dual core and an AMD (I have a lot of laptops) and in Virtual PC's but cannot get it to load.

So for the first time in my IT career I feel gutted that I have to send it back, all cos of this rubbish Linux - I was expecting a bit more from it than a unrepairable system, quite sad!

What gets me is that this issue seems to have been mentioned before but nobody knows how to fix it, you always find the solution with Windows XP.

 

You may have damaged your group-app.xml file; this prvents the desktop from loading properly, and since the desktop handles things like alt-F2 that doesn't work either. If you do

Code:

xfdesktop2

in an xterm, what output do you get? If it is just the group-app file that's the problem, there should be a standard one somewhere to copy back in....

Have you found this guide? You're not the only one to have had issues with the recovery DVD; Acer haven't done very well on that aspect.

Try the link above; is that finding the solution?

<rant> "What gets me" is Linux newbies who think they can get help on Linux by saying how wonderful Windows is. People who can help you with Linux are likely to be using it because they know Windows is costly, badly designed from the ground up, and thus the means of spammers and malware writers grabbing half the bandwidth on the Net; insulting our intelligence isn't a good way to start asking for help</rant>. Ah, that's better.

 

Hi thanks for the link, I did find that one but there are no images on the links suggested making it very hard to find what i need.


xdesktop2 returns a command or file not found message!



MYRANT: Windows is crap but is well understood with many prople having a real good ideal of whats going on, I have not been able to find one solution to this issue yet, the desktop is obviously there how funny that you can remove the add remove tool in Linux.. why the hell would you want to do that? - Yes I must have done it but how can one get it back? Bits and bobs like Firefox will load.

MYRANT2: Hostility towards appreciating the understanding fromt hat of an MS user will continue the divide, I have tied very hard over the last few days to get to grips with Linux (i know some of it from using a mac) but I can never find the answers I need

Ok cheers for letting me rant 2, no offense I would love to be 100x better at linux, just its got no stepping stones.

 

By 'images' do you mean the download links don't work for you? I've just tried all three and they do for me, and the images showing screenshots are there...

Is that xfdesktop2? xdesktop2 doesn't exist, so will tend to return a not found error!

If you have deleted xfdesktop2, then the practical thing is going to be to reinstall; not because it's irrecoverable without doing so, but because I suspect you may well have taken other stuff with it.

If you were editing group-app.xml, did you edit the one in your home directory? On my system there's a version in /usr/share/pixmaps/ as well; try this:

Code:

cd /usr/share/pixmaps
ls | grep group

If that lists a group-app.xml file, then follow up with this:

Code:

cd ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/
mv group-app.xml group-app.xml.dead
sudo cp /usr/share/pixmaps/group-app.xml ./
chown user:user group-app.xml 
xfdesktop2

What you're doing here is (a) changing to the directory (cd command) where the original copy of the group-app.xml file may be, and listing the files in the directory (ls) but piping (|) the result through "grep group" which will pull out only the lines with 'group' in them, thus saving you several screenfulls of irrelevant files.

Then (b), if the file exists, you're changing to the directory you need it to be in (cd), renaming the existing file (mv - means 'move' but also does renaming) then as root (sudo - you may not have sufficient permissions to copy the file otherwise) copying the original copy into your own config directory. Finally you change the ownership if this file (chown) so that it belongs to you both as a user and as a group.

Then you restart the desktop. You've started it from a terminal here, and if you close the terminal it will die too - but if it works so far, it should then start automatically on reboot. There is a way of detaching the desktop from the terminal so that it doesn't die with the terminal, but that's for another day!

Perhaps you might want to install a different package manager; there are several of them. Pirut (used on the One) is just the one Acer chose.

One of the things which is good about Linux is that there is pretty well always lots of chpice as to how you do things; if you'd rather use a different software manager, you can do so - then what's the point in wasting space on the one you're not using? The graphical ones are usually front ends to a command-line ones anyway: command line tools are usually feature rich but clunky to use, and there's no pojnt in rewriting all that a command line tool can do if a GUI can call it easily!

This is also a bad thing about Linux, from another point of view: since there are many alternatives to how you do things, if you have trouble with something you have to define very carefully what is going on and what tools you are using in order to get real help. You're free to use what you like, but people have to know what you are using to provide any guidance. That's why support tends to revert to providing command-line help - it's more standard than the GUI approaches.

OK: but when you start off by sounding hostile yourself it doesn't help!

What helps you get to grips with Linux is generally other Linux users; open source software is all about sharing knowledge and expertise. If you want to get really good at Linux, track down a local Linux User Group; google "LUG location"[/quote] where location is your town/city/area and you're likely to find people who will take great delight in getting you on board - and will probably sort out your AAO down at the local pub for you while they are at it (it's easier with the machine in your hands than it is by remote control!).

 

appologies for my attitude....


I managed to type correctly this time and get xfdesktop to load

So im closer im just wondering hot to get it to do that whenever i start at least i can get somewhere from here

so now i can get the desktop up what now?

I tried add remove but its not allowing me to do stuff crashuing out with dependancy errors

 

Do you lose the desktop if you reboot? (If something has changed to allow it to run from the terminal, then it should run on startup; if it won't then perhaps something has affected a startup script and we'll have to go looking for the problem there).

Add/remove software: you may need to point it to updated repositories - see macles blog post for more info. I'd asume that later builds of the AAO have the later repo information already set, but perhaps not....

 

No i loose the desktop and have to reenable, i seem to be loosing the search bar as well.

how can i edit the startup file?

 

This may take a few steps to find where something has gone awry; a series of scripts call each other.

Let's start with the file /etc/xdg/xfce-session/xfce-session.rc - this should start up the session when the GUI starts. Can you paste your copy of the file into here (the easiest way is probably to open it in mousepad and copy/paste - don't bother pasting anything above the line saying "[General]").

While we're at this level, let's also check that xfdesktopnew points to the right place: again, please copy & paste that file into here (the whole of it this time!)

 

ok first request from genera:



General]
SessionName=Default
SessionName[de]=Standard
SessionName[ja]=

# Disable management of remote clients by default. The user
# has to explicitly enable this for security reasons.
DisableTcp=True


# This the default session launched by xfce4-session if the
# user hasn't saved any session yet or creates a new session.
[Failsafe Session]
Count=5

Client0_Command=xfdesktopnew
Client0_PerScreen=False
Client1_Command=xfwm4
Client1_PerScreen=False
Client2_Command=xfce4-panel
Client2_PerScreen=False
Client3_Command=/usr/share/search-bar/start-search_bar.sh
Client3_PerScreen=False
Client4_Command=xfcepost
Client4_PerScreen=False


# Default splash screen selection.
#[Splash Screen]
#Engine=mice

--------------------------------------------------------

 

i PRESUME THE SESSIONNAME= is not too major there were some chinease characters that would not send on here.

 

I cant find the xfdesktopnew however

 

Sorry, should be /usr/bin/xfdesktopnew - not one from the same directory.

The other file looks fine.

 

#!/bin/sh
if [ -f /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new ];then
sudo mv /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager
fi
/usr/bin/xfdesktop2 & >/dev/null 2>&1
sleep 5
if [ -f /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager ];then
sudo mv /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new
fi

 

Hmm. Those both look fine then; I have to say this is getting tricky now. These scripts should be called from /usr/bin/xfce4-session on startup; you can't call that once an xfce session is already running, as it is by the time the desktop has failed to load for you. The only way to kill the xfce session in the normal Linpus system is to reboot...

Leave it with me for a little and I'll have a play; there's a possibility in my mind which I need to test a bit. Alternatively, go back to the reinstall option!

 

im having a hell of a time even with the reinstall option I cant get accesas to those links, id put linux back on it if i could download a version that will go onto a usb key.

My dad has bought one and he 2 tried his CD but that messed up his xp machine.

Guess what i even treid putting XP on a usb key but it bluescreened the laptop triny to run so it stil has linux on it.


Perhaps the reality is more to do with th Aspire ones being increadbly rubbish i feel bad for getting so annoyed with linux grr this is a hell of a laptop to be honest, i miss my dell.

 

Is the main problem getting the actual image file?

I've just started the torrent to see if it will come over OK, and at present it's coming to me either at 600+Kb/s or at 6kB/s, depending on whether one Norwegian peer is on line! I'd suggest trying it yourself now.