[kde-linux] Possibility of problems when copying files over?

[James Richard Tyrer]

Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Friday 25 Jan 2008, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
>> Anne Wilson wrote:
>>> On Thursday 24 January 2008 19:21:47 James Richard Tyrer wrote:
>>>> The first question is how you made the back up.  If you simply made a
>>>> copy, you should have used the command:
>>>>
>>>> 	cp -a
>>>>
>>>> both to save and to restore.  If you didn't, you may have screwed up
>>>> file permissions.
>>> I simply copied all the relevant folders onto a removable drive.  I have
>>> kept my uid and gid, so didn't expect any problem.
>> It is making a backup copy without using the "-a" option that can cause
>> problems.  That is if you "simply copy" permissions *will* probably be
>> changed.
>>
> I don't think they were.  I should mention that they were copied to an ext3 
> partition on a usb drive.
>> OK, you have the ownership correct.  The next most likely thing is that
>> the contents of:
>>
>> 	$HOME/.kde/share/apps
>> 	$HOME/.kde/share/config
>>
>> Must have modification privileges for the user.  That is, those
>> directories and all subdirectories must be 7xx, and all files must be 6xx.
>>
> They are all fine.
> 
>> Then there are:
>>
>> 	$HOME/.kde/cache-localhost
>> 	$HOME/.kde/socket-localhost
>> 	$HOME/.kde/tmp-localhost
>>
>> You should not back up these links.  So, logout of KDE and X.  From a
>> text console as root, delete these links.  Also delete:
>>
>> 	/var/tmp/kdecache-<user>
>> 	/tmp/kde-<user>
>> 	/tmp/ksocket-<user>
>>
>> {These are the standard locations.  Your distro might be different, but,
>> IAC, these are the directories that the above three links point to.
>>
>> Now restart KDE.
> 
> Sadly, all is the same.  I still can't 'end-session'.  I can shut down 
> cleanly.  That will have to do until I can find the problem.
> 
Well, we have to conclude that it is probably a corrupted configuration 
file.  You can try to debug this.  Log in with KDE, but choose:

	Menu -> Session Type -> Failsafe

Then when you start the session you should get a blank screen and an 
Xterm.  Run the command:

	startkde > user.log 2>&1

in the Xterm.

Wait for startup to complete and then log out.  You should then get back 
to the Xterm.  Run the command:

	exit

in the Xterm.

The file "user.log" should be in $HOME.  It can be somewhat long but you 
only need the end that starts with:

	startkde: Shutting down...

I hope that this has an error message.

-- 
JRT