The Case of the Missing Taskbar

[Rishi]

Another question from a n00b...

Recently, I upgraded some packages using Synaptic's "Mark All Upgrades" option, and after rebooting I now have two problems:

(1) on start up I see "Mounting local filesystems... failed!" in red text.
(2) the taskbar (is this the correct term on Linux?), the show desktop button, and the workspace switcher are gone.

I am inclined to think that the two are connected. Have I screwed something up bigtime? If so, what should I do?

Also, how do I configure a program (in this case the Folding@Home client) to run on startup?

Thanks in advance!

[Vergil83]

(1) on start up I see "Mounting local filesystems... failed!" in red text.

Make sure that nothing is wrong in your

/etc/fstab

Also check dmesg to see if it says anything else. I have had that before, but has never cause any probelms.

(2) the taskbar (is this the correct term on Linux?), the show desktop button, and the workspace switcher are gone.

are you using GNOME, KDE, etc....?
You should just be able to add them again...

Also, how do I configure a program (in this case the Folding@Home client) to run on startup?

take a look at http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/28

[Rishi]

(1) on start up I see "Mounting local filesystems... failed!" in red text.

Make sure that nothing is wrong in your

/etc/fstab

Also check dmesg to see if it says anything else. I have had that before, but has never cause any probelms.

/etc/fstab says:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/hda2       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom0   iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/hdd        /media/cdrom1   iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

Does that look right?

(2) the taskbar (is this the correct term on Linux?), the show desktop button, and the workspace switcher are gone.

are you using GNOME, KDE, etc....?
You should just be able to add them again...

This is probably a really stupid question, but here goes... how do I do that?

take a look at http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/28

Thanks!

[DoctorDan]

Code:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Does that look right?

whats your hda1 (do you have one)? do you have different partitions?

[Rishi]

Code:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Does that look right?

whats your hda1 (do you have one)? do you have different partitions?

Yes - there are two partitions, hda1 is Windows.

[Vergil83]

This is probably a really stupid question, but here goes... how do I do that?

You should be able to just right click on the taskbar. There should be an option. Are you using GNOME or KDE or....?

[Rishi]

This is probably a really stupid question, but here goes... how do I do that?

You should be able to just right click on the taskbar. There should be an option. Are you using GNOME or KDE or....?

Sorry, I'm using GNOME. There's no vestige of the taskbar to click on.

[Rishi]

Never, I've figured it out - I really feel like a retard now! Thanks for all your help, guys.