I´m stuck, can you help?

[BNA]

I have an Acer Aspire One running linux.

Firefox stopped working (click on the icon, netbook thinks about it, nothing happens).

The default browser also stopped working- however, skype still worked.

I uninstalled firefox to re-install it, but after un-installing it the whole desktop has gone except the task bar at the bottom and the search box at the top.
If you click on the "home" button you get the following message "could not run command:fxdesktop2 --go home: failed to execute child process "xfdesktop2" (no such file or directory)"

The search bar at the top still works and I can still open some programmes. However for some files it comes up with the message "The nautilus file manager is not running" or "There is no installed viewer capable of displaying this doccument"

If you try and use the search box to search the internet I get "could not run commang:firefox "google..." failed to execute child process ´firefox´(no such file or directory)".

The kicker is I am currently in central america and really need to get my netbook working again. Any suggestions on how I can resolve this would be very gratefully received! I have stuff saved on the netbook which I would like, but if the easiest way means loosing it all then I would sacrifice it to get the netbook working again.

Many thanks in advance!

[nujinini]

Hi!

How's your problem?

May I know what distro of linux your running please?

I have stuff saved on the netbook which I would like, but if the easiest way means loosing it all then I would sacrifice it to get the netbook working again.

If your up to making a fresh install of your system, you can save all your data from this present one and reinstall if that would be the path you choose. You may restore those stuffs after the installation. You don't have lose them.

[reed9]

I would guess the poster is using the default Aspire One distro, Linpus Lite. Which is pretty awful by all accounts and also quite out of date now.

It sounds like they had Firefox tied into the desktop packages, so removing firefox uninstalled a good chunk of your desktop.

If you're able to get to a terminal, you can probably fix it. If you hit ALT+F2, does that still open a run dialog? If so, enter terminal in it. If terminal fails, try xterm.

If either of those opens a terminal do

yum grouplist | less

This will list available groups. Now Linpus uses some sort of modified XFCE desktop. I'm guessing they might have a group for the desktop packages, though possible not. Look for various groups with XFCE or Desktop in the name.

If found, give installing a go

sudo yum groupinstall groupname

If possible, I would recommend simply installing a different, more up to date and flexible, linux distro.

Good netbook oriented options include Jolicloud or Easy Peasy.

EDIT: This assumes you have access to another computer and a USB flash drive. You can boot into a "live" session using the flash drive before installation to back up your files as well.

[Roxoff]

If you have one of the early Aspire's which had a version of Fedora installed by default then it should have a special restore mode. I've never used this on an Aspire, but on my Asus Eee, you do a cold boot with F8 or F9 (I forget which - I've not used it for a long time) pressed and it gives you a menu to restore to factory defaults.

With a bit of luck you'll have an option to do what mine does - to reset the system partition but leave the user space alone, it'll be like having a new laptop, but with all your files already there.

[BNA]

Will go and try these and let you know how I get on!

[BNA]

OK, the netbook version is ZG5, which I think runs Fedora (typed in "about" in to the search box and lots of Fedora files came up)

The Alt F2 didn´t work, neither did F8/F9, however if you hit setup F2 when loading there is an option in their for F9 which is "Setup Default"- is this what I want? It then asks "load default settings"?

I also noticed in the main section there is "DFD recovery" which is enabled, but I am not sure what this is...?

Thanks for confirming I can save off the data I have on the netbook- I have a portable drive with me.. how do I go about doing this though...?

Thanks

Brian

[BNA]

I tried to load with "load default settings" - It didn´t work... just the same. Any other ideas.
Whats the quickest way just to get it up and running again? I can afford to lose the data on the netbook...

[nujinini]

...Whats the quickest way just to get it up and running again? I can afford to lose the data on the netbook...

If those data are that important, I suggest you backup them now by booting using a live cd and putting them all in a USB stick. If you accidentally fry your system, your data will be safe.

[lews]

If those data are that important, I suggest you backup them now by booting using a live cd and putting them all in a USB stick. If you accidentally fry your system, your data will be safe.

I'd suggest you do the same thing! If your data is that important then I’d go about saving it even if that means that you'll ruin everything else in the process. It wouldn't be bad to back up your data once in a while in the future to forego similar situations in the future.