Problems installing new version of Mandriva

[stuartguthrie]

Hi all,

Please excuse me if this doesn't make sense as I'm new to Linux and am still trying to learn it.

Ages ago I downloaded and installed Mandriva Linux 2009.0 (One) from the Mandriva website. I absolutely love it, but whenever I log-in, I get this little blue icon appear in the task-bar (near the clock) which tells me that a new version is available. I always double-click on it which brings up the following box:

'New version of Mandriva Linux distribution

A new version of Mandriva Linux distribution has been released.
More Information about this new version.
Do you want to upgrade to the 2009 Spring distribution?
[ ] Do not ask me next time
[ Cancel ] [ Next ] '

Anyway, I always click on 'Next' which brings up a bigger 'New version of Mandriva Linux distribution' box but everything inside it is grey and it can literally stay on the screen for days. The aforementioned box still stays on the screen to the side of it.

Is there any way that I can update to the new Linux without having to download it off the Mandriva website and burn it to CD? I was hoping that I'd be able to just update through the update utility, as I'm particuarly interested in Mandriva 2010 when it's released.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Stu

[reed9]

Remove your previous media list as so

su -
urpmi.removemedia -av

Add the desired versions media by going here and selecting version 2009.1. Add at least the Official medias.

The PLF repos contain non-free software, which people often want, such as libdvdcss, which you need to play commercial DVDs.

Update with

su -
urpmi --auto-update -v

[stuartguthrie]

Hey Reed9,

Thank you very much for the reply. Unfortunately I tried that but I couldn't get Mandriva 2010 from it, so I've downloaded the free version and burnt it onto a DVD. I was told by a friend that the install process would simply be able to upgrade from 2009 and would keep all my stuff intact, however, that doesn't seem the case as I now have a new home folder 'stuartg' that doesn't have any of my stuff in it. I can, however, see my old home folder in 'Computer' --> 'Home' --> 'stuart'. Do you know if there is any way that I can restore all my stuff back into my home folder? I'm really freaking out because I had all these torrents I wanted to keep but they (or the Vuze app) are no longer there. Also, when I download torrent files I never saved the torrent, I simply went 'Open with Vuze'.

Lastly, my toolbar / menu bar that is usually at the top of the screen has disappeared. Do you know what I can do to get it back. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry about the late reply - I've been flat out studying for exams (as you can imagine, this is an added stress I didn't need - lol).

Stu

[reed9]

I'm not clear on what you did here. Does the Mandriva 2010 DVD have an upgrade option? Or you did a clean install?

If the latter, how did you set up your partitions? Did you choose manual paritioning during the install, and set your old home partition as /home? Which is sounds like you might have done, since you have both stuartg and stuart folders in home, right? Are you having trouble accessing the stuart folder to see if your files are there?

Lastly, my toolbar / menu bar that is usually at the top of the screen has disappeared. Do you know what I can do to get it back.

Are you missing panels altogether? I don't think Mandriva puts a panel up top by default. Assuming you have the bottom panel, right click on it, select properties and you can choose the orientation. Or you can right click and select new panel.

In the future, I really recommend not doing major upgrades during exams or other stressful times. And you should always back up important data before upgrading.

.torrent files are stored by vuze in /home/USER/.azureus/torrent, so assuming you can get at your old home folder they should be there.

[stuartguthrie]

Hi Reed9,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I thought I did an upgrade but I must have done a clean install as none of my stuff is in my new home folder.

When I went to set up my partitions I used the 'Use current partitions' option which is why my stuff must still be there.

I can access the old home folder thankfully but I cannot seem to copy it over into my new home folder because I don't have the correct permissions or something like that.

I used to have a menu up the top that had access to all my applications and also to lock the computer and shut it down. It also had a clock on it and let me switch between open applications. It was a bit like a 'Start' or 'Apple' menu. Unfortunately I can't seem to get this menu back which is really annoying because it is what I use to get to all my applications.

Next problem is I can't seem to install Azureus. Could you please tell me how I can do this? Before I added it through the 'Add new software' option in Mandriva but it is no longer in the list. Could this be because I have the 64bit version installed?

Thank you SO much for all of your help - you have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Stu

[reed9]

I'm assuming you're using the GNOME version of Mandriva based on the Computer->Home bit, right?

Hit ALT+F2 to open a run dialogue. Type gnome-terminal to open a terminal. In the terminal type

su -
chown -R stuartg /home/stuart/
exit

assuming stuartg is your current username and /home/stuart is the location of your old home folder. This will give ownership of the folder and files therein to stuartg, so you should be able to access, copy, move, or whatever all that.

For Azureus/Vuze, from the terminal do

su -
urpmi vuze
exit

For the panel, try in the terminal typing

gnome-panel

Does it appear? Does it give you any error messages? Assuming the panel comes back, it will disappear again when you close that terminal. Launch it via the ALT+F2 launcher if it worked.

EDIT: Make sure you are not still logged in as root in the terminal when you launch it.

[stuartguthrie]

I'm assuming you're using the GNOME version of Mandriva based on the Computer->Home bit, right?

Hit ALT+F2 to open a run dialogue. Type gnome-terminal to open a terminal. In the terminal type

su -
chown -R stuartg /home/stuart/
exit

assuming stuartg is your current username and /home/stuart is the location of your old home folder. This will give ownership of the folder and files therein to stuartg, so you should be able to access, copy, move, or whatever all that.

Hi Reed9,

When I try to do that, it goes through the list and says 'Operation not permitted' after each entry. Do you know why that is? What can I do?

Many thanks,
Stu

[yancek]

When you hit the Alt+F2 keys do you get a window where you can enter "gnome-terminal"?
When you enter "gnome-terminal", do you get a terminal window open?
When you type in "su -" and hit the enter key, are you prompted for a password?
After you enter the password and hit the enter key, does your prompt change to "#"?

When I try to do that, it goes through the list and says 'Operation not permitted' after each entry.

The above would indicate that you are not getting logged in as root! I'm not sure what you mean by "each entry"?

[ongte]

This is something that hit a lot of users that upgraded without formatting.

Mandriva decided to change the default 1st user UID from 500 to 10001. This screwed up a lot of people's home directories.

You have 2 choices. You can use the new home & just move over the files from the old home, or you could edit the password files and add your old user back. You gotta edit 4 files in total & add in these lines:

/etc/passwd
stuart:x:500:500:Stuart:/home/stuart:/bin/bash

/etc/shadow
stuart:!!:14370:0:99999:7:::

/etc/group
stuart:x:500:

/etc/gshadow
stuart:!::

You'll then need to set your password (a root):
# passwd stuart

[stuartguthrie]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all the help you've given me. I tried the "chown" command again and it appears that I now have write access to everything again.

Thanks heaps!!! You guys rock!!!

Stu