system problems!!

[JeanB]

I installed a couple of upgrades earlier today and for some reason (I don't know if it's because of the upgrades or because of stuff my kids did) I'm having problems with my system. The following are a few of the problems I seem to be experiencing:

- I'm unable to log on to any sites online (such as this site, Facebook, Yahoo mail)
- I can't open F-Spot to download photos from my camera
- When I plug in my camera it shows on my desktop but it doesn't automatically open F-Spot like it usually does....and I'm unable to unmount the device
- After installing the upgrades I've lost all of my bookmarks in Firefox

These are the problems that I've discovered so far, but it seems that there's alot of stuff messed up on my system. Please help. I'm very close to reformatting my drive and installing Windows...I seem to have problems that perplex me regularly with Ubuntu.

Thanks,
Jean

[MikeTbob]

Firefox doesn't normally lose your bookmarks when doing an upgrade, this sounds like some kind of abnormal behavior to me. Which Distro are you using? Did you apply these "Updates" using the system updater or did you install them some other way. And lastly, your kids shouldn't be able to trash your
Linux system like this, unless of course they have to admin password.

[JeanB]

Thanks for your speedy response. Since I'm unable to logon to these forums on my home computer I had to wait until work this morning to reply (I had posted the message on my neighbour's computer). By which Distro am I using, are you referring to which version of Firefox? I'm using Firefox v 3.0....Ubuntu v 8.04. The updates were done using the system updater. I always just install any updates that pop up.
If my kids were playing games on the internet could they have inadvertently downloaded a virus to my system?

...another real irritant that happened is that my browsers "Back" button no longer seems to work.

Thanks!!

[MikeTbob]

If my kids were playing games on the internet could they have inadvertently downloaded a virus to my system?

...another real irritant that happened is that my browsers "Back" button no longer seems to work.

Thanks!!

I doubt that your kids downloaded a virus or anything, Linux isn't widely targeted for stuff like this. If they know the system password, they could have changed some settings or something.
I think, since you are having so many problems, it might be a good idea to re-install Linux, it shouldn't take but about 30 minutes if you are fairly proficient with Linux.

[D-cat]

...and maybe give the kids their own log-in account which doesn't have any privileged user access. Thus, less to go wrong.

AFA firefox goes, try renaming your ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozbak with firefox closed. When firefox comes back up, it should be reset to defaults. ("~/" means your home directory, or /home/username/)

Possibility: Something like installing Tor with Privoxy, then running firefox through the proxy will effectively prevent you from logging on just about anywhere. Since it usually creates a different profile for Tor, you'd be missing you history, saved passwords, and bookmarks too. Resetting defaults would fix the inability to log in anywhere (at least for now).

The KB shortcut for the back button is [Alt + (Left Arrow)]. This is universal for most browsers.

[JeanB]

I doubt that your kids downloaded a virus or anything, Linux isn't widely targeted for stuff like this. If they know the system password, they could have changed some settings or something.
I think, since you are having so many problems, it might be a good idea to re-install Linux, it shouldn't take but about 30 minutes if you are fairly proficient with Linux.

I'm not at all proficient in Linux. How would I go about reinstalling it? And does it effectively reformat my drive? I don't want to lose everything I have saved on my harddrive.

AFA firefox goes, try renaming your ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozbak with firefox closed. When firefox comes back up, it should be reset to defaults. ("~/" means your home directory, or /home/username/)

I have no idea how to even do this. I opened the Firefox folder and didn't see any files named ~/.mozilla....am I doing something wrong (well, I think this is obvious ).

Possibility: Something like installing Tor with Privoxy, then running firefox through the proxy will effectively prevent you from logging on just about anywhere. Since it usually creates a different profile for Tor, you'd be missing you history, saved passwords, and bookmarks too. Resetting defaults would fix the inability to log in anywhere (at least for now).

...I have no idea what any of this means. Way over my head. haha


I'm really not sure what to do. It seems that I've also lost my ability to print anything. I'm very confused.

Thanks for helping!!
Jean

[rokytnji]

~/.mozilla

is in home folder. Use the view button in taskbar and select view hidden files.

[JeanB]

is in home folder. Use the view button in taskbar and select view hidden files.

Okay, so I've changed ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozbak.....but now Firefox won't open at all. I click on the firefox icon and it thinks for a few seconds but doesn't do anything.

[MikeTbob]

Can you open a terminal window and launch firefox as a command? It might give errors that can be helpful.

[JeanB]

Can you open a terminal window and launch firefox as a command? It might give errors that can be helpful.

What command do I key in the terminal window to launch firefox? I'll try that when I get home from work today.