[SOLVED] Possible bad install of Ubuntu via thumbdrive

[saugen48]

Just wondering if that might have happened..as I was just watching a video on Youtube- ubuntu for dummies and I noticed that the guy had a taskbar on the top left of his screen which contained access to "System" as well as his firefox browser icon. He also had a few icons down his left side of the screen of which I have about 10.
I do have the time, battery, wireless icon and maybe something else...I did notice that he was able to click on the desktop to get a window with options...Icant...he was also able to I assume right click on the taskbar along the top and get a window, which I cant...Would it be possible to go online and download another copy of Ubuntu right over the current one that Ihave..Would I get an option to save the file to the desktop as in windows then install from there???? Sorry for the noob questions as thats what I am

[reed9]

It's not your install, it's just different configurations and/or programs installed. At least from what it sounds like.

For the "system" menu on the top panel, there's a couple different menu panel applets for GNOME, one of which has that.

Here's some basic info.
Customizing the Ubuntu GNOME Desktop Panels - Techotopia

I don't use Ubuntu or GNOME, so I can't direct you too much further.

[saugen48]

Thanks for the link...however, therein lies part of my problem...they mention right clicking on different areas to get a properties window and that's just it, i cannot right click on these areas and get anything

[reed9]

I would try resetting everything to the default settings and possible reinstalling the desktop package.

If you open your file manager and hit CTRL+H, it will show you hidden files (files beginning with a .) Look for folders .gnome, .gnome2, and then in .config you might also find some gnome stuff. Delete or move those. (You'll lose any custom settings you've had, or passwords saved by the gnome-keyring. These folders will regenerated to the defaults when you reload the desktop.)

Install the desktop metapackage

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Restart the desktop

sudo service gdm restart

Or reboot.

[saugen48]

I guess I didnt mention in this particular post, I have Ubuntu on an HP Mini 210 netbook...no optical drive.
As for resetting to default (where and how)
As for reloading, that would be a good Idea but no cd drive and it doesnt seem to want to read off of my thumbdrive with Universal USB Installer and any ISO that I put on it..tried several...worked the first time I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on the new HDD, but now it wont read any others..wont boot to the USB thumbdrive and the boot order has been changed to USB..kinda stuck here

[reed9]

I'm not suggesting reinstalling.

You're just deleting the configuration files for the desktop to reset them back to the defaults. As I said, these primarily are in the hidden folders ~/.gnome and ~/.gnome2. I believe also ~/.gconf and ~/.gconfd. There might be a separate gnome-panel config file in ~/.config as well.

Then reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package. If some components were removed somehow this will pull them in.

[saugen48]

I'm not suggesting reinstalling.

You're just deleting the configuration files for the desktop to reset them back to the defaults. As I said, these primarily are in the hidden folders ~/.gnome and ~/.gnome2. I believe also ~/.gconf and ~/.gconfd. There might be a separate gnome-panel config file in ~/.config as well.

Then reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package. If some components were removed somehow this will pull them in.

thats the problem, it doesnt seem to want to read the USB thumbdrive so I dont know how I will accomplis the reinstall...so I dont want to go in and start deleting things If i cant get it to re-install or read anything from the thumbdrive...

I can see the thumbdrive as an added icon in the left hand list of applications.
if I right click on the thumbdrive icon it gives me two choices of "open" "Eject"
If I click on open I get a message saying that " This file appears to have a run option would I like to use it" and if I click "Run" it tells me it cant find the run program...
Very frustrating.

desperation is making me wonder if there is an easy way of erasing the HDD via ubuntu and trying to reformat if possible with Ubuntu and try and reload that way...Maybe it will start booting from the usb thumbdrive as it did on the initial install..
Hope I am not frustrating you too much here...lol thanks for hanging in there

[reed9]

Well, as I said, there isn't anything critical in those files, removing them will just revert the settings to the defaults. But you can certainly just move them to another location so they are easily restored if needed.

So you can't read a thumbdrive at all? I was under the impression it just wasn't booting from the drive, but you can't access it as a storage device either?

Can you plug the thumbdrive in and post the output of

dmesg | tail
sudo fdisk -l

[saugen48]

I can open the thumbdrive and tried clicking on the install folder within the os that was on there and got the same msg as stated above, may not be word for word but close "This file appears to have a run option would I like to use it" and if I click "Run" it tells me it cant find the run program"...

Will go to the ubuntu netbook downstairs and post the results to the command code you sent

Thanks again

[saugen48]

Well, as I said, there isn't anything critical in those files, removing them will just revert the settings to the defaults. But you can certainly just move them to another location so they are easily restored if needed.

So you can't read a thumbdrive at all? I was under the impression it just wasn't booting from the drive, but you can't access it as a storage device either?

Can you plug the thumbdrive in and post the output of

dmesg | tail
sudo fdisk -l

8335.214772] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DT 101 G2 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[18335.225679] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[18335.935362] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 31342592 512-byte logical blocks: (16.0 GB/14.9 GiB)
[18335.937244] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[18335.937260] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 41 00 00
[18335.937269] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18335.942972] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18335.943005] sdb: sdb1
[18335.969219] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18335.969234] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

There is actually multi boots on this thumbdrive