hdwr HPQ DC7700S ix86 Core Duo
I have just updated this CentOS-5.3 box to 5.4. This process was
not satisfactory. While the update packages all downloaded without
problem the update process itself stalled at several points. By
stalled I mean that at some point the entire process stopped for
hours. The packages at which it stalled included evince, evolution,
totem and vinfo. There may have been others but these I seem to
recall.
Restarting the update process required that the existing update be
interrupted with a <ctrl>C and yum-complete-transaction run. It
took five iterations to get through to completion and in the end I
first installed all the remaining packages one at a time directly
from the command line using yum install packagename and then ran
yum-complete-transaction until all outstanding transactions were
cleaned up.
Now, while the system boots I have no gnome desktops for any of the
users on this host. When root logs in all that is shown is a deep
blue background and a wirefram outline of the Firefox web browser, a
wire frame outline of an xterm window and an analogue clock. Left
clicking on teh background displays a popup menu labeled "Tvm".
The mouse and keyboard work and when one clicks on the wireframs
then immediately fill with the application background, the CentOS
welcome back for FireFox and a black on white scheme for xterm. All
the windows have teal menu bars. Further, it seems that I cannot
switch between windows. If I try to enter a command in the xterm
window then what I type appears in this compose window for
squirrelmail.
I would like to get my previous customised desktops back, but first
I would like to get the default to display. Are there any ideas on
how to proceed?
Sincerely,
--
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James B. Byrne mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca
Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca
9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241
Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757
Canada L8E 3C3