Ridiculous!

[StrayBit]

I think I'd better quit trying to upgrade packages through gslapt!  A couple of months ago I did the auto upgrade:  the desktop picture changed from the stock web to something with a Scottie dog and all of the buttons were different.  A couple of days later I saw that one of the files was sent back to testing.  I could never restore my desktop.  A couple of weeks ago, when it cooled down to the lower 80s, I reinstalled.  Today, I upgraded xfce-weather-plugin:  lost the menu button!  Restarted: NO desktop icons, the desktop is solid blue (no picture of any kind), Filemanager and VASMCC buttons are invisible unless the mouse is on them, the rest are different (browser is now a ball, Start is now a door) and still NO menu button.

I'm using VL6.0 std with xfce.  Tuesday, it is supposed to cool down so I can reinstall then try to add the extra programs (ntp, GrandfatherClock, Wine, etc) then try to figure out how to activate the xfce-plugins.  Oh, and maybe the network will work this time:  No errors reported on startup but get two on shutdown: Samba network something and RPC something both flash 'Failed'.  Vlsmbmnt sees nothing and win98 and vista only see themselves.  No trouble pinging each other and no difficulty browsing.

I hate to say this but I never had this much trouble with Win98!  It can no longer handle internet stuff well but Vector rocks, when it works!

[flip city]

 now that you mention it, I noticed some similar effects. I too downloaded the xfce-weather-plugin testing package. I wonder if that is what caused the icon alterations and disappearances ? not sure though cause I downloaded other packages also.

[StrayBit]

I would venture to say quite probable.  I had downloaded another application earlier that day with no adverse effects..  With the weather forcast calling for a 25 degree drop in our high temperature tomorrow, I hope to find time to reinstall.  One of the things I did on my last install was put /usr in a separate partition - now I can find out if my extras remain.

PS:  And I may try that xfce again.  I was thinking it was the heat causing the issue but, if it affects others, maybe not.  I am curious:  How do we implement these plug-ins, specifically weather?

[flip city]

 Right click on the taskbar panel > Add New Items > Weather Update

[StrayBit]

No wonder I couldn't figure it out - I rarely have a blank area on the task bar!  Thank you so very much.

[StrayBit]

Reinstalled, reset user settings, used FGLRX -> ATI Proprietary instead of Vesa:  failed - log attached.  Short of reinstalling again, I don't know how to change this, I wasn't successful in VASM.

Root is OK except that the exit button is now an open door instead of a green man but that is OK.  I do see that the programs I had added previously are still in the menu and the xfce weather plugin can work except it says 'No Data'.

User has a blue screen (no picture, icons or taskbar), Right-click on desktop does nothing.  How do I get my desktop to be like root?

[newt]

You should have various drivers available for use: ati, radeon, fglrx, vesa. The first two are the open-source ati drivers; fglrx is proprietary as you know; and vesa is the defacto-standard in case all else fails.  I'd give one of the first two a shot and see if you can get better graphics support going before dealing with fglrx.

I've noticed issues with the panel icons and widgets after various upgrades; specifically, when I tried to upgrade to xfce 4.6.x in testing most of the panel icons broke and lost some widgets (sound, battery, etc). Also, yes, the logout icon changed from green_running_man to door_with_arrow.  My recollection was that by reinstalling the hicolor and/or tango icon packages fixed most of the missing icon issues, but not everything. In the end, I downgraded to the stock xfce 4.4.x that came with Standard Gold - I guess this taught me that if it ain't broke don't fix it.  BTW, I was never able to get back the green_running_man icon after the downgrade - I just left it as the door_with_arrow.

You should be able to reset your user setting using skel from vasm for your user. This will overwrite user settings for the items you select. Hopefully this well help you get back to a semi-normal state.

[flip city]

 So let's see if I got this now : upgrades can be downgrades and downgrades can be upgrades .

[Pita]

BTW, I was never able to get back the green_running_man icon after the downgrade - I just left it as the door_with_arrow.

You will find it under:
/usr/share/icons/gnome/22x22(and higher)/actions/system-log-out.png
And if you know where xfce looks for icons then place it there.

I have retained the running man which I prefer over that door since I upgraded
the weather applet directly not via gslapt.

[StrayBit]

You should be able to reset your user setting using skel from vasm for your user. This will overwrite user settings for the items you select. Hopefully this well help you get back to a semi-normal state.

skel did reset ALL of my preferences but made no change to the desktop.  Also ran xdmset and have rebooted but still no change.

.xsession-errors

xscreensaver: couldn't get password of "bruce"
xscreensaver: couldn't get password of "root"
xscreensaver: 04:14:43: locking is disabled (error getting password).
xscreensaver: 04:14:43: does xscreensaver need to be setuid?  consult the manual.
** Message: Querying XINPUT extension
** Message: XINPUT extension found
** Message: Querying Xkb extension
** Message: Xkb extension found
** Message: This build doesn't include support for XF86Misc extension
** Message: Querying Xkb extension
** Message: Xkb extension found

** (xfce4-panel:3224): WARNING **: xfce4-panel is not running
warning: No hp: or hpfax: devices found in any installed CUPS queue. Exiting.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 2.8.12)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-8 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

failed to send notification: The name org.freedesktop.Notifications was not provided by any .service files

[nightflier]

Try creating a new user and see if that account works.

[StrayBit]

New user is good.  The pictures on the taskbar are a little different than the old ones and exit is still the open door.  I can live with this.  Thanks nightflier.  I think I have a choice now: 1) use this as my normal user even though I used my dog's name (need to get that picture attached to the login screen) and move all the non-hidden files from my old one or 2) copy some (which ones?) of the hidden files to my old user (would that restore the taskbar and desktop icons?).

[rbistolfi]

This may be caused by a permissions problem. Check the permissions of your configuration files with ls -al.
BTW, latest Xfce only supports the Tango Icon Theme properly. IIRC, their reason is that is the only one compliant with the XDG standard set by freedesktop.org. That is why you may get different icons.

[caitlyn]

If you're doing automated upgrades with the testing repository enabled then all bets are off.  Testing is just what the name implies and it should be EXPECTED to break things.  The only thing I see as ridiculous is the comparison to Windows '98, a long unsupported OS guaranteed to give you a nice supply or virri, trojans, worms, spyware and other malware.  If you stick with programs, patches, and extra as VL recommends then automated upgrades with gslapt work perfectly and have throughout the lifespan of VL 6.0 and VL 5.9. 

FWIW, I am running Xfce 4.6.1 and I see it as a major upgrade from previous versions.  It works well.  I don't use the weather plugin.

[StrayBit]

@rbistolfi:  Unfortunately my screen isn't wide enough to look at these side-by-side to match them up.  I've attached them if anyone else can see it.  (I don't know yet what I'm looking for - see below.)

@caitlyn:  The only time that I enable the testing repository is to get something specific.  This whole mess started when I did an auto upgrade (testing NOT enabled!).  Since then, I have reinstalled which didn't help my own account and wound up creating one for my dog which gives me usability again.  My comparison to Win98 is that I had less trouble with it than I have with VL5.9 or VL6.0.  Granted, I had to restart it every day (there have been times when I had to do that with VL!).  I didn't like where that distribution was going (hiding everything from us - and, while VL does the same thing, at least I can make adjustments to get it to do what I'm trying to do.  After a year of working with VL, one would expect to have been able to do some of the tasks that have been held back until there was a stable platform to work them in.  And before someone jumps on me about that, I cannot perform those tasks in the newer windows and I have been trying to get Linux to work since Slackware 3!  VL is the first usable installation that I've had.  If only I could keep it working rather than destroying what I already got working when I try to add one more item.

PS:  My reference in the first post was that the xfce file that was available then was moved back to testing after wards!