user account in VL 5.8 Std gone awry

[nubcnubdo]

I dont know how this happened, but my demo VL 5.8 Std box is in trouble. The user account is inaccessible; it's been an incremental deterioration. I first noticed something wrong when double clicking a YouTube .FLV file and the file association was lost, so that I had to select VLC from a list to play the file. Now today, I can't access the user account, while root account seems to be okay. I did get to desktop in user account one time, but the menu button and boot splash were all XFCE, not Vector. Then when I finally did get to XFCE desktop for user, there were 5 "launch application" instances (gear symbols) already running on the task bar.

So how do I recover Vector custom desktop for the user account? How do I re-associate .FLV files with VLC? Please identify config files that I can grab from root account to fix user account.

Any suggestions...

EDIT: Although I cannot access user desktop from login, I did manage to access user account from TUI. So I can get to user desktop.
The panel manager shows panel is managed by Xfce with the mouse symbol.
What happened to the Vector menu button, how do I reset it to Vector, from Xfce?
Seamonkey opens for about 2 seconds and then closes of its own accord.
Shutdown from XFCE Menu almost doesn't work, takes 3 or 4 tries, very reluctant. Shutdown button on panel only shuts off panel, does not give shutdown dialog; instead panel disappears for rest of session, having been killed.
I have another working VL 5.8 Std computer...if I just knew which config files to copy over.

[lagagnon]

Try VASM, SKEL and choose all the options except perhaps .bashrc and see if that works.

[nubcnubdo]

I should have used SKEL by now, but I haven't. The only place I find SKEL is to run VASM in user mode. When I try to operate SKEL here (VASM-user mode), I keep getting the same welcome menu. I cannot access any VASM setting through VASM-user mode. I have taken a look at /etc/skel and there are many red X's on folders in that directory. I am puzzled about this directory because root account behaves normally; only user account is munged, converted to a strange hybrid of XFCE and Vector. So my question would be, is the /etc/skel directory I see from user account the same /etc/skel I see from root account? And will my last resort be to copy the skel directory from another computer? Suggestions welcome.

[uelsk8s]

first check to see if you have permissions to the files in your /home dir.

another thing to try is to make a new user and see if that new account has any problems.
the files and folders in /etc/skel should be owned by root

[nubcnubdo]

The /home directory has 4 items in it: only backupsys has a red X on it. Is this what you mean by permissions? I open "user" (house icon) and all the directories and files are clear of red X's.

I tried to make another user, and got an error "useradd: unknown group" when I tried to create the user.

[uelsk8s]

how did you try to create the new user?
try running vuseradd as root.
post back the output of ls -la /home/username

[nubcnubdo]

As I said before, the user account is getting progressively worse. Now I cannot use Firefox, Opera, or Dillo to access internet from user, getting segmentation faults, making it very tedious to operate on user and report back here. I would say, at this rate, the user account will be inoperable or inaccessible in a short amount of time. So I think something decisive needs to be done to remedy the problems associated with XFCE desktop vis-a-vis VL desktop.  If you know of a folder or directory that can be copied over from a working VL box, please specify this so I can start recovery.

Code:

vector:/~
root:# vuseradd
vector:/~
root:# ls -la /home/username
/bin/ls: /home/username: No such file or directory
vector:/~
root:#

Code:

vector:/~
user:$ firefox
/usr/lib/firefox-2.0/run-mozilla.sh   line 131:  3682 Segmentation fault  "$prog" ${1+"$@"}
vector:/~
user:$ opera
Session management error: Authentication Rejected, reason: None of the authentication
protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed
opera: Module initialization failure. Generic failure (-1)
vector:/~
user:$ dillo
dillo_dns_init: Here we go! (threaded)
Cookies: could not create file: /home/use/.dillo/cookiesrc!
segmentation fault
Vector:/~
user:$

[uelsk8s]

boot your computer to CLI (runlevel 2)
login as root
run vuseradd
switch to a new tty (CTRL+ALT+F2)
login as the new user you just created
type "ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.xfce .xinitrc"
then run  "startx"
if you get a good VL desktop then your skel files are good.
you can then backup your home folder and copy over new files from /etc/skel

[nubcnubdo]

Code:

recov:$ ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc .xfce .xinitrc
ln: target '.xinitrc' is not a directory

I'm wondering if there is a space before .xfce in the command?

EDIT: The recov (temporary user) desktop looks like VL, but Firefox has an I/O error and won't come up, and the Quit button on the panel just kills panel and does not call the End Session dialog. There may be other issues, I just noticed these two.

[uelsk8s]

there should not be a space there
"ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.xfce .xinitrc"

[nubcnubdo]

The recov (temporary user) desktop loads and looks like VL, but Firefox has an I/O error and won't come up, and the Quit button on the panel just kills panel and does not call the End Session dialog. There may be other issues, I just noticed these two. I have no idea what the above command accomplished, but it did go through.

The second time I access recov desktop, the default panel icons (quick launch) have reverted to 5 gear symbols representing apps that require configuring. This is reminiscent of the user desktop when it started to deteriorate.

[uelsk8s]

you can try copying /etc/skel/* from another box, but i think you have something else weird going on there/

[nubcnubdo]

Yes, this reply is coming to you from a pristine installation of VL, and the user account has the same name ID, so I think this will be the best shot. Can you recommend how to make the copy and switch to the old VL box? I have a 2-gig thumb drive to do the transfer.
 
I'm looking at /etc/skel from user account and about half the items have a red X, indicating a permissions issue.

I just tried to copy and paste /etc/skel to the thumb drive from root account, and there were numerous failures to copy to the thumb drive, notably files from the .gkrellm2 and .icons folders. I could use a little help here. I deleted that copied folder, then created a new folder named 'skel' and copied over each item separately, and got the same failure-to-copy as before--most of the folders and files transferred, except some from .gkrellm2 and .icons. A total of about 12 files failed to transfer.

EDIT: I'm gonna treat those untransferred files as negligible unless someone advises otherwise.

[uelsk8s]

Yes, this reply is coming to you from a pristine installation of VL, and the user account has the same name ID, so I think this will be the best shot. Can you recommend how to make the copy and switch to the old VL box? I have a 2-gig thumb drive to do the transfer.
 
I'm looking at /etc/skel from user account and about half the items have a red X, indicating a permissions issue.

I just tried to copy and paste /etc/skel to the thumb drive from root account, and there were numerous failures to copy to the thumb drive, notably files from the .gkrellm2 and .icons folders. I could use a little help here. I deleted that copied folder, then created a new folder named 'skel' and copied over each item separately, and got the same failure-to-copy as before--most of the folders and files transferred, except some from .gkrellm2 and .icons. A total of about 12 files failed to transfer.

you dont need /etc/skel in your situation.
when a new user is created the files in /etc/skel are copied to the new users dir.
what you should do is tar your home dir on the good install and move it to the broken install and untar it.

[nubcnubdo]

Ya, replacing skel didn't change anything. So since /home is 2183 items totalling 5.7 GB, I guess you suggest I tar it to make it smaller. I happen to have a 20-GB usb hdd for this occasion, so I will just transfer /home to the usb drive without tarring. Then I will rename home on the destination install and substitute the good /home. Is this correct?