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**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 01:17 AM

Re: obscure error message

sudo apt-get install ibus
sudo apt-get --purge remove ibus

tried both, the error message is much shorter when ibus is installed, so it would appear that the challenge now is to set up ibus properly, in particular

Code:

inotify_add_watch failed: No such file or directory
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /root/.config/ibus/bus

I don't know how to get into the ibus settings...

**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 01:30 AM

Re: obscure error message

I created the missing directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/ibus/bus

but to no avail,

QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /root/.config/ibus/bus

**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 03:17 AM

Re: obscure error message

so I figured, a few lines of errors who cares let's try to get some work done, but starting gwenview generates a super-long error message with a reference to the package neopomuk.

Code:

patrick@patrick-linux:~/model_growth$ kdesudo gwenview
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address. 
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon 
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
gwenview(8780)/kdeui (kdelibs): Attempt to use QAction "edit_redo" with KXMLGUIFactory! 
gwenview(8780)/kdeui (kdelibs): Attempt to use QAction "edit_undo" with KXMLGUIFactory! 
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(8780)" Error in thread 140570199181152 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
gwenview(8780) Gwenview::MainWindow::Private::sideBarConfigGroupName: Should not happen! 
gwenview(8780)/kdecore (KConfigSkeleton) KCoreConfigSkeleton::writeConfig:
patrick@patrick-linux:~/model_growth$

The following error message caught my attention, "Should not happen!"

The search for a fix continues...

**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 03:35 AM

Re: obscure error message

A "permission problem", it seems ... Is the following providing any clues?

Code:

[email]patrick@patrick-linux:~/.kde[/email]$ ls -ld ~/.kde
drwx------ 6 patrick patrick 4096 2010-08-17 05:22 /home/patrick/.kde

Code:

patrick@patrick-linux:/var/tmp$ ls -la
total 16
drwxrwxrwt 4 root  root  4096 2010-08-10 13:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root  root  4096 2010-04-27 19:19 ..
drwx------ 9 patrick patrick 4096 2010-08-17 16:44 kdecache-patrick
drwx------ 3 root  root  4096 2010-08-17 15:14 kdecache-root

I don't know what this all means, though I've read that I should have a t for permissions to be set properly. Is there something wrong about the permissions here? thanks!

**dibl** · Aug 17, 2010, 04:18 AM

Re: obscure error message

Originally posted by ptoche

I am getting increasingly convinced that the error message is a consequence, somehow, of having set up my system with non-US regional settings. Perhaps selecting Hong Kong has messed things up somewhere. Note that I do not input Chinese characters. All I do is use a US-Dvorak keyboard. Anyhow, now I'm back to country=US, language=US. I still don't know what ibus does, but it seems to manage language settings.

You might be right. This error is clearly a rare one -- Google turns up very little. Possibly your time zone did not match the "HK" locale when you set it, and caused problems.

If it were my system, I think I'd first make sure the locale is set for where you really are, and the keyboard for what it really is, and then rename ~/.kde to ~./.kde_bak, and log out and then log back in. No guarantees, but a clean start with KDE might fix it.

**claydoh** · Aug 17, 2010, 07:50 AM

Re: obscure error message

Is kate actually broken at all for you anywhere? Often these console messages are purely informational and rather useless to us end-users. From the bug report, it is basically the messages given look like errors when they are not, and that the problem was fixed in the latest maverick package.

**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 08:02 AM

Re: obscure error message

thanks dibl, I'll do exactly as you suggest, experiment away and get back to you.

thanks claydoh: kate, kile, and gwenview, some of the softs I use daily, appear to function normally once started, but I get a page worth of error messages before they do. Some latex packages failed to get installed earlier today, but I couldn't tell you if the problems are related or not. You're right, I am beginning to learn to live with it, but it is a bit unsightly.

gwenview:

Code:

patrick@patrick-linux:~$ sudo gwenview
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"                                                                                                
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"                                                                                                
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: Shutting down running client.
klauncher: Exiting on signal 15
kio_file(1929) kdemain: Done
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_klauncher.so
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kded4.so
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kbuildsycoca4.so
kbuildsycoca4 running...
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kbuildsycoca4(1967) KBuildSycoca::checkTimestamps: checking file timestamps
kbuildsycoca4(1967) KBuildSycoca::checkTimestamps: timestamps check ok
kbuildsycoca4(1967) kdemain: Emitting notifyDatabaseChanged ()
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kconf_update.so
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
gwenview(1934)/kdeui (kdelibs): Attempt to use QAction "edit_redo" with KXMLGUIFactory! 
gwenview(1934)/kdeui (kdelibs): Attempt to use QAction "edit_undo" with KXMLGUIFactory! 
kded(1960) KDEDModule::setModuleName: registerObject() successful for "ktimezoned"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
"/usr/bin/gwenview(1934)" Error in thread 140192786564960 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/kio_trash.so
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kio_trash(1976)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/usr/share/mime/magic"
kio_trash(1976)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/home/patrick/.local/share/mime/magic"
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/kio_file.so
kio_file(1980) kdemain: Starting 1980
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/kio_thumbnail.so
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
kio_thumbnail(1981)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/usr/share/mime/magic"
kio_thumbnail(1981)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/home/patrick/.local/share/mime/magic"
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
kio_thumbnail(1981) ThumbnailProtocol::get: Wanting MIME Type: "inode/directory"
gwenview(1934) Gwenview::MainWindow::Private::sideBarConfigGroupName: Should not happen! 
gwenview(1934)/kdecore (KConfigSkeleton) KCoreConfigSkeleton::writeConfig:

kile:

Code:

patrick@patrick-linux:~$ sudo kile
[sudo] password for patrick: 
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: Shutting down running client.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_klauncher.so
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kded4.so
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kbuildsycoca4.so
kbuildsycoca4 running...
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kbuildsycoca4(1903) KBuildSycoca::checkTimestamps: checking file timestamps
kbuildsycoca4(1903) KBuildSycoca::checkTimestamps: timestamps check ok
kbuildsycoca4(1903) kdemain: Emitting notifyDatabaseChanged ()
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kconf_update.so
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address. 
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon 
kile(1872)/kdecore (KLibrary) findLibraryInternal: plugins should not have a 'lib' prefix: "libkonsolepart.so"
Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/kio_trash.so
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/kde4/kio_file.so
kio_file(1929) kdemain: Starting 1929
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
kio_trash(1928)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/usr/share/mime/magic"
kio_trash(1928)/kdecore (services) KMimeTypeFactory::parseMagic: Now parsing "/home/patrick/.local/share/mime/magic"
kded(1896) KDEDModule::setModuleName: registerObject() successful for "ktimezoned"

**claydoh** · Aug 17, 2010, 08:18 AM

Re: obscure error message

Why run gwenview or kile with sudo (or kdesudo)? This is an easy way to get file permissions in your $HOME directory mangled, and is completely unnecessary. (and as you see also produces more useless messages/warnings to boot

)

**ptoche** · Aug 17, 2010, 10:28 AM

Re: obscure error message

If it were my system, I think I'd first make sure the locale is set for where you really are, and the keyboard for what it really is, and then rename ~/.kde to ~./.kde_bak, and log out and then log back in. No guarantees, but a clean start with KDE might fix it.

Hi dibl, I did a clean start with KDE but it didn't make any difference. I promptly reverted to my old .kde so I didn't have to set up the wireless and touchpad again -- both recently caused me many hours of grief.

Why run gwenview or kile with sudo (or kdesudo)?

Hi claydoh, well I first noticed the strange messages while attempting to install Firefox (I didn't make it and I'm now using Konqueror). The error messages came back when I attempted to backup my data with grsync. And I haven't been able to back up my data as a result, something that will definitely have to be fixed eventually. Googling the error messages I'd got then led me to a post describing a similar problem while typing sudo kate. Since I got the same error message with sudo kate, I used kate as an example, but you're absolutely right, I don't use sudo this or sudo that too often. And quite frankly, I didn't expect that it would be so difficult to fix these error messages.

Shall I go on trying or would you just give up?

Now, under System Settings / Users & Groups Administration, I see that my UID is 1000. Is that a good thing? Should I change it to 0? or will that fry everything?

Code:

Error: "/tmp/ksocket-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.
Error: "/tmp/kde-patrick" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.

**dibl** · Aug 17, 2010, 11:06 AM

Re: obscure error message

I'd still like to see you try Alt-F2 "kdesudo kate" and tell us whether it works that way.

**claydoh** · Aug 17, 2010, 01:10 PM

Re: obscure error message

most of the 'errors' you see are just messages, nothing is broken, even the uid one is nothing to worry about. It is due to the fact that in Ubuntu the 'root' account (uid 0 iirc) is disabled and the sudo user is given temporary admin privileges. These are system type messages useful to sysadmins and the like.

As for firefox, how did you try installing it? You have either the built-in FF installer found in the Internet menu, installing from Kpackagekit, or from apt-get on the command line. What happened there?

If you paste your error messages here, or in another topic, we can get a clearer picture of what is going on. Often googling error messages can give old and outdated info, so using the new timeline options in Google help, but in here we can point you to the best posts in the forums or get you a solution quicker

**ptoche** · Aug 18, 2010, 11:35 AM

Re: obscure error message

hi dibl, hi claydoh, thanks for your help!

dibl, sorry I forgot to report back about ALT+F2: no problem when I launch programs from there. What exactly does ALT+F2 launch? what are the pros and cons of using that rather than Konsole (or some other way)?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I also forgot to say that sometime in the course of our exchange I noticed that typing kate into the konsole generates the same "error" message as sudo kate / kdesudo kate. The former is referred to as kate(1986), while the latter is kate(1993), otherwise the same "wrong format" message appears.

I wrote "error" in the paragraph above in the style of claydoh.

claydoh, thanks for informing me that "nothing is broken." I was actually about to do a clean install of kubuntu, again. So now I won't, and that will save me time, energy and hairs. It's just that in my previous install, version 9-something, which I still have on an external drive and still works, I don't get any "error" message of any kind whether I type kate or sudo kate. "wrong format," "cannot get ibus-daemon's address," "conversion to QDate failed," "expected 3 items, got 1" --- it just sounds very scary.

On the firefox issue: I used the built-in installer the first time and I think it worked. I made a shortcut on the desktop and all was well for a while. Then I decided to rename the shortcut to something shorter and it got grayed out. I thought nothing of it but it never worked after that. So I uninstalled it thoroughly and installed it again via synaptic but it never worked. I also downloaded the file from the firefox website and followed the instructions, but something went wrong in the last step or perhaps next to last. From the firefox website, I did the following:

1.Download Firefox from the Firefox download page to your home directory.
2.Open a Terminal and go to your home directory:
cd ~
3.Extract the contents of the downloaded file:
tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2
4.Close Firefox if it's open.
5.To start Firefox, run the firefox script in the firefox folder.
~/firefox/firefox
Firefox should now start.

But it didn't... the tar xjf command seemed to have worked, in that it did create a firefox folder where it was supposed to.

So what I'll do is this, I'll give it another try and post the error messages.

thanks guys, it's hart-warming to know you're there!

**claydoh** · Aug 18, 2010, 04:49 PM

Re: obscure error message

Originally posted by ptoche

hi dibl, hi claydoh, thanks for your help!

dibl, sorry I forgot to report back about ALT+F2: no problem when I launch programs from there. What exactly does ALT+F2 launch? what are the pros and cons of using that rather than Konsole (or some other way)?

No pros or cons, it's all user preference. Most people use the standard K-menu to launch stuff, just like in most OS's. alt-f2 launches Krunner, which is a fancy run-command dialog box,( plus other things as well). Most desktop environments use the alt-f2 combo to open up a run dialog of some sort, but Krunner only needs a portion of the app's name to give you suggestions on what you are looking for.

Using Konsole is the best (and only) way to run command-line apps, and it is good also for running a gui app if you are having problems, such as a program does not even open, if you run it in a terminal it will give you error messages that are (hopefully) relevent

I'm embarrassed to admit that I also forgot to say that sometime in the course of our exchange I noticed that typing kate into the konsole generates the same "error" message as sudo kate / kdesudo kate. The former is referred to as kate(1986), while the latter is kate(1993), otherwise the same "wrong format" message appears.

I wrote "error" in the paragraph above in the style of claydoh.

claydoh, thanks for informing me that "nothing is broken." I was actually about to do a clean install of kubuntu, again. So now I won't, and that will save me time, energy and hairs. It's just that in my previous install, version 9-something, which I still have on an external drive and still works, I don't get any "error" message of any kind whether I type kate or sudo kate. "wrong format," "cannot get ibus-daemon's address," "conversion to QDate failed," "expected 3 items, got 1" --- it just sounds very scary.

yes it is

I am guessing that there are new libraries (ibus and Qt) that have not yet been given some tweaking to suppress these as normally you wouldn't be running then in a terminal, so they aren't normally seen. I wonder if there has been a bug report on this?

On the firefox issue: I used the built-in installer the first time and I think it worked. I made a shortcut on the desktop and all was well for a while. Then I decided to rename the shortcut to something shorter and it got grayed out. I thought nothing of it but it never worked after that. So I uninstalled it thoroughly and installed it again via synaptic but it never worked. I also downloaded the file from the firefox website and followed the instructions, but something went wrong in the last step or perhaps next to last. From the firefox website, I did the following:

1.Download Firefox from the Firefox download page to your home directory.
2.Open a Terminal and go to your home directory:
cd ~
3.Extract the contents of the downloaded file:
tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2
4.Close Firefox if it's open.
5.To start Firefox, run the firefox script in the firefox folder.
~/firefox/firefox
Firefox should now start.

But it didn't... the tar xjf command seemed to have worked, in that it did create a firefox folder where it was supposed to.

So what I'll do is this, I'll give it another try and post the error messages.

thanks guys, it's hart-warming to know you're there!

Kubuntu's firefox installer creates a menu entry automatically in the K-menu. You may have done something to the shortcut you created while renaming it (my guess is changing the name of the command entry as opposed to changing the name of the shortcut itself), but FF's menu item should still be there in the menus, and if you need you can simply drag it from there to your desktop to create a new link

**ptoche** · Aug 19, 2010, 04:37 AM

topic has now drifted to -- how to install firefox

claydoh, hi, I have read your message immediately above, and I thank you again, but let me first report on my firefox experience. I'll do another reply specifically on your comments in a moment.

I don't know what went wrong during the first install from the kubuntu installer, perhaps re-naming the desktop shortcut was a serious mistake, perhaps I did something else even more stupid. What I don't get is why my sudo apt-get --purge remove firefox did not remove everything --- I noticed several left-over folders of my preferences and such. I promptly deleted them before attempting another install. Now I think I know what went wrong when I tried to install firefox from the tar.bz2 file downloaded from the firefox website. Thankfully I was able to fix it, kindof.

Based on the recommendations:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installing_Firefox

I did:

Code:

sudo mv firefox /usr/local
sudo chown -R root:root /usr/local/firefox

The same page also says: "it's recommended that the firefox script be available somewhere in your path to avoid the inconvenience of having to enter the full path. This can be accomplished by creating a symbolic link in the relative 'bin' directory."

Code:

cd /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s ../firefox/firefox .

But that didn't work, so with kate I opened the shortcut stored in bin and saw a reference to 1) a different path, i.e. /usr/lib/firefox, and 2) a different name, i.e. firefox-3.6.8 (or some such long name). So I moved the firefox folder into /usr/lib/firefox and changed the reference to the file name inside the shortcut to the simpler firefox (opening the shortcut with sudo kate and saving the change). And then I was able to run firefox from the command line both in and out of the folder in which it is located, e.g. from home.

But I can run firefox only if I type "sudo firefox" into the konsole. If I simply type "firefox", nothing happens. And if I ALT+F2, then several links to firefox are listed, including one that looks suspiciously like a leftover from a previous install (titled firefox and subtitled Web Browser), but with no icon to its left, rather unhelpful, but also a more likely candidate named "run firefox," and other things like "Recent document" -- but none of them work from ALT+F2.

In the meantime, the kubuntuforums.net have become unavailable, and it's now 3am so I'll post this tomorrow (for me, later today for you -- I think)...

It was a good thing that the servers were down tonight -- I was able to do more research and I found some indications on how to fix this (or mess it up further? time will tell). I'm now able to start firefox without the sudo prefix. I found the following suggestion, here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=358939, applied it to the letter, and it worked,

I had the same problem with not being able to start firefox in xubuntu. I must have started firefox with "sudo firefox" or something like that past. This caused the .mozilla directory to be owned by root.

Code:

sudo chown -R your_username:your_username .mozilla

form the my home directory fixed it.

When I start firefox from the konsole, I get this:

Code:

patrick@patrick-linux:~$ firefox
(firefox-bin:6080): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqtcurve.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/skypebuttons.so [/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/skypebuttons.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64]

so I deleted skypebuttons.so and eliminated the second problem. I still have the wrong ELF class. I installed the libqt library thing (did that at about 4am in a daze, so can't recall much), I downloaded the latest libraries, in RPM format, used alien to unpack them and well I think they went where they're supposed to be, at any rate I made copies into all three of the lib, lib64, and lib32 folders (was that another stupid move?). And then I went to bed.

And today, not as early as usual, I must confess, I powered up the machine but initially it wouldn't boot up, neither in kubuntu nor in the recovery mode, eventually it did boot up, I tested it several times and everything seems normal. There's a big part of me that's thinking about a clean install anyway -- I have messed up a couple of other things, I won't get into just now -- my lameness is hilarious as it is.

**ptoche** · Aug 19, 2010, 04:51 AM

Re: obscure error message

hi claydoh,

You may have done something to the shortcut you created while renaming it (my guess is changing the name of the command entry as opposed to changing the name of the shortcut itself)

err, yes, that would be my guess too.

[EDIT: PROBLEM SOLVED by removing/reinstalling the gtkcurve library] Another funny thing I did is the following. Let me provide context first. Now from day one I've had a nightmare experience with my touchpad. I've sort of managed to get control over it in windows, but not yet in kubuntu, no matter how I tweaked the touchpad and mouse settings, whether I run gsynaptics or gsomething-settings-device (I forget that intuitive name, I mean the replacement for gsynaptics). I had kind of given up, having disabled every feature of the touchpad and having assigned my windows-key to left-click (it's located on the left of my space bar) and assigning my context-key to right-click (it's located on the right of my space bar). When I stumbled upon something. By left- or right-clicking on the desktop (I forget which) I was able to access some settings. I played around with some mouse-related setting, where the left- right- and middle- buttons can be assigned or de-assigned. I thought those were general features, but it turns out they related only to the behaviour of the pointer hovering above the desktop, not elsewhere. And after I had disabled the mouse clicks, naturally I was unable to re-enable them!

The guide here http://www.kubuntu.org/docs/kquickguide/C/ch03s07.html suggests going to the "Behavior" tab, except I don't have one. See this image http://www.kubuntu.org/docs/images/C...-behaviour.png. So either the guide is out of date or my kubuntu install is missing some features...

The good news is that eclipse and the python libraries I use all work well. So I can do a bit of work. But for latex, can't get kile to compile without errors...

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