missing shutdown button / usb ports don't work

[Tom_ZeCat]

Annoying. During the last update, Internet service was interrupted. Now Kubuntu is screwed up. Here's what's wrong:

1. After I've put in my password and the splash screen shows, I get a message that I don't have time to fully read. It's something about KDE Plasma Power Management. There's more, but I don't have time to read it all.
2. When you click on the K button and then Leave, it's missing the power down button. The Logout, Switch User, and Lock buttons are all there.
3. Most damaging -- I cannot access any thumb drives or external hard drives. However, this does not mean the USB ports are totally nonfunctional. The transmitter for my mouse does work. It works both in a native USB port and in a USB hub.
4. When I attempt to run Update so that it can finish whatever it could not do before, it times out. It's trying to install this:

libgs9
libg9-common
libhomerun0
plasma-widget-homerun

It just all turns gray and shows the Kubuntu wait symbol and never installs. Can I fix this @#$% thing? I'm about ready to reinstall Kubuntu from scratch, but that means A LOT of work setting everything up, including VirtualBox and both Windows 7 and Win 2K and making sure a dual boot between the original Windows 7 that came with this works in Grub. It was a huge pain the first time around. It would be better if I could fix this without reinstalling.

[SteveRiley]

The first two packages are part of Ghostscript (a Postscript interpreter) and the second two are part of the Homerun launcher. I highly doubt these are the cause of your problems.

First, try completing the upgrade at the command line:
sudo apt-get install -f

Also, what's the output of
ps -ef | grep -i udisk

[Tom_ZeCat]

The output of that command is as follows in the command line:

tommy@tommy-Ideapad-Z570:~$ ps -ef | grep -i udisk
tommy      943 32383  0 14:46 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i udisk
tommy@tommy-Ideapad-Z570:~$

I'm going to try the Konsole-based update as you suggested now.

[Tom_ZeCat]

An update:
SteveRiley, you da man! That fixed the problem. The USB ports work and the shutdown button is back. Kubuntu is still asking to allow the following updates:

libg9-common 
libhomerun0 
plasma-widget-homerun

I'll wait on those because I have to run now, but I'm sure they'll be fine.

Thanks again. You just saved me from having to do a totally reinstall of all OSes from scratch.

[SteveRiley]

The output of that command is as follows in the command line:
{output snipped}

Here's mine:

steve@t520:~$ ps -ef | grep -i udisk
root      2600     1  0 Jul11 ?        00:00:29 /usr/lib/udisks2/udisksd --no-debug
steve    21399  2995  0 19:41 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i udisk

As you can see, my machine is running the Udisks daemon (udisksd), which controls much of the hardware interaction including such mundane and unimportant capabilites as powering off the machine, interacting with USB peripherals, and ensuring that you have a successful and satisfying constitutional each morning. Somehow, you were missing this.

I'm going to try the Konsole-based update as you suggested now.
SteveRiley, you da man! That fixed the problem. The USB ports work and the shutdown button is back.

Supposition: Muon (or whatever GUI package manager you were using) downloaded all the updates and unpacked them. Then it started installing them, dutifully following the installation script contained inside each package. Something crapped out and Muon simply quit without a warning. This leaves your system in a state where some packages are installed and configured, while others are only unpacked. I bet that the Udisks package was in such a state, which means that the binary isn't ready for running. The command I had you run evaluates the complete package installation state, and finishes any undone tasks.

Thanks again. You just saved me from having to do a totally reinstall of all OSes from scratch.

A word of advice, if I may. I know that we all use and love KDE for its wonderful graphical environment. But, time and again here on the forum, we see that many package-related problems stem from using GUI tools for package management. These tools simply don't provide the level of in-progress detail and recovery capabilites that the command line tools offer. I would recommend to any Linux user that becoming comfortable with command-line package management is an important skill.

[Snowhog]

A word of advice, if I may. I know that we all use and love KDE for its wonderful graphical environment. But, time and again here on the forum, we see that many package-related problems stem from using GUI tools for package management. These tools simply don't provide the level of in-progress detail and recovery capabilites that the command line tools offer. I would recommend to any Linux user that becoming comfortable with command-line package management is an important skill.

Agreed. I use the CLI exclusively for package management, using Muon Package Manager to 'check' on things.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Here's mine:

steve@t520:~$ ps -ef | grep -i udisk
root      2600     1  0 Jul11 ?        00:00:29 /usr/lib/udisks2/udisksd --no-debug
steve    21399  2995  0 19:41 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i udisk

As you can see, my machine is running the Udisks daemon (udisksd), which controls much of the hardware interaction including such mundane and unimportant capabilites as powering off the machine, interacting with USB peripherals, and ensuring that you have a successful and satisfying constitutional each morning. Somehow, you were missing this.



Supposition: Muon (or whatever GUI package manager you were using) downloaded all the updates and unpacked them. Then it started installing them, dutifully following the installation script contained inside each package. Something crapped out and Muon simply quit without a warning. This leaves your system in a state where some packages are installed and configured, while others are only unpacked. I bet that the Udisks package was in such a state, which means that the binary isn't ready for running. The command I had you run evaluates the complete package installation state, and finishes any undone tasks.


A word of advice, if I may. I know that we all use and love KDE for its wonderful graphical environment. But, time and again here on the forum, we see that many package-related problems stem from using GUI tools for package management. These tools simply don't provide the level of in-progress detail and recovery capabilites that the command line tools offer. I would recommend to any Linux user that becoming comfortable with command-line package management is an important skill.

I was thinking something similar myself, that I need to learn more terminal commands in general. I didn't start with Unix-based OSes. I started with C/PM and later MS-DOS, back before Windows. I sat down with a book about MS-DOS and learned the commands one by one. Then I actually needed many of them every day since there was no GUI. When Windows came along, I was already a pro at the command line and could get in there and tinker any time I wanted to. I did actually take a Unix command course at a community college and promptly forgot everything I learned. I just didn't use it. Just yesterday, I had cause to use the chown command and was cursing at it for not doing what I wanted. I have googled and found some onlne sites for Linux terminal commands, but if you have some favorite ones you recommend, I will definitely read through and learn from them. If you know some in particular that pertain to package management, please post the links if you don't mind. I'll definitely go through them. It's important for me, especially since I'm learning some C++ programming with the goal of eventually contributing to the community. I used to write freeware (non-GNU) for Windows in Visual BASIC. There's one program in particular I want to rewrite in C++ this time for GNU and the Linux community. (You can see screenshots of it if you click my name and look at my previous posts -- it's a file renamer, and it even runs under WINE.) In any event, not knowing the terminal commands well enough could handicap my programming abilities, so I gotta learn'em.