Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

[user440]

Backstory:
I installed 8.10 with kde 4.2 and have been very happy with the increase in performance. When I brought down an update, something happened in that I can now not click on (execute) anything on the desktop (menu, programs, anything). The first time this was caused by SuperKaramba I suspect and this latest time was just from a sw update from a few weeks ago. The only "fix" was to create a new profile. This problem is only related to an individual account. While not important for my proposed solution, the original problem was asked HERE

Proposed solution:
As this has happend in two different accounts, I want to start from scratch. What is the easiest way I can copy my files from the affected acct (account1) using a working account (account2) with SUDU? I want to copy these files to a USB HD.


edit-spellling

[Qqmike]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

Not sure I get it exactly, but if you are just trying to copy your personal data out of your /home/your_name, best way might be from a live CD -- from Live Kubuntu, Knoppix, RescueCD, Puppy, whatever. I would not (personally) attempt to transfer all my personal settings in my home, though, as that is usually fraught with no end of problems (but, probably can be done by people-in-the-know--I think using the same user name is a key there).

[user440]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

Sorry I was not clear. I can log in and use other accounts just fine, just not the impacted account (accout1). I should also clarify that I know what directories/files I need, and I don't really need the entire 'home' dir. Ideally, I would just log in to a working account and somehow sudo over to the non-working account to pull the files off that I need.

[dibl]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

Ideally, I would just log in to a working account and somehow sudo over to the non-working account to pull the files off that I need.

Not so ideal, from a security perspective ... :P I think the Linux developers arranged it so you can't do that.

You could do it as root, but the problem is you will probably re-set the permissions on the user's home folder to root-only, thereby permanently stuffing it.

I'd go with Mike's recommendation -- boot any Linux Live CD, mount the partition where the data is, plus any other partition that you need mounted, and copy the data over to where you want it. There won't be any consequences on permissions or any other settings this way.

[Fintan]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

I concur with both dible and mike.

I also had something like that a while ago.
Maybe you just have a corupted plasma.

Try this from a terminal:

kquitapp plasma && rm ~/.kde/share/config/plasma* && plasma &

If you can't get the terminal because of the clicking try one of the following:
alt+f2 type terminal press enter.
or boot into terminal mode and login as user (account1), give your password
and do:

rm ~/.kde/share/config/plasma* && plasma &

from the prompt.

Then do a reboot.

Your plasma will be regenerated in the default settings so you will have to decorate your desktop again but you should be good to go.

If that doesn't help you can always go the path of copying / moving /home files, but that is a real pain.

I hope this helps.

[user440]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

A corrupt plasma seems to make sense.

Ok, here is what I typed (exagerating spaces for clarity):

kquitapp   plasma   &&    rm    ~/.kde/share/config/plasma*    &&    plasma    &

Here is the error I received:

<unknown program name>(6498)/:Application Name "plasma" could not be found using service "org.kde.plasma" and path "/MainApplication".

Thanks again for all the advice.  If I can't rebuild Plasma, I'll go with plan B.

[Fintan]

Re: Can not click on anything -> Need to copy home Dir to USB from other acct.

Hmm... well there always is the round about way:
boot to the live cd navigate to /home/username(account1) rename plasmarc and plasma-applettsrc to something else or just delete them and reboot into account1.

bthw did you do

kquitapp plasma && rm ~/.kde/share/config/plasma* && plasma &

from the cli(after ctrl+alt+f1 / boot into terminal mode) ?