[Novalug] [Fwd: Trouble with Ubuntu.910]

[cmhowe at patriot.net]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Trouble with Ubuntu.910
From:    cmhowe at patriot.net
Date:    Thu, January 14, 2010 5:42 pm
To:      novalug at calpso.tux.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

List,

Things were going normally when a bit after noon I received a notification
from the Update Manager. I complied. When it got done it did something it
has never done in the last couple of months: restart the computer. I did
so. It may be important that it boots using LILO, not GRUB.

It froze displaying something completely uninformative. There may have
been some sequence of keystrokes that the computer would have responded
to, but if so, I didn't find it. For the record, I tried the escape key,
control c and control-alt-backspace. Being unable to think of anything
else to try, I powered down (turned the computer on), then turned the
power on. Same behavior. And a third time.

My next step was to take the rescue disk that the guy at GW gave me when I
lft. (I think the name is David Chien.) It installed. Maybe (probably;
almost certainly) I could have made a better choice when it stopped and
let me decide what to tell it to do next. But the fact of the matter is
that I told it install and I am stuck with the consequences.

Here is what happens:

The Evolution icon does not appear on the title bar. (I refer to the top
line on the screen. That is the title bar, isn't it? There is an icon
(browse and run installed applications; never thought about it),
Applications, Places, System, the Firefox icon and the Help, Get help with
Ubuntu icon instead of the Evolution icon.

I am connected. I read Slashdot, then went to my ISP's web site, That is
why I am able to reach mu service provider, PatriotNet, and got my mail
using WebMail, and write this tail of woe.

Then I opened a terminal and started poking around. There is nothing, of
course. I only have two things that I would like to get back, my mail (a
lot, most of which I would happily discard), and a few dozen documents.

Is there any hope for me?

Charlie