[ale] First time trashing Linux

[Geoffrey]

First off, you should get your hands on a copy of Tom's root/boot linux 
bootable floppy.  No one should be without it.  Should be a law.

That might be difficult at this point, as your box sounds pretty hosed.

Have you attempted a rescue via the Mandrake 9.0 cd install?

If you can provide more specifics regarding the error messages you're 
getting that might help as well. (references to files in /usr/bin...)

Neal Wilkinson wrote:
> I'm a new Linux user and am running Mandrake 9.0. I've run it several months
> without many problems. I upgraded my Mozilla to 1.3a and everything was fine
> until I had a sudden urge to use online banking. I had originally installed
> without having Personal Security Manager for some reason. It seems like the
> first time the install wasn't run from a GUI so maybe that is why and I just
> missed the switch. Anyhow that was several weeks ago and it has worked fine.
> I downloaded the most recent "nightly build" and ran the install. It was GUI
> and had PSM checked by default. The first time I tried to install it I got
> about 7 error messages but they were really blank buttons, no real info
> gleaned here except the install didn't work. The next time it went fine but
> did ask me to uninstall the copy on the system. It did this for me
> supposedly. After the install it wouldn't run so I rebooted under the
> thought that doing something totally irrevelant might fix the problem. When
> I boot I get a couple of error messages that I haven't had before both
> related to files in /usr/bin which is where the install and removal were
> taking place. I then go right to bash and never make it to KDE. Of course I
> have no emergency boot disk. I created a boot floppy from another system but
> it provides the same results. I have run fsck without it fixing anything but
> it seems to run awfully fast. I'm not really sure where to go next and would
> welcome a hint or two. Being still very Linux stupid I don't have the
> mindset yet to troubleshoot effectively. The dir command won't work anymore
> which I found odd but that may be something simple. ls works fine. Any idea
> on where I should start? I'd be happy to provide more specific information
> error messages etc. if it might help. It appears to me that the boot process
> isn't finishing for some reason. Since I can't imagine how Mozilla could do
> this I'm thinking that something must be corrupt. Thanks.
> 
> Neal
> 
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> 
> 

-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net

The latest, most widespread virus?  Microsoft end user agreement.
Think about it...

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