good, bad, ugly

By basd on May 28, 2010 | In kde4, linux, opensuse, cloud computing, lxde

I could not find a php script to explicitly import google/ics calendars into a mySQL database, so I utilized some php classes I found and the PEAR date() funtion and wrote my own. I documented it here in the ETM.

...

I'm very happy with the outcome, especially with the additional routines I wrote (also available at the ETM) to use the data once imported.

My linux install is emulating Windows and locking up (remember that thing linux is supposed to never do?) Yeah, right.

I don't know which program(s) to attribute it to. It's been happening in LXDE -- apparently when I hibernate the computer when it has been connected to on internet connection and connect it to another when I revive it. Firefox has crashed regularly, and also Konqueror has done it as well. And, not immediately, but mid-use. The cursor remains active, but the keyboard is dead and no mouse "clicks" will do anything. Hard crash/power off/reboot. Dang.

Soo... I decided maybe the problem lies in LXDE and went to my KDE 4.3 desktop.

Oops.

Well, first of all, conky -- which works nicely and emulates transparency in LXDE, at least when not running 3d effects -- creates flickering black band in Plasma. So, I tried to kill it.

But, somehow I accidentally launched my .desktop which switches to the large external screen (which, of course, was not attached). Although this requires root credentials, I typed them in with Pavlovian response without realizing what I was authorizing.

Oops (again). So, not only did I completely crash KDE 4.3 Plasma, I also switched to a distorted "sort of 800 x 600" screen. That was, btw, non-functional. Rebooting was no help -- my system has been stable for quite a while, so I have it running autologin. Which also means I had forgotten how to log in to a command line and undo the damage.

Reminder for future: add "runlevel 3" to the GRUB option line. Login to root, hope that root is not also compromised and run startx. (Reason being, I do not know the command line way to launch user management.)

In any event, I got rid of the autologin, got back to my lxde desktop, reverted my screen resolution, etc. Then I logged into KDE4, but guess what? Still borked. Probably will have to delete the .kde4 and/or .kde folders/directories, but I am rather tired of dealing with KDE plasma borks and my lxde desktop is working just fine, so it will be awhile before I revisit plasma.

Props to LXDE team!