i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

Random stuff is happening on my computer and it is not pretty.

...

I've been using Thunderbird email on Linux AND Windows since forever.  Today, no warning, it quit working altogether on my OpSu 11.2 machine.  If I click on an email to read it, Thunderbird crashes.

So, I ran updates to see if maybe earlier updates updated Thunderbird into oblivion.    And I rebooted a couple of times -- whereupon I discovered my apache2 server was unborked, because I was not having to restart it to get my website up.  But, I could not unbork Thunderbird so I re-implemented KMail, which I used to like a lot but it was a resource hog so I quit using it.

Kmail is working and so I can get my email.  Plus, I mostly like the interface -- but I don't see any way to aggregate the inboxes into a single inbox, a feature I really like in Thunderbird.  Kmail has changed though -- it doesn't seem to have a minimize to tray mode anymore (oops, yes it does, just have to find the correct option ...).  One thing I really like (similar to Akregator), the left/right arrow keys navigate the email list, the up/down arrow keys navigate the actual email.    I can't tell if it is still a resource hog.  My computer was running at about 109 deg F, and now it's running at 118 deg F -- but I'm not certain that isn't because I am typing away ...

But while running updates from Yast, I noticed that Yast decided to install Nvidia drivers.  I suspected this was Not Good.  There was a time when this was Good, but it has not been Good for a Very Long Time.

So, there were two possibilities.  Either (a) Nvidia suddenly decided to fix their legacy drivers so my computer would work; or (b) my computer would not run X when it rebooted.  Who wishes to put their money on choice (b)?  Yep.

But, haha! I am an expert at fixing this problem.  I will share:  Login root.  cd /etc/X11.  vi xorg.conf.  Change the driver entry from "nvidia" to "nv".   ":x" will exit vi and save the edit.  Check with "startx" -- do you get an x system?  Yay!   Logout.  Reboot.

Except I became curious -- would it be better to leave the Nvidia kernel module in?  Or take them back out?  Do they do anything when running the nv driver?

Can't tell.  I have a subjective sense that the computer is a bit more responsive.

But the borking was not done for the day.  DavMail informed me there was a new version and that I could click on the link and retrieve it.  Well, I retrieved -- a "deb" file.  For a moment, "too little knowledge" got the better of me.  I had just been converting a deb file to rpm yesterday or so with alien.  So ... I converted the deb to rpm and installed it.  An RPM would be preferable, because then YAST can keep track of dependencies, uninistall the program, etc.

Except, however, the non-deb version just runs a java .jar file so there isn't any mysterious "install necessary."  And contra-ventionally, installing the deb as an rpm does not work out so well.  Yes -- it works (sort of).  With the exception that it doesn't seem to create a tray icon.  Without the tray icon, I couldn't find any way to do setup.  So, it worked because I already had all the setup information stored -- but this was not a good option.

I therefore removed my deb/rpm and reminded myself that in fact they had other versions on the website.  So, I retrieved the new version, unpacked it in my ~/bin folder and now I have the new version working.  Though I don't explicitly know what is different from the prior version.

In any event, I'm still pretty happy to be able to retrieve my Exchange email via Kmail and ... well, until today, Thunderbird.

Then again, about that "unborked" web server?  No dice -- it's back to requiring a restart after reboot.  Rather inconvenient, because if I reboot and forget to restart the apache2 server, then when I get to my remote location I am unpleasantly surprised to discover I can't access my database.

Ah, life with computers.  I have a friend with a closet full of borked computers.  Well that person is totally, non-tech/non-geek.  When Windows quits working, she buys a new computer.  Which, considering the cost of tech support, probably is the cost-effective choice.  It probably also makes computer manufacturers and software vendors of the MS type very happy.

Not environmentally sound, however.

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Later:  This sucks:  No matter what I do, I can't get the KMail spam filters (bogofilter/spamassassin) to treat my office email as good.  So ... I have to shut off the spam filters altogether.

Ok, got that straightened out -- found where to tell the spamfilters to only filter my other accounts (under "Filters" and not the wizard), but not before I had multiple copies of multiple emails that I had to go through and delete.  For some reason when KMail "deleted" these emails from my exchange server via DavMail, they did not delete.  However, when the folder was re-scanned it "deleted" them a further time -- and every time I marked them as "not spam," it put those copies back onto the exchange server.

What a mess.