On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 02:03:39PM -0600, Mike Miller wrote:
> > The "upgrades" I've been getting from Microsoft over the last year seem 
> > to break various features of legacy stuff...
> 
> I know.  But it also happens in the GNU/Linux world.  I just had a note on 
> my Ubuntu desktop machine telling me I had to reboot (that is not good 
> because I should almost never have to reboot and it is a big hassle).  So 
> I rebooted and Gnome would not come back up.  It said that it couldn't 
> find pulse-session.  Well, that's because I uninstalled it. 
> Unfortunately, the uninstaller didn't know to delete one of the X11 
> initialization files.  I had no idea what was going on but I happened to 
> know a few tricks that I learned recently.  So I started with...

There is a difference between that kind of bug, and the kind of
bugging that Micrsoft and others (Quicken is my notable example)
employ, in other to force you to part with your cash in the hope of
keeping things working.

> Ctrl-Alt-F1
> 
> ...which gave me a text-based command line.  Then I did this...
> 
> lynx http://google.com/
> 
> ...and googled a bit.  This led me to the conclusion that I needed to do 
> this...
> 
> sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio
> sudo shutdown -r now
> 
> ...which solved my problem.
> 
> It was a small problem, but the effect would have been devastating if I 
> was lacking just a little bit of knowledge.  An newer newbie would have 
> had a heck of a time.

A newbie who goes around uninstalling things will get his comeuppance.

Cheers,
florin

-- 
Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition.
      http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/163
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