X server crashed in FC14

[Abu Attar Musharih]

On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:26 PM, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> Last time I looked, which was a long time ago, removing Evolution would
> remove lots of other (lots of Gnome) things that depended on it.
> How did you uninstall them, and what did it take out at the same time.

I uninstalled via add/remove menu from which one can check listed
files to be removed.

>> Just after that process, the X server crashed. The screen suddenly
>> became dark.

> Could be coincidental.  But chances are that you ended up removing lots
> of other things that were needed for a graphical system.

Exactly, that was the case. Gnome  removed all files supporting
Evolution and some other packages.  One thing I like the add/remove
menu because it gives dialogue box and I use it quite often. I used to
 unintall the evolution from FC7 and found no problem with the X
server. Therefore, when the dialogue box listed files to be removed, I
did not care. I should have been aware when removing packages shown in
the gnome panel by default.

>
> This does sound like you removed more than just Firefox and Evolution.
> Copying files from one box to another is just going to cause lots of
> problems.  One of which is maintaining what's installed on your system.

Yes, it brings me to the old days as well, fully working on command
line. I am not sure whether I can finally recover the systems, but at
least now the X window starts to appear, although not full  yet.
Booting does not reach login front, I still need to press CTRL+ALT+F2
for completing runlevel 3, although the runlevel is set 5 in  inittab.
All panes stii disappear after login through the console and  running
startx.
For the record,  here I list some commands
$ locate gnome |  grep applet | less
$ locate evolution |  grep  | less
$ ls -d */
Comparing what shown in two boxes, I copy the missing files to the
crashed one. I wanted to connect them via LAN cable, but I do not
remember  how to set the IP address through command line, I use usb
stick instead

$ mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb/
$ cp -r /mnt/usb/files_to_copied ./proper_directory

> The RPM database keeps track of what's installed on your computer.  It's
> updated by using the rpm command, or yum (the preferred option, now).
> It knows nothing about files added or removed by other methods, so
> missing file can foul up other things, and additional files may get
> stomped on when you next install/update a package.

I realize this point, that is why I wanted to use yum for updating.
The problem is, I am using DSL connection and I do not know how to
set up from the command line.  Googling but didn't  find explanation
of manually setting  ppp0. There is no ifcfg-ppp0 in the  directory
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ I think,  once it is connected, the
system can be fully recovered. I know updating can be performed from
local dvd by modifying the script in /etc/yum.repos.d/, but I have not
tried yet.

>> Of course I can re-install FC14 again but I am sure that is not the
>> only way of fixing it.
>
> In your case, it might be the easiest solution.  Otherwise, you're going
> to have to manually remove the files you copied from the other box (can
> you remember exactly what you did), and reinstall any essential packages
> that were removed when you removed Evolution.  Which may mean you have
> to put up with Evolution being installed (it's only a waste of disc
> space, and updating bandwidth, if you don't use it; but having an unused
> program won't change how Fedora behaves for you).

To some extent, it is waist of time but I like the point that we pay
Linux with our time by which we get educated.

> Other options may be to use something else instead of Gnome (KDE, FVWM,
> etc.), which have far less dependencies.  Though it's been my experience
> that all desktops insist on installing at least a few things that I
> don't want.  I always found KDE to be much more of a behemoth than
> Gnome.

I am thinking about this and will have a try.
Thanks for the response and I will be glad in the case you have
further comments.
Regards,
AA