Fedora 20: After running yum update the Mate Terminal doesn't start anymore

[Tim]

Tim:
>> I can't say that I have that experience, it's very rare that an update
>> breaks something on my system.  Sounds like you have something wrong
>> with your system, more than Fedora in general.

Jim Lewis:
> What does "very rare" mean? So it has happened to you on occasion?

Way back on Fedora 17, playback of some video files became unstable with
some yum update.  I can't recall anything since then.

> It happens to me on occasion and certainly does to others as well and so I
> don't trust it. I want an update to improve my system, not make it
> worse.

Fair enough, but avoiding a problem (while accumulating others, such as
numerous security flaws), instead of fixing a fault (or several) by
installing updates and debugging anything that screwed up, isn't really
a good way of doing things.

> The problem is still there and no I have not rebooted yet.

Well, that well may be the problem and solution, but can't tell without
trying.  Generally speaking, there is more than one terminal installed,
so you can use another one to work on fixing a broken one.

Some (few) updates require a reboot, generally just kernel-related
updates.  Some updates do need you to log out and back in again.  Some
updates require you to quit using whatever software has been updated,
and restart it.  Some don't seem to require that, at all, you can carry
on using the prior version until you want to quit it.


-- 
tim at localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp

Linux 3.18.7-100.fc20.i686 #1 SMP Wed Feb 11 21:16:53 UTC 2015 i686

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George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.