Help? PCLinuxOS 2007 KDE 3.5.9. lost window decorations....again - KCLUG

17 Mar 2009


      Hi Everyone,
OK, here's the scoop: I made the colossal
mistake up going into Synaptic and checking updates to the screen saver apps
already showing installed but having those updates to add. During installation
of the updates I got an Error message that stated over and over again that it could
not connect with the Debian and internode mirrors. After that is when it lost
lost some of the window decorations. E.G.: Window Boarders, the _ ,
minimize/maximize box and the red X up at the right hand upper corner of the
window. This occurs in ALL windows no matter where one navigates or what mode
one is in.
Also, a couple of games come up in a minimized window that is totally
unmovable. The clock, clipboard and volume icons are missing from the task-bar
as well. I also lost some of the screen savers...one of which is the clock one
that I like to use. AND "Configure your computer" won't open at all no matter how one goes about trying to do so.
I *can* still navigate by using the words at the top of the windows. Thank
heavens they are still there!
Here's the fly in the ointment. I have some files on there that I need to try to keep if at all possible. I can not put them on floppy for a couple of reasons. First, if those of you who helped me the last time I did this can recall, the subsequent re-installation of the OS didn't pick up the floppy drive and no one could get it to. I didn't think I'd really need it, anyway, so I let that go.  Plus some of my RPMs are a *lot* bigger than "1.4 mb". So putting files on floppy is out due to that.
The specs on the computer that I'm using to learn PCLOS on are:
Pentium III-1000/700 CPU
128MB of SDRAM
256KB L2 cache
PCLinuxOS 2007/KDE
15-inch active-matrix screen
ATI Rage Mobility 128 graphics chip with 8MB of SGRAM
20GB hard drive,
8X DVD-ROM drive
V.90 modem
network adapter
As you can see, the DVD-ROM drive is _not_ a "Writer". Therefore, I can not burn those files that I would like to keep.
NOW, I've posted about this in a couple of non-Linux forums and had only a very small handful of people address my problem. Two of which said, in essence, that it is possible to reinstall the OS/Root account/partition while leaving the user account/partition ALONE. The rest didn't have any info that I could use.
Well, I do not know how to do that. ...Or, at least I don't recall an option coming up during installation to do that. So, can someone please help me out here or off list? I can not make it to the meeting due to transportation challenges at this time. Any help from anyone will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Julie