took the 'nut + hammer' approach, and reinstalled

hey-ho

cheers

keith

thanks for the reply.
unfortunately ethernet doesnt connect either :-(

curretnly copyig my home folder, in case i need to reinstall.

In the end, i can keep my data, so not the end of the world.

Cheers

keith

sorry for the radio silence.
laptop is being a pain in the butt.
it is not conneting to wifi, and i cannot seem to get it to.

have tried various terminal commands, but it doesn,t seem to find anyting.
pretty sure its not hardwae, but will reseat the wifi card just in case.
Seriously considering a fresh install if I can get my data onto a spare drive.

can i reinstall keeping files from the Devuan recovery at login?

Apologies for changing the goalposts

keith

You're welcome.

No need.
Absolutely no one is born knowing. 8^)

The code and /code bits have to be put between brackets ie: [ ], like all the other ones you see at the top following "Post a reply -  ".
Find your post with the terminal output, click on Edit and add the flags.

You can also select multiple lines (ie: paint) and click on the flag you want to use and all that you painted will start and end with the proper flag.

Best,

A.

Thanks for the reply.

I am intending on replying:-), but when I append 'code' and '/code' to the beginning and end of your code, it takes me to another program Visual Studio Code?

Sorry, doesn't take long to reach the limit of my knowledge on this subject.

Cheers

keith

You're welcome.

Right.

But first I'll ask you to edit your previous post so that the terminal output is seen as code.
That way it is easier to see and check separately from the text.

To do that, you have to add the code and /code tags to the start and end (respectively) of the output you copied/pasted on the screen.

Do a preview and check if it is seen like this:

Linux devuan 4.19.0-22-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.260-1 (2022-09-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Best,

A.

output here in order:

Linux devuan 4.19.0-22-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.260-1 (2022-09-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

desktop-base/oldstable,oldstable,now 1:3.0 all [installed,automatic]
desktop-file-utils/oldstable,now 0.23-4 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gir1.2-freedesktop/oldstable,now 1.58.3-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
gsettings-desktop-schemas/oldstable,oldstable,now 3.28.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
libfile-desktopentry-perl/oldstable,oldstable,now 0.22-1 all [installed,automatic]
sound-theme-freedesktop/oldstable,oldstable,now 0.8-2 all [installed,automatic]
task-british-desktop/oldstable,oldstable,now 3.54+devuan4 all [installed]
task-desktop/oldstable,oldstable,now 3.54+devuan4 all [installed]
task-xfce-desktop/oldstable,oldstable,now 3.54+devuan4 all [installed,automatic]
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk/oldstable,now 1.2.0-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-desktop-portal/oldstable,now 1.2.0-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfdesktop4-data/oldstable,oldstable,now 4.12.4-2 all [installed,automatic]
xfdesktop4/oldstable,now 4.12.4-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]

[sudo] password for keith:
[    0.236909] mtrr: probably your BIOS does not setup all CPUs.
[    1.821295] acpi PNP0A08:00: _OSC: platform does not support [SHPCHotplug LTR]
[    1.847508] system 00:00: [mem 0xfed10000-0xfed17fff] could not be reserved
[    1.847517] system 00:00: [mem 0xfec00000-0xfec00fff] could not be reserved
[    2.456443] AMD IOMMUv2 functionality not available on this system
[    2.645687] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000428-0x000000000000042F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000400-0x000000000000047F (\PMIO) (20180810/utaddress-213)
[    2.645698] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000540-0x000000000000054F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x0000000000000563 (\GPIO) (20180810/utaddress-213)
[    2.645704] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000530-0x000000000000053F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x0000000000000563 (\GPIO) (20180810/utaddress-213)
[    2.645709] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000052F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x0000000000000563 (\GPIO) (20180810/utaddress-213)
[    2.681883] ehci-pci 0000:00:1a.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported
[    2.701320] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported
[    2.718617] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported
[    3.815409] PM: Image not found (code -22)
[    4.754444] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[    8.141825] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[   10.395176] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   11.248527] random: 27 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[   11.258935] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  126.787544] FAT-fs (sdb1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.

Right.

Most important when asking for assistance is to provide as much information as possible.

Devuan is mostly what people ask about here.
But it could be Devuan Chimaera 4.0 (stable) or Devuan Beowulf 3.0 (oldstable) or maybe an older version.

It would be a start in the right direction but not enough.
No one here can see your deskop (eventually but not just yet) so they will need to know a bit more than that ...  8^°

So, for starters, please post the terminal printout result of this:

~$ uname -a

And these:

~$ apt list | grep installed | grep desk

~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i "error\|warning\|fail\|segfault\|fatal\|not"

All the information you post will enable those who can help you to actually be able to do it.

Best,

A.

Edit: grammar, syntax, etc.

Linux newbie but have been using devuan for a couple of years now.

Update  today, and have lost my bottom and top taskbars?

All I have is icons on my desktop?

Rebooted, but nothing changed - anybody any ideas?

Thanks

Pootler