[PLUG] problems in wake of botched Lyx install

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010 10:19:18 -0800
Randy Stapilus <stapilus at ridenbaugh.com> dijo:

>Getting some error messages and wondering if there's an easy fix.
>
>Dual booting with Windows XP, running the latest Linux Mint on an HP,  
>1gb/250gb hd. Nowhere close to using up the hard drive.
>
>After reading some earlier posts here about LyX I decided to give it  
>a try, and tried installing the package. Near the end of the process  
>(45 minutes or so, with LaTex and a bunch of other downloads) I got  
>an error message and it seemed to abort . . . more or less. LyX is  
>listed among the office software packages, but nothing happens when I  
>tried to run it. Since the install seemed incomplete, that's no big  
>issue.
>
>The more significant issue came up when I then tried running OO  
>Writer, and tried saving a short text document. Got the message:  
>"OpenOffice.org could not save important internal formation due to  
>insufficient free disk space at the following location: /home/[my  
>home directory]/.openoffice.org/3/user/backup
>"You will not be able to continue working with OpenOffice.org without  
>allocating more free disk space at that location. Press the 'retry'  
>button after you have allocated more free disk space to retry saving  
>the data."
>
>Also a few other curiosities, such as reluctance to read or copy  
>documents from the Windows side that it had previously been working  
>with just fine. (And an odd disappearance on Firefox of back-button  
>functionality, though the browser otherwise works okay.)
>
>Tried reboot, couple of times, but no change.
>
>I guess I'm wondering first of all if there's some sort of system  
>restore that takes me back to the pre-LyX install period? (The system  
>had been working fine up until then.) Or what the next best, probably  
>meaning simplest, option might be?

It sounds as though something filled up your hard disk. The first thing
to check is whether that is true or not. If true you'll probably find
some bogus folder with a gazillion copies of something. The contents
will give a good clue as to what process caused the problem.

I had a similar thing happen to me a couple years ago with Ubuntu. I
can't remember what caused it, but I do remember that I only discovered
it when I got to PSU and I couldn't log in to my laptop. And I didn't
have a rescue CD with me. I had to go over to the Linux help desk and
borrow a Knoppix so I could figure out what happened. I now keep a live
CD in my backpack.

Once you know that you have decent space on the disk, try launching and
running Lyx and OOo again. If Lyx still won't launch, try launching it
from the command line. Launching things from the command line is a good
way to get error messages that are hidden when you run from the panel
launch menu. I think the command is just "lyx," but if I'm wrong you
can get the command by looking at the properties for the launch menu
item.

If the installation of Lyx left you with a botched install you can
reinstall with Synaptic Package Manager, or from the command line with
apt-get or aptitude. Lyx requires a lot of other packages to be
installed. As you noted it requires LaTeX, and a lot of fonts as well
as dependencies and stuff.