Did I get a virus or the HD is dead?

[anette]

Thanks for reading!!.I am not good at pc so I beg you to forgive my way of expressing myself on computers.I use 10.04 (lucid) kerne linux 2.6.32-45 generic Gnome.
 2.30.2
The problem: The Pc turns up as usually.I see my desk,my docs and and it goes to the net. I am able to surf (i using this pc to write now) but the rest is no responding.NAD A.The process line, opening the docs even turning de pc off do no work.The green light of the HD is no flicking so the hd is no spinning.
What shall I do?.There is no safe mode as in windows as I read somewhere.Than ks in advance for your time and patient.Anette

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Hi anette, and welcome to the forum

When you boot your PC to the desktop are you able to open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) ?

[anette]

Mark,
Thanks for your reply.Yes,I can open the terminal using Ctr+alt+T.Anette

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Open a terminal and run:

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sudo touch /forcefsck

You willl be prompted for your password, but when you enter it nothing will be echoed to screen (not even ******) but the password is going in, so just type the password and hit enter.

Once you've done that .. REBOOT.

During booting, the system should run a file system check.

Let us know if this corrected the issue or not.

[anette]

Mark,
Nothing happened.Tried several times.Anette

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

OK .. Can you list what doesn't work.

[anette]

Mark,
The PC starts as usually.It shows the docs and folders I have on my desk.It connects to the web and I can surf.And that,s all!!.
The command line where the icon (batteries,skype,net,on and off bottom) and the docs on the desk are no responding.Nei ther do programs,system,firefox and help icons. I can see them but they do not respond to anything.Nada.
The command lines on firefox don't work so every time that I surf i have to open a new bowser.(book marks works). There`s no noise or funny klicking from the HD.It looks like I  have been looked out from the the pc.
Using skype,I can chat but no use the "phone".
Is there anything you would like me to check?. Thaks Mark.Anette

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

You could look in Disk Utilities SMART data fro your hard drive to see if there are any errors .. you can start Disk Utility from the terminal (Ctrl+ALt+T) by running:

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palimpsest

But I'm more inclined to think this is a user config issue in your home directory somewhere .. can you add a new user account, and test if everything works in there.

To add a new user account ..

Open a terminal and run:

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users-admin

In the window that appears, hit the Add button (you wil be prompted for your password) .. in the next Window, give the Account a name and username, then click OK .. in the next window, set a password by hand but DO NOT tick "don't ask for password at login", click OK.

Back in the original "Users Settings" window .. click Change next to "Account Type", and change it to Administrator.

Now close "Users Settings" .. and log off .. you should be offered the new account at the login screen, log on as the new user and tell me if everything works in that account.

[SeZo]

There is another option, it is possible that the filesystem had errors, and went into read-only state because of it.
You could test it it in Terminal (Ctrl+ALt+T) (and post the output):

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touch foo.txt

If that gives a response like
touch:  cannot touch `foo.txt':  Read-only file system
then it is confirmed.

[anette]

Mark,
I did as you wrote :I created a new account, and after several on and off I could log on as a new administrator. I created a new doc and I was able to save on my desk.
How can I recover all my docs,videos and folder created under my old account? Is it possible?
Can I access to skype from my new account?.I don`t see the icon on the process line.

[anette]

Hello SeZo,
Thanks for your time.
I did as you wrote but nothing happened after writing the command. It just asking me to write again.
Should the terminal "answer" something else?.

[SeZo]

Should the terminal "answer" something else?.

No, if the command run successfully, then nothing would have been returned.

However just to make certain that in fact it created the "foo.txt" file in your home directory:

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ls | grep .txt

That would be lowercase L

On the other hand , as Mark intimated, it might be a permission problem on your account.
to check what groups you belong to (on both accounts) type in the terminal:

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groups

This shold return the list of groups you belong to.

Also you could try to start a fresh with say Firefox, by renaming the .mozilla directory in your home folder
(it will be re created automatically when firefox starts up)

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mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla.back

Restart Firefox and see if you can use it properly.

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Mark,
I did as you wrote :I created a new account, and after several on and off I could log on as a new administrator. I created a new doc and I was able to save on my desk.
How can I recover all my docs,videos and folder created under my old account? Is it possible?
Can I access to skype from my new account?.I don`t see the icon on the process line.

Isn't Skype in the menus ?
Applications>Internet>Skype

Can you open a terminal and send the output from:

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ls /home

so I can see what your user accounts are called .. can you also indicate which is the old account and which is the new account.

[anette]

SeZo,
the terminal shows :

gustavo59@Gus-laptop:~$ ls | grep .txt
C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt
gustavo59@Gus-laptop:~$ groups
gustavo59 adm dialout fax cdrom floppy tape dip video plugdev fuse lpadmin admin sambashare

I have not tried firefox  "trick" yet.
Thanks:Anette

[anette]

Mark,
gustavo59@Gus-laptop:~$ ls /home
gustavo59  hanne

hanne:         it is the old one
gustavo59: it is the new one