Anti:
I tried what you suggested but the problem remains. By the way, it also happens under xfce.
Thanks.
Pedro

Does, in a root terminal,
kdesu synaptic

open?

I get

bash: kdesu: command not found

There seems to be something seriously wrong, and the xmms may be connected.
Does xmms and control centre work ok from livecd?

It might be that the graphics hasn't been set up properly and this might be affecting apps.

I picked option 1 during graphics install in smxi since I have an ATI card. From inxi scrip

Graphics: Card ATI RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] | X.Org 1.4.2 | Res 1440x900@60

I suppose I could pick option 2 which I think was also ATI. Given my propensity to crash with smxi, is there any way to get back to the script if the graphics restart fails?

I'll try antix 8 live CD just to confirm the problem before messing with graphics again.

thanks.

If graphics restart fails to land you in X, you should be able to do Ctrl Alt F1 and that takes you back to being able to login as root and type smxi again.

Synaptic manager does work with live CD (also the other options in Systems/control center).

Using smxi I tried ptions 1,2 and 3, all dealing with ATI drivers, and none of them and none of them fixed the problem.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

I'm out of ideas, pedro, apart from a fresh install.
If you do a fresh install, check that synaptic works ok and xmms before upgrading.

I am fairly sure I know the answer to this question, but it's worth asking.

If I do a fresh install, is there any way to preserve the apps I've already installed?

I'm afraid not.

With the list of issues your having there must be a serious problem with the install. Either the burn or the download is bad somehow. Maybe best to start fresh before you have too mush invested.

It sure seems to me that the file protections associated with one or more files (or possibly a directory or directory tree) is not correct - might either be the permissions themselves - no execute bit, perhaps? Or it could be file ownership is incorrect.

The suggestions to completely remove and reinstall software- either synaptic, gkdu, or both, could help this symptom, but the underlying root cause will be found when the real issue is uncovered.

If I were there, I would do some detective work to ensure that both file and directory protections and ownership were correct. Programs like synaptic and gksu are generally owned by root, are executable, and they usually have"the sticky bit" set. You need not understand all of this, but that is the reason why purge and reinstalls were requested.

Brian:
I agree that it would have been good to figure out what caused the problem so I would not break it again __{{emoticon}}__ . Fortunately, an antix-8 reinstall fixed the problem, but it's not something I look forward to doing frequently, especially having to reload the other programs I use. So far, the system is really stable though, so I'm happy.
Thanks.
Pedro

Glad to hear that it is working out for you Pedro! Have fun with it!

Brian