I post this as an update re. my problem.
Skype and LibreOffice (LO) Start Centre a month or so ago began to behave in a weird manner on my Asus laptop, but not on another (Acer) that is essentially the same; both run Debian 12 - Cinnamon. The two apps would not open but flashed across the screen on my Asus laptop. No other problems were apparent.
Despite great and generous help, unfortunately the problem persisted on the Asus machine.
After all the previous help I was convinced that the root of the problem lay in some corruption of the config files of Cinnamon on the Asus.
So I tried the Restore to Default option in Cinnamon. No improvement!
As a last try, before resorting to a complete reinstall, I made a backup of the Cinnamon settings on the (good) Acer laptop. I then used diff and sdiff to try to spot any difference with the settings of the Asus that might account for the good and bad behaviour on the two laptops. But the output was too extensive and complex for me to analyse. So I copied the Acer (good) settings backup into the Asus, to replace the existing (bad?) ones. And immediately Skype could be opened and it behaved normally - a significant advance. But now LO Writer would not start (it had started normally before), and flashed across the screen in the weird way. Moreover when trying to place a Firefox starter icon in the panel it would not work. But after a reboot the latter was corrected. LO Writer still would not open, but Calc was ok. After opening several Calc files I tried Writer while LO remained open, and this time it worked correctly. Subsequently I could start Writer and other LO apps from the Nemo file manager, just as before all the problems occurred.
It appears that the problem has been overcome (but not really solved as the cause and details remain unknown.) But for now at least I have a functional Asus laptop.
I will mark this problem as solved. I do so with sincere thanks to all contributors who helped me, especially Fabian.
I apologise for the long ramble, but it is for future reference, hoping that it may be of help to anyone that may face similar issues.
Tom.
Skype and LibreOffice (LO) Start Centre a month or so ago began to behave in a weird manner on my Asus laptop, but not on another (Acer) that is essentially the same; both run Debian 12 - Cinnamon. The two apps would not open but flashed across the screen on my Asus laptop. No other problems were apparent.
Despite great and generous help, unfortunately the problem persisted on the Asus machine.
After all the previous help I was convinced that the root of the problem lay in some corruption of the config files of Cinnamon on the Asus.
So I tried the Restore to Default option in Cinnamon. No improvement!
As a last try, before resorting to a complete reinstall, I made a backup of the Cinnamon settings on the (good) Acer laptop. I then used diff and sdiff to try to spot any difference with the settings of the Asus that might account for the good and bad behaviour on the two laptops. But the output was too extensive and complex for me to analyse. So I copied the Acer (good) settings backup into the Asus, to replace the existing (bad?) ones. And immediately Skype could be opened and it behaved normally - a significant advance. But now LO Writer would not start (it had started normally before), and flashed across the screen in the weird way. Moreover when trying to place a Firefox starter icon in the panel it would not work. But after a reboot the latter was corrected. LO Writer still would not open, but Calc was ok. After opening several Calc files I tried Writer while LO remained open, and this time it worked correctly. Subsequently I could start Writer and other LO apps from the Nemo file manager, just as before all the problems occurred.
It appears that the problem has been overcome (but not really solved as the cause and details remain unknown.) But for now at least I have a functional Asus laptop.
I will mark this problem as solved. I do so with sincere thanks to all contributors who helped me, especially Fabian.
I apologise for the long ramble, but it is for future reference, hoping that it may be of help to anyone that may face similar issues.
Tom.
Statistics: Posted by DocTomJP — 2024-01-09 13:36 — Replies 37 — Views 7385