MAjor probs HELP

hi i have an acer aspire one with linux. it has been perfect up to now when i turned it on and got a black screen instead of th desktop. in top right corner of screen is a box letting me select between desktop and internet which is how i got online. there is a bar along bottom with a house in bottom left - when i click the house i get the message

Could not run command: xfdesktop2 --gohome:
Failed to execute child process "xfdesktop2" (No such file or directory)

any ideas?? am in a desperate situation as have massive assessment at 9 and need the acer big time

 

still the same and now desperate can anybody help please?

 

It sounds like a complete reinstall is required, using the recovery disk.
First though, as a long shot, turn the AA1 off, disconnect the AC, remove the battery, then press the power button for a few seconds.

Reconnect the battery and connect the AC, then try a restart.

HTH Keith

 

still the same - if i reinstall do i lose everything?? ie all the progs i have installed etc? i am able to notice that the documents etc r still there right now thru searching, but can t afford to lose them

 

just cancelled the assessment thing i have to do until 10 that gives me an hour, but am i going to lose everything should i have to reinstall??

 

Running the recovery disk will wipe everything, so not your best option!
Can you open a terminal with ALT & F2?
Can you search a USB memory stick if you plug one in?
I'm not sure of the commands to copy your docs to a USB stick via the command line, someone in here should be able to help with that if you can get that far.

Keith

 

have tried getting a terminal most of night and cannot. I cant afford to lose everything - was turning on acer to back it up last night when this happened. everything is there except the desktop - is there any way that can just be reinstalled without losing everything please? if i lose everything, i fail my assessment

 

Can you get to another Internet connected machine, download a minimal Live-USB Linux distro from somewhere(Damn Small Linux, or Puppy, or somewhere like that) , boot the One from that and so get started? If you can get to any environment in which you have a command line and access to the One's internal drive you should at least be able to get the data off the machine.

 

thanks googled it but where / what do i need to download?

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Damn-Sma ... x-On-a-USB provides some instructions: I haven't done this for some time myself!

 

still no joy downloading dsl. im a complete newbie to all this so need an idiots guide if there is one. once i can run dsl i will need to know how to back up the documents on the acer onto my pen drive (in my documents and pictures folders)

 

i have made a usb recovery disk and have followed instructions to boot acer up with it but i get the message "remove disk or media, press any key to continue"

i am totally at a loss now, have not done the assessment i needed acer for and am really confused.

Please can anyone help

 

Well just remove the key. Apparantly it has now been created and you can plug it into your Acer, hit F12 when booting and choose to boot from the key to do the recovery. You know of course, that ALL data will be gone from your Acer and replaced with an out-of-the-box system, as one gets when they first purchase the Acer.

Cheers.

 

Did you create a flash key that boots DSL? Does your Acer boot it?

Cheers.

 

lost all data but have got up and running again!

Thanks to everyone for their help