Karen,
Unless I am mis-informed, when you remove a partition, all the information in
the partition is irrevocably lost - forever! To my knowlege, Linux does not put
any kind of information in the CMOS, or re-do the BIOS. If you remove the Linux
partition, then do the DOS fdisk /mbr, that should remove any trace of Linux.
Then reinstall to your hearts content. On the other hand, if the problems are
persistent, then you may have either a hardware problem, or some
incompatibility.
KFM, unless I am sorely misinformed is the KDE file manager (perhaps a typo?).
Since it is a KDE app, are you using it in KDE, or GNOME?
If you can give more concise information, perhaps someone on this list can
assist you. Please include hardware information too.
Sorry I could not be more helpfull,
Ernie
On Mon, 01 Nov 1999,Karen M. Heiby wrote:
| I would like to know how to cleanly uninstall Linux. I'm having peculiar
| problems that I think can only be fixed with a clean install.
|
| Here's what I've tried *several times over* but still does not work:
|
| 1.) Deleting the Linux partition from Windows
| a.) (In Windows 98) filling up my hard drive with junk--totally, then
| deleting the junk (just to make sure anything of Linux that might still
| be there is overwritten)
| b.) scandisk (Windows 98) and defrag (Windows 98)
|
| or
|
| c.) formatting the entire hard drive (with DOS "fdisk") and reinstalling
| Windows 98, repartitioning it for Linux (Partition Magic) and then
| reinstalling Linux
|
| 2.) Going into Linux as root, going to /, and typing the rm -fr /* command,
| which
| a.) gets stuck even if I wait a couple hours, I don't see anything
| happening.
|
| 3.) Going into runlevel 3 as root, going to /, and deleting each directory
| individually with "rm -fr nameofdirectory"
| a.) (However: I can't delete /proc
| b.) and I can't delete /lib)
|
| then,
|
| c.) I boot to DOS with a disk and using "fdisk \mbr" to delete LILO
| d.) I reinstall Linux
|
| All three methods fail to get rid of my problems. For ex., KDE freezes when I
| use KFM to browse the /mnt directory. No other file managers (Gnome, KDE file
| manager, or any terminal) freeze, and it is not a permissions problem. It's
| just KFM/KDE! When I click the /dev directory in KFM and look at its
| permissions properties, the text (User, Group, Other) is grayed out but the
| checkboxes are nonfunctional but the proper permissions are assigned. Same goes
| for everything else in /dev. I can use chmod or any other file manager to
| modify permissions and have done so.
|
| GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger clone) is retaining my contact list, when that
| should never happen if it were a clean install. This is not a problem, per se,
| but just an indicator that I still have old information from previous
| installations haunting which are likely the cause of my persistent
| problems.
|
| Gnome's "Settings" on the panel is kaput. I can click Gnome Control Center and
| get it running, but if I click anything else on the Panel under
| Settings, (Multimedia, Peripherals, etc. ) nothing happens. That's just a
| minor annoyance since I can use these from Gnome Control Center anyway, but
| annoying nonetheless.
|
| During installation, I am never asked certain questions that I vaguely remember
| being asked the very first time I installed Linux, such as how much RAM do I
| have, etc. It seems to install as if it knows or thinks it's installing on top
| of another installation of itself.
|
| What gets me is that after I tried Route #1(above), by filling up my hard drive,
| I should have written over anything hard drive clusters that had Linux in them
| at one time, right? Even the boot record was re-made with a new LILO. How come
| old Linux glitches are still haunting me? Why is my GAIM contact list still
| intact when it shouldn't be?
|
| I really want to cleanly install Linux to solve some of my problems and give me
| peace of mind and solid footing for more learning, but I have a problem doing
| so when I know this machine isn't as pure as I'd like it to be. That is, when
| something goes wrong, how do I know whether I'm doing something wrong or if
| it's just a bad installation? That's tough on a newbie. Any ideas would be
| helpful.
|
| Thanks,
| Karen
