opera browser wont open

What version of Ubuntu are you running? If you are using 8.04, you should know that it is Beta software, has not been officially released, and still has bugs.

am using 7.10 gutsy gibbon

Could you please provide a screenshot or photograph of the screen so I can better understand what your situation is?

just shows the desktop when i go to aplications internet opera clickon opera sod all happens opera wont open

right i have just realised that the machine that works with opera and flash player has opera 9.24 on it . so i thought great why not put 9.24 on the other machines. so i used addremove programs and removed opera then i downloaded and installed opera 9.24 . i have a problem when i try and start opera i now get an error message saying apperars another opera is using the same config directory because its lock file is active:/home/andrew/.opera/lock do you want to start opera anyway . if i click yes this message goes but opera wont start also i cannot shut ubuntu down using the normal red shutdown restart change user icon it just wont do anything . i have tried this on booth my other machines and now have this problem on them booth presumably i have not uninstalled the old version of opera compleatley . anyone any ideas how i cure this please. andrew

Have you tried to remove the lock file?
From your home directory
> dir .*
to view all the config files( I think those are all the .somename directories)
> cd .opera
> rm -i lock

or uninstall opera
> cd .opera
> rm -i *
> cd ../
> rmdir .opera
and reinstall opera

You may also need to change permissions to remove certain files like lock.
chmod 644 theFilename I think is proper.

This is only a suggestion. I don't want to screw up your machine, but it should get rid of all of opera's config files.

Also if you are compiled it from source with ./configure, make , make install then
the use sudo make and sudo make install to install it as root and not just in your home directory.

Hang in there.

thanks for suggestion anyone more detailed step by step description of what i need to do as i am fairly new to ubuntu and need idiot type instructions please

go Applications --> Accesories --> Terminal

Then follow sum1nil's suggestions.

Everytime there is something like...
> foobar
...type it into the terminal (without the >) and press Enter.

stillnoluck here what happend .update-notifier:
andrew@tatung-tablet:~$ cd .opera
andrew@tatung-tablet:~/.opera$ rm -i lock
rm: cannot lstat `lock': No such file or directory
andrew@tatung-tablet:~/.opera$ cd .opera
bash: cd: .opera: No such file or directory
andrew@tatung-tablet:~/.opera$ rm -i *
rm: remove regular file `browser.js'? y
rm: cannot remove directory `cache4': Is a directory
rm: remove regular file `cookies4.dat'? cd ../
rm: cannot remove directory `images': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove directory `mail': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove directory `opcache': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove directory `sessions': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove directory `styles': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove directory `toolbar': Is a directory
rm: remove regular file `vlink4.dat'? y
rm: cannot remove directory `vps': Is a directory
rm: remove regular file `wand.dat'? rmdir .opera
rm: cannot remove directory `widgets': Is a directory
andrew@tatung-tablet:~/.opera$

i tried reinstalling but it still wont open

have been serching google for fixes for this and a lot suggest i need to delete the old home/user/.opera folder could someone please tell me how to find it and delete it as i am new to ubuntu i dont know how to do this . Thanks Andrew

Thanks Munchkinguy, that solved my question.