lost permissions

Hello! Before this happens, you installed anything in ubuntu?

Would you open up terminal, type "cd ~" then "ls -alh" (without quotes) and paste output here please?

Thanks for responding so quickly, unfortunately I was away for a bit. The only thing installed was an update to Intrepid Ibex. However I did install WXP in a VBox, though I never got that to work as I wanted, but that is another question.

I cannot copy the output as I can not start Firefox on that computer,, I am using another pure Linux one for this.

What specifically are you looking for in the output of the above commands?

Both mozilla and mozill-thunderbird are root, I guess they need to be changed back to ea? how?

Hi,
They abviously should be owned by you user, assuming "ea". To change that, open up terminal, type "cd ~", this will tka eyou to your home directory, then "chown -R ea:ea .mozilla .mozilla-thunderbird". THat should do the trick

Thanks Tomasz, last night, I found chmod 777, I changed all of the folders to that setting, and firefox works somewhat, I still have no access to the Applications menu.
The navigation toolbar in Firefox is grayed out, and I cannot look up foxmarks, the program just goes away. Ditto for thunderbird
I really messed up, and I don't know how.

Hi,
Unfortunately chmod 777 was not a good idea. Did you type commands, I gave you in last post?

I did, and the "ls -alh" showed the folders reverted back to "ea" ownership. However Firefox works but only as if it wants to be started as root. Thunderbird cannot write to the email folders. As well I have to start it using ctlr f2

How can I negate the chmod 777??

You cannot easily revert chmod
You might try recreating your Firefox and Thunderird profiles, but you will loose your seetings. In terminal type:
cd ~
mv .mozilla .mozilla.bak
mv .mozilla-thunderbird .mozilla-thunderbird.bak

Then try to launch FF and TB.

Bu I think, that your system is pretty messed up. I would suggest creating new user, and deleting the old one.

 I moved the folders as indicated, neither FF or TB will start so this shows my ignorance, how do I set up a new user? My computer experienc goes back to the late 70's and 80's, I am new to Linux, and have not had any trouble setting things up. The computer I am typing this on is also pur Linux and I have not messed it up... yet.

Emanuel

Final question, where can I find the Evolution emails?
EA

I'm not saying you messed it up, it might have been bug or something. I'm glad you are trying something different.

The best ide would to be to use GUI tools for that. Go to System->Administration->Users and groups. Controls most probably will be greyed-out, so you'll have to click on Unlock.
Click on "Add user", and fill out all the information on first tab. Username is your login. Choose administrator profile, and set up password. Finally click OK.
Then logout and login as the new user. Let me know, if the new user can use FF and TB.

Evolution stores emails in /home/username/.evolution/mail/

This folder is hidden, as indicated by the dot in front of it, so to see it in file manager, you would have to turn on showing hidden files: View->Show hidden files, although I'm not sure about exact option name, but you should be able to recognize it easily.

The new user can not even login, even though I did enter the correct password etc. I removed and reinstalled Evolution, I think the complete removal wiped out my emails as the folder is not in the /home directory.

I want to thank you for your help, it looks as ifI had better remove current linux and reinstall the whole thing. I sure am learning

I still think, that something happened last Saturday that locked up all of these things. Since I have already lost my emails I will rebuild the system from scratch.

I will mark this question as solved.

Again thank you Tomasz and copetti for the help you provided, I learned a lot and hope to not, in the future, make some of the errors that I did do.

Emanuel