Many errors not able to see menu, applications etc

Did you boot to root recovery mode to create the folders advised? Have you set the owner to all of home as your user?

You should also run:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults; sudo chmod 7777 /tmp

Should help

Thank you for your response. As I am a newbie, I need help to do your suggestions. I found out how to get to the recovery mode. Which one do I click or it doesn't matter? I see the following:

Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.32-33 generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.32-27
Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.32-27 generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.31-32
Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.31-22 generic (recovery mode)
Memory Test
Memory Test

How do I create those folders from my first msg?
How do I set the owner to all of home as my user?
How do I run the sudo line?

Thanks!

Also the version that I have is Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS

Select the recovery mode for any kernel and you can perform the above easily. You can reboot by running:

reboot

To make folders you can use mkdir and I suggest you look into chown for changing ownership, there are guides all over the web

Before you do anything, you should consider the possibility that something--perhaps a hardware problem--has caused severe data loss. If "Panel Properities could not retrieve information about the file. Error stating file '/home/branch no such file or directory" is an accurate rendering of one of the error messages you saw, that means that your whole home directory has ceased to exist. If that has happened, then:

(1) If you (and any other users of your computer) have all your (and their) important files backed up, feel free to proceed with attempting to repair your system--at worst, if fixing things is too much trouble, you can ultimately end up reinstalling Ubuntu. You would be well-advised to check your disk with https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Smartmontools and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SystemAdministration/Fsck.

(2) If you have some important files that are not backed up, you should (a) make sure not to boot back into your installed Ubuntu system, as doing so will further decrease the likelihood that they cannot be recovered if they are lost, and (b) boot your computer from an Ubuntu live CD and look for your files. (You should be able to mount your installed Ubuntu system's partition by selecting it in Nautilus--the file browser--on the live CD. Make sure not to make any changes to the disk--including moving or renaming files--especially if any of your files are missing or damaged. Do not open up your files as they are on the disk--copy them to some other storage device first. If a file is small enough--most are--you can copy it to the live CD system, for example, to the Desktop. However, that is only stored in RAM, and files copied to the live CD system will disappear when you shut down or reboot the live CD system.) Make backups of any important files that are not already backed up. If you don't have another disk, such as an external USB drive, to back your files up to, then perhaps you could email them to yourself, use Ubuntu One, or copy them over a local home network to another computer.

(3) If you have some important files that are not backed up, but you are not able to find them, then (a) verify that you are looking in the right place (you can consult us about this), and, (b) if you were looking in the right place but they are not there, and it is worth significant time and effort to attempt to recover the files (knowing you still might not succeed), see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery.

If all your important files are backed up, then you can attempt to repair your system as follows:

Select:
Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.32-33 generic (recovery mode)

"Nautilus could not create the following required folders: /home/branch/desktop,/home/branch/.nautilus."

It seems unlikely that it said that. It is more likely that the two folders it asked you to create were:

/home/branch/Desktop

(with a capital D)

And:

/home/branch/.nautilus

(with no trailing dot)

If I am correct about that, then you should run these two commands to create those folders:

mkdir -p /home/branch/Desktop /home/branch/.nautilus
chown -R branch:branch /home/branch

I have written those commands so as to also (a) create your home directory if it somehow does not exist, and (b) give you (assuming your username really is branch, which it seems like it probably is) ownership of your home directory and all files in it.

It is important to be very careful to enter those commands exactly right--otherwise, they will either fail to create any folders, or create folders with the wrong name. Depending on the cause of your problem, you might get error messages **even if you entered the command correctly** (if that is the case, then you should tell us what they say). If these commands complete successfully, they will typically not produce any output, so it will seem like they have done nothing even if they have done something.

You can run the sudo command the same way as you run the other commands--very carefully type it in on the command-line you get when you boot into recovery mode. However, if you are in recovery mode when you run that command, then you already running it as root, so you don't need to have "sudo" in the command; you could (in this situation) equivalently run:

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults; chmod 7777 /tmp

Then, to reboot the computer and see if these changes helped, either run

reboot

or press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

Thank you. I will try the suggestions. As this was given to my I do not have any important files to save, so a clean sweep would be fine with me.

I press shift to get to the Recovery mode,
I press Ubuntu with Linux 2.6.32-33 generic (recovery mode)

I see the REcovery Menu. I have tried:

Drop to root shell prompt with networking and
Drop to root shell prompt with the following results:

This is what I see:

Give root password for maintenance or type Control - D to continue.

I put in my password and see the following:

root@branch -desktop:`#_ (blinking cursor)

I typed in mkdir -p /home/branch/Desktop /home/branch/.nautilus and received the msg: cannot access ` /home/branch ' : command not found

I typed in chown -R branch:branch /home/branch and it said, "no such file or directory"

I typed in the sudo lines and the chmmood 7777 line and it said, "command not found"

Question - Is it possible to just errase the hard drive to do a clean download and start over?

jmksd:

If you are able to make a liveCD or live USB installer disk, you can just reinstall over the top of your existing ubuntu install . This will wipe *all* data on your drive, so be sure you have recovered anything of interest.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

You will need a functioning machine to download and burn the installer disk. If you have your old disk, you can theoretically use that, however you will probably be best off installing one of the newer versions of ubuntu, as these will be better supported.

A list of version numbers and their corresponding support dates can be seen here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)#Releases

I agree with mycae--it will be fastest and easiest for you to reinstall Ubuntu (and I am assuming that you've already backed up all your files, since you're running commands that I warned could render them less recoverable if they have been deleted or there is a disk problem).

However, if you prefer to continue working on this without reinstalling, then let me know, and we can do that.

Again, I recommend just reinstalling, as mycae suggests.

I thank you for all of your help.

This is what happened.

I have an official cd of xubuntu 10.04. My computer completely did not recognize it.

I made a cd of Ubuntu 9 and also of Ubuntu 11.04 from the ubuntu website.

Ubuntu 9 was recognized and I saw:

run -int: /sbin/init:1/0 error
[ 218.536517] kernel panic- not syncing: attempted to kill init! _ (blinking cursor)

Ubuntu 11.04

busybox v1.17.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.17.1-10 ubuntul) built-in shell (ash)
Enter `help for
(initramifs) mount: mounting

I also did the test for errors under the recovery mode and it said that errors were found in 23 files - press any key to reboot.

I'm open to any ideas on what to do next. I do not have any files on this computer that I want to keep.

Did you MD5 test the ISO you downloaded?
Did you burn the CD as slowly as possible?

How do you do a MD5 test and how do you burn the cd as slowly as possible?  I am also curious as to why my computer would not recognize the official cd which I ordered.
 Jeanine
Pay only half price for your gasoline!
Join a gas rebate club.
www.fillerupclub.com/jmksd/invite

________________________________
From: actionparsnip &lt;<email address hidden>&gt;
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Question #166215]: Many errors not able to see menu, applications etc

Your question #166215 on linux in Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+question/166215

    Status: Open =&gt; Needs information

actionparsnip requested more information:
Did you MD5 test the ISO you downloaded?
Did you burn the CD as slowly as possible?

--
To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
this email or enter your reply at the following page:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+question/166215

You received this question notification because you asked the question.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

If you ordered a CD, or if you burned a CD and want to see if the burn is OK and the computer is able to read it, then you should verify the disc by putting it into the computer on which you're interested in testing/installing, pressing Spacebar when you see the keyboard and person icons appear at the bottom center of the screen during boot, then select your language and "Check disc for defects". If defects are revealed, then either (1) the disc is damaged or incorrectly burned (most likely), or (2) your computer is unable to read it properly, due probably to a bad CD drive, memory problems, or BIOS problems.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/CDIntegrityCheck to check CD integrity.