I'll try to give some background, because I do not have a really good idea
why this is happening.
It seemed to start when I tried to install Adobe-Digital-Editions (ADE), so
I could read an ebook borrowed from the local public library. I installed
wine, and attempted to install ADE. At the end of the install process, the
console went into a kind of loop, with the same message repeated over and
over in rapid succession. (I did not have the presence of mind to try to
record this message).
This through my session into a dysfunctional state, so I rebooted. Or
restarted the display manager, I don't remember. Neither GDM nor Lightdm
have started again, in a number of days. I was able to start i3 and xfce4,
through startx with correct lines in .xinitrc.
I uninstalled wine and ADE, then recently tried again to reinstall, with
the thought this experience may have been a fluke. The same exact message
popped up when executing "wine install.exe".
This system is in pretty decent shape. It's been up running for many
months, with quite a number of packages from the pacman distros as well as
AUR; I have never had a serious problem that I could not easily figure
out. Arch Linux has become my goto distro, as it just works, and
maintainance is not a hugely time consuming or hit and miss affair as has
been my experience with Gentoo.
I have now installed manjaro and redcore, on the same laptop. I have
removed Fedora 26, which turned quirky after a few weeks (which I installed
so I would be able to advise a friend in the case of any troubles).
Manjaro is easy to install; it's nice to be able to use AUR, but even if I
avoid any wrinkles, it will take days to get this installation into shape.
I come to you hoping for some light to be shed on this problem. At the
bare minimum I would like to generate a list of installed packages of all
kinds (AUR and pacman). I truly hope, however, to find the problem, and
fix it. I can copy the files in my home directory, and copy them over to a
new installation. d
Does this description make any sense to someone?
Thank you for reading this far.
Alan Davis
--
[Fill in the blanks]
The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical ploys ...---
outright lying, flagwaving, personal attacks, setting up phony
alternatives, misdirection, jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning
disinterested objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of
view---suggests that ... lacks both credibility and evidence.
---- Edward Tufte (in context of making presentations)
