Applications and files won't open

[wg5o]

I'm running Ubuntu 14.04.

WhenI try to open anapplication, the litttle progress wheel runs, and tics appear to indicate its open, but nothing is disptayed. This condition seemed to davelope gradually, and now, I'm pretty much at a standsill.


Andy
San Antonio, TX

[TheFu]

What do the log files say?

[wg5o]

Sorry, how do I et the log files?

[TheFu]

There is a GUI way - I don't know that.
http://blog.jdpfu.com/2013/02/11/linux-troubleshooting-101-log-files is how I do it. Works on every distro, with or without a GUI.

[CantankRus]

@ TheFu FYI
The code block on that page won't run because of the type of quotes used around error|warning.

sudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*log
Probably how the blog software interprets single quotes.

[wg5o]

The system won't let me post the whole log. Here is the last bit:


andy@Izzy:~$ /var/log/syslog:Feb 5 16:55:23 Izzy kernel: [ 21.595721] EXT4-fs (sdb1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
> bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
andy@Izzy:~$ andy@Izzy:~$ /var/log/syslog:Feb 5 16:55:51 Izzy NetworkManager[854]: <error> [1423176951.161083] [nm-dns-dnsmasq.c:396] update(): dnsmasq owner not found on bus: Could not get owner of name 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.dnsmasq': no such name
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
andy@Izzy:~$ bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
> andy@Izzy:~$ /var/log/syslog:Feb 5 16:55:51 Izzy dnsmasq[1812]: warning: no upstream servers configured
> bash: /var/log/syslog:Feb: No such file or directory
> andy@Izzy:~$ /var/log/Xorg.0.log:(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
> bash: syntax error near unexpected token `WW'
> andy@Izzy:~$ andy@Izzy:~$ sudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*logsudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*logsudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*logsudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*logsudo egrep -i ‘error|warning’ /var/log/*log
> warning’: command not found