My home folder suddenly appeared on the Desktop ...
... but it's not in the Desktop folder, which lists other stuff
that _is_ on the desktop.
Worse: the linux-header files in the /usr/src folder are old ones,
and all the newer ones are nowhere to be found.
Background: The lenovo T420 laptop has dual operating systems,
both Triquel 7, with the second one on a separate, USB-connected
1TB hard drive.
Just pprior to the present "event" I removed the old linux-headers
files from the USB-attached file system and updated/upgraded that
system with Software Updater.
I did steps like sudo rm -r linux-headers-3.13.0-12*, followed by
sudo rm -r linux-headers-3.13.0-11* and on down until nothing but
linux-headers-3.13.0-139 and linux-headers-3.13.0-141 were left,
all while the terminal was in the /usr/src directory.
If I had been in the wrong directory while doing this and somehow
took those files out of the laptop's internal hard drive, the ones
I can see now, such as linux-headers-3.13.0-67, would have been
removed, but they're present, and linux-headers-3.13.0-139 and
linux-headers-3.13.0-141 are not on the laptops' internal hard drive.
I cannot peek at the external hard drive's operating system, such
as that hard drive's /usr/src directory, so I cannot fathom how
the laptop's /usr/src directory got its clock turned back to another
era.
George Langford
After getting the missing updates through Synaptic Package Manager, I removed
the older versions from /usr/src and from /boot, and then ran sudo update-grub
and sudo grub-install /dev/sda5; I picked sda5 because that is the location
of all the other versions of linux-headers ... but it didn't work, saying that
it found an ext2 file system.
I tried again, this time with sudo grub-install /dev/sda, and that worked, but
now the laptop won't boot from the internal hard drive, and it looks as though
grub hasn't been updated after all, judging from its boot screen choices.
I checked, and the grub password hasn't been changed.
George Langford
Since I couldn't boot into the laptop's hard drive, I booted Trisquel from the
USB-connected external hard drive, removed all the old linux files from /boot
in the external hard drives's operating system, then executed sudo update-grub
followed by sudo grub-install /dev/sda. That restored my ability to boot into
the laptop's internal hard drive.
Why did this work? you might ask ... 'cuz grub is always in /dev/sda, whichever
system I choose for bootup ... that's in the laptop's hard drive.
And now the grub menu is free of those pesky old linux-headers files, with just
the last two pairs remaining, -3.13.0-139 & -3.13.0-141. Whew ... time for dinner.
George Langford