DCOP communications Blues

[TEHark1]

Greetings, earthlings. I apologize in advance for my verbosity.

I was overjoyed when I succeeded in getting a complete, unspoiled download of Knoppix 4.02 (EN) over dial-up by taking a partially intact http/ftp download and fixing it with a decent rsync for Windows program.

I downloaded Knoppix because my Dell's hard drive died, and I recently received a new one under the service agreement. I wanted to salvage from my old drive what I could, so I chose to download Knoppix, although I only have dial-up Internet, because it was free (FREE! FREE!).

Okay, here begins my MAIN PROBLEM.

In Knoppix, from the Live CD on a KDE desktop, I tried to just drag and drop from one HD to another, and it said I couldn't write to a Drive where I didn't have permissions. I learned then that Knoppix has most files locked off by default and that Linux doesn't support NTFS writing, the FAT of both old and new HD, natively. I found out how to set the root password and tried to get write access for my folders through Super User privileges. When I try this, I get an error:
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DCOP communications error (Konqueror)
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There was an error setting up the inter-process communications for KDE. The message returned by the system was:

Could not read network connection list.

/root/.DCOPserver_Knoppix_0

Please check that the "dcopserver" program is running.
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After this message, clicking OK yields a window of the Home folder. Out of curiousity, I played around with the German-language [!] options under the [flag-the tab below root-the name escapes me], e.g., Einstellungen (installation?), Hilfe (Help), and whatever icon I click on causes a "could not register with DCOP" message.

I try some things through the shell terminal and gather that dcopserver is running. I searched through several bulletin boards, reading of similar KDE errors on various Linux OS's. As was suggested in some, I tried deleting some files and folders where I had permissions to do so, eg. in /ramdisk/tmp, [.KDE], [.gnome], [.ICE-unix]. This didn't work. I tried creating new users, doing chmod 777 and chmod 1777 on ramdisk/tmp/.ICE-unix, which didn't seem to work.

I looked in the /ramdisk/tmp/.ICE-unix/ folder and noticed two files I could read: "3603" and "dcop3471-1142971829," both owned by knoppix-knoppix. I also saw that whenever I caused the DCOP communications error, a file with the name "dcopxxxx-1142972xxx" would be created, and that subsequent DCOP communications errors would create new files with different names in a similar format, all which I couldn't read and are owned by root-root.

Now, I suspect that KDE is having the DCOP problems because of Knoppix's restrictive defaults. I would like to know if I'm right and if anyone can devise a solution so I can salvage my old hard drive. Also, of the solutions I tried, I realize that I may not have exhausted my options (chmod, trying different combinations of deletions), mostly because of my ignorance of GNU/Linux and its commands.

I also realize that once this problem is solved, I won't be able to just drag-and-drop from my old hard drive to my new hard drive, and I'll have to use some special programs that make NTFS writing work in Linux. Or I'll just borrow a DVD-RW from my dad. Is writing to NTFS in Linux so risky and experimental that this would be preferable?

I just hope I can get this done before I get an "overdue hard drive" notice from Dell. : P

I'll continue to work on this and try some of the other desktops, though I might have some trouble, since they have fewer icons and are more command line based. I'm not completely adverse to such a system, as I have worked with DOS, and do know a bit of programming language (BASIC and Visual BASIC), but I'd rather stick with the GUI, because of the lower learning curve ("Ha! Ha! You who have languished under the yoke of evil Microsoft!" said the haughty Linux knights who go "GNU!" "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!" ).

I'd be grateful for any assistance.

Thanks,

Tracy

[TEHark1]

To quote Homer: D'OH!

Have I actually been over-thinking this? Is the only thing I have to do is press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2, F3, or F4), and there's my root access to the system?

The DCOP Errors are still peculiar, though. I'll see if just switching to superuser mode clears this up and get back to you.

I'd still like to hear any theories anyone might have, however.

Thanks,

Tracy