HELP! A/UX desktop gone blewy!

[Robbin Johnson]

While in the middle of my daily rambles through the world of A/UX, the
Finder all of a sudden lost all knowledge of my disk and the files,
folders and applications there on.  I guess the best way to describe
what has happened is to tell you what I had, what I was doing when
things blew up, and what is left.

What I had -

	I suppose it could be classified as a regular A/UX set up.  I
was logged in as myself (not root) and on the desktop was the root and
MacPartition file systems, my home folder and a couple of folders I had
dragged out of my home folder.  The Word and Mac Draw application icons
where also there (the applications themselves were not running).  I had
two command shell windows and one or two folders open.  I was running
MacX at the same time but this does not seem to have been a part of the
problem (I hope).  Also, about an hour earlier I had been playing with
exported file systems and mounting them from a Mac running MacOS and
Wollongong's Pathway Client.  No one other than myself has the root
password and the exports file limits the machines that can mount the
exported file systems.  The only extra DA I have installed is ATM.

What I was doing -

	Immediately prior to the disaster, I was using the command shell
to rename one of the folders (directories) that was also "living" on the
desktop.  Since I did not see the folder's name change (under the icon)
after I "mv'ed" the directory, I double clicked the folder and I (my
memory is fuzzy here due to the ensuing panic) believe it opened at
least once (still no name change).  I then tried to click on the name
under the icon to change it, but I could not get the I beam cursor.  All
of a sudden I started getting alert boxes when I double clicked the
folder which stated something to the effect that the file/folder no
longer existed.

Attempts to open my home folder or the other folders on the desktop were
also answered by this same alert box.  After some more panic, I clicked
on the root partition icon and all that is there is some (all) of the
original dot files, the .desk directory and the FILES file!  None of the
folders normally in the root folder are there.  No /usr icon.  No /tmp
icon.  Nothing.

If I hop over into the command shell the files and directories are all
still there with the right modified times.  Nothing is truely gone, it
is just that the finder can no longer find it.

Logging in as root gives the identically same situation - nothing
accessable other than a portion of the root directory.

What is left -

	After logging out and logging back in, the only thing on the
desktop is the two disk partition icons.  I have checked the /.desk
directory and the two files in there 'localhost' and 'nemesis' are empty.
The .desk in my home directory has an empty 'nemesis' file.  I can still
do everything through X11, but I am totally shut out from the Finder and
all those wonderful Mac applications.  The desk accessories are still
available under the Apple, but they can only access the few files I can
see in the root folder.

Someone please tell me what to do besides reinstall everthing from
scratch.  I do not have a CDROM drive available just now and therefore
cannot reinstall.  Where or where is the command/application/secret that
will allow me to rebuilt my desktop.  I have the manual set on order but
it is stuck in Cupertino and Apple Canada is slower than <insert your
favourite trendy saying here>.

Robbin.
-- 
Robbin W. Johnson		rjohnson at mpr.ca		    MPR Teltech Ltd.
		``Yesterday the Moon, today LEO, tomorrow???''