[plug] Mandrake 10.1 KDE weirdness

[Mark Saxon]

Hi,
I have been running Mandrake 10.1 for a while and have had a persistent 
problem with
not being able to get a terminal up or missing path to su or sudo.
I run KDE not sure if I would get the same problem with another WM.

That is the problem is intermittent but they occur together.
If I try to raise a terminal via the panel you get a console window with 
no prompt.
Like wise trying to access a config utility via the menu which requires 
root privileges
throws a message    no path to /usr/bin.

If I leave the machine for several hours it goes back to normal.

I thought it was some sought of DCOP or kded  problem maybe and have
googled on it.  But nothing seems to quite fit what I'm seeing.
Or at least nothing that suggests a workable fix for it.

Anyone heard of or seen this before.


Mark