Xfce4 install wiped out ld.so.conf???

Question

I reinstalled Arch on 3/7 to go back to JFS from ReiserFS (also, prior install was x86_64, current is i686). I use both KDE and Xfce4, but didn't reinstall Xfce4 until 3/12, at 16:09, according to pacman.log.
I did a pacman -Syu yesterday (I *never* go more than a week w/o doing so, and rarely more than 2 or 3 days). The 2 main updates were qt3 (3.3.8-6.1 -> 3.3.8-7) and kdelibs (3.5.9-1 -> 3.5.9-2).
I fire KDE back up, and I have *no* icons, either on the desktop OR taskbar. None. Mousing over the taskbar showed all the prior entries were still there (including K Menu), and I had no problems running anything, either from the taskbar or K Menu, by clicking on the 'blank' icon (K Menu ALSO had no icons, but still had the text for all entries). Additionally, I had a LOT of random splotches of color (mostly bright green) here and there (including either just in front of, or just behind, ALL the text entires in K Menu). This wasn't a showstopper, just a nuisance. The system seemed to work fine overall. Note KControl ALSO had no icons, but was fully functional as far as I went with it.
I downgraded kdelibs first (seemed the logical thing to do). I fire up KDE, no change. I downgrade qt3. Fire KDE back up; everything is as it should be. All icons there, no random splotches of color; exactly as things were before the first pacman -Syu above. But I was quite curious as to what had happened.
Something (sorry, I can't recall what now) prompted me to inspect /etc/ld.so.conf. To my astonishment, it contains:
# /etc/ld.so.conf
# End of file
Further, it's dated 3/12, 16:09, matching the timestamp of the Xfce4 install. ???
/etc/ld.so.cache is dated 3/28 14:30, which matches the pacman.log timestamp when I downgraded qt3 (although I never SAW an ldconfig run, nor is it noted in pacman.log). Bizarrely, my system seems to run just fine!
My archived /etc/ld.so.conf is, unfortunately, from a x86_64 install and full of lib32 entries:
# /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/X11R6/lib
# End of file
/usr/lib/libfakeroot
/opt/kde/lib
/opt/qt/lib
/opt/lib32/lib
/opt/lib32/usr/lib
/opt/lib32/opt/qt/lib
/opt/qt/lib
Should I simply remove the lib32 (and X11R6, and the dup /opt/qt/lib) entries from this file and overwrite my empty ld.so.conf with it, and re-run ldconfig? Could someone share their current ld.so.conf so I could compare?
WHY is my system running without a hitch? I'm truly baffled at that! And why did the Xfce4 install (ver 4.4.2-1, still the current ver) apparently wipe out my ld.so.conf? Searching the 'Desktop Environments' forum found: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=45663 - which was never replied to. Searching the forums by keyword (Xfce4, qt3, ld.so.conf - each, individually) shows nothing further. ???

Answer 1

Thanks, tigrmesh. I'm going to try that now. Will report back shortly.
Edit: Well, no harm done, apparently, at least. It sure seems like I had more than 3 lines in ld.so.conf previously, but I do appear to be running OK. Will update if I notice anything, but no need to fix something that doesn't appear broken.
And thanks again tigrmesh. This is one of the weirder things that's ever happened to me using Linux - any variant! Take care.
Edit2: Looking through pacman.log, I find that I upgraded to the current version of filesystem (2008.03-2) on 3/11 at 9:09 (prior to my Xfce4 install). It had been updated twice previously, and I notice that both prior times, mkinitcpio was run at the same time; it was NOT run at the time of the upgrade to 2008.03-2. Wondering if that has anything to do with this, and if I should manually run mkinitcpio?
Last edited by grndrush (2008-03-29 22:29:26)