I have set up a number of quick launch containments with groups of apps in them,
(I have some screenshots - butI can't see how to upload them)?

I resize each of them to the position and size I want. When I shut down, and then start the computer again the containments have all blown up to a much larger size, and I have to go through the process of resizing them.

I am also experiencing a lot of rekonq crashes with a segment fault (11) but when I try to create a backtrace it tells me the debug symbols are not installed, (but they are)

I love KDE but am getting very frustrated with these niggles.

Can anyone tell me what is going on and how to fix it?

To try and diagnose the problem with Plasma, please try making your changes, then opening Konsole.
Execute "kquitapp plasma-desktop". Plasma should disappear at this point. If, after a couple of seconds it reappears - or a crash dialog appears for Plasma Desktop - then this is the reason why you are having these issues.

If Plasma does not self restart or crash, please run "plasma-desktop &" to relaunch Plasma.

Thanks for the answer

I did as you suggest and plasma closed then a crash dialog appeared; The dialog had this in the bottom of the window

"Executable: plasma-desktop PID: 2317 Signal: Segmentation fault (11)"

I relaunched as suggested and then had to reset the containments again.

So is there a fix for this?

So the problem is that plasma crashes before your changes are actually saved.

For further help you should either post the backtrace (Tab "Developer Information" in the crash dialog) here or file a bug report. If you do the latter (which is the more sophisticated but recommended way to go) MAKE SURE IT WAS NOT ALREADY REPORTED. KCrashHandler will give you a list of possibly similar reports, and you should go at least through the first 10-20 reports and check whether they describe the same problem.

Umm that would be ok, except I can't generate backtrace's. I have been trying for the numerous crashes that I have been experiencing with Rekonq, and it tells me I need to install the debug symbols -- which are already fully installed.

And now I have a new issue -- the terminal will not accept my password for su - says "Authentication Failure" which is plain ridiculous being as I have logged in successfully, given the password to my wallet app, and to ubuntu one -- all the same one and all OK.

Frankly this is the worst experience I have had with Linux since 2007.

Then I'd recommend: post here the backtrace you get and we'll see if it's usable.

About your other problem: In (K)Ubuntu root is disabled, so you can't login as root. You can either use sudo -s to login or enable root-login in the user-settings.

In *buntu, much better to use sudo rather than try to get around that. It's much more secure for the average user. Sudo is not the same as su. http://www.linuxscrew.com/2007/10/11/wh ... ead-of-su/