Q I am running SUSE 11.1, for the last three days I have been unable to clear my waste basket on Evolution and it is slowly expanding. I have tried to delete and re-install the application but this doesn't solve the problem. My other problem is that since installing SUSE 11.1 it has always demanded a password before shutting down. How do I shut this off?
A Are you using POP or IMAP to collect your mail? If you're using IMAP, Evolution may create two waste baskets. One is a local folder, while the other is the .Trash folder on the mail server. If you are having problems emptying the folder on the server you should take this up with your ISP or whoever provides your mailboxes. Before you do this, open the Debug logs window from the Help menu to see what messages you get back from the server. You should also try running Evolution from a terminal (just type its name) instead of the GUI, and then you get to see any error messages that it throws up.
If the problem is with your local waste basket, or you are using POP for your mail, the likely cause is incorrect permissions, which should show up if you try to empty the waste basket when running Evolution from a terminal. Fix this by running this command in a root terminal, replacing USER with your username.
chown USER: ~USER/.evolution
Another possibility is a corrupt file. You could try deleting the files from the Trash folder manually, while Evolution is not running. You'll find the folder somewhere like ~/.evolution/mail/accountname/servername/folders/Trash. Remove all the files starting with a number, and if you get no errors, restart Evolution. If you do get errors, you may have a problem with the filesystem and should boot from a live CD and run fsck over your home partition.
The password request will be from either the KDE Wallet or the Gnome Password Manager, depending on which desktop you are using. These will ask for a password when a program you run wants a password from them. If you open the wallet or keyring-manager, you can see which programs it holds passwords for, and by a process of elimination you should be able to work out what is causing the problem. It is unusual for a program to require a password at shutdown, so this is something you should investigate as soon as you can. Is it asking for the root password? This would be because the shutdown command can only be run as root. Go into the KDE settings and select Login Manager under the Advanced tab. On the Shutdown tab, make sure that local shutdown is enabled for everybody.