Desktop widgets move around randomly

[whatthefunk]

I have a widgets on my desktop. Every time I turn my computer on, they are in a different place. I keep moving them back to where I want them and locking the widgets, but they never stick there for more than one session. Any fix for this?

[OneLine]

It could be...

Background

The plasma desktop /1/,/2/ is saving the setting to the configuration files:
~/.kde/share/config/plasma-appletsrc
~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc
~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktoprc
~/.kde/share/config/plasmarc


A)

Maybe the ownership of the plasma configuration files has changed to the root. It should be owned by your username.

Check: File manager > Right click the configuration file > Properties > Permissions
Fix: Start the file manager as root (kdesudo dolphin, kdesudo konqueror) and set the ownership back.


b)

Maybe a configuration file has been damaged. The KDE can't read or write malformed files.

The configuration files are text files and can be edited with a text editor. The plasma desktop need to be halted before you can edit the plasma config files. The applications that are not using the plasma-desktop are still working: Krunner (Alt+F2), Dolphin, Konqueror, Konsole etc.

The plasma system can be stopped with the command:

kquitapp plasma-desktop

And restarted with the command:

plasma-desktop

Another way is to reset the plasma desktop to the defaults /3/:

1) Stop the plasma

2) Rename the plasma config files

3) Restart the plasma.



Links

1. http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma
2. http://community.kde.org/Plasma#Documentation
3. http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...how-to-recover

[whatthefunk]

Still having this problem. Ive done everything in the above post and upgraded to KDE 4.8 but still when I startup, my widgets are scattered all over the desktop.

[dequire]

Still having this problem. Ive done everything in the above post and upgraded to KDE 4.8 but still when I startup, my widgets are scattered all over the desktop.

Not to sound like a cop-out, but I would ask on #KDE via IRC. Another avenue would be to ask on #kubuntu-devel. For tough things like this, I find it better sometimes to go straight to the source

[Teunis]

Have you tried by renaming ~/.kde?
That will on next log in create a fresh one and often fix odd configurations.
When it doesn't solve the problem it's easy to put the original back.
When it works you can copy back useful configurations from the old one until you hit the one with the problem.

[bra|10n]

You could try with that top dock not running and see what happens.