[solved] Screwed myself with desktop effects

[daddy4count]

Okay, did this once before when I had not initiated non-free 3D drivers.

This time I had already set up the nVidia drivers and 3D support... went into display settings and clicked the "enable desktop effects" box.

the little box came up to accpet or revert... I waited because this is where it hosed me before.

Everything looked fine so I clicked on the button to keep the changes...

Sadly my screen went blank, black white and gray boxes where my windows once were... even when I reboot I'm back into nothing.

Last time this happened i reinstalled everything.

This time I have way too much on my system to just reinstall... there has to be a way to fix this.

Anybody know how I get my desktop back?

[Nate]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

There may be a better way, but I'm thinking that deleting your kwin config files may reset your system. You can log into the command line and execute the following:

rm ~/.kde/share/config/kwin*

Then try to log back into KDE.

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

I figured out how to do this, I think...

booted into Kernel xxx9 recovery mode and when the menu came up I opted to "drop to root shell prompt" and ran your code.

Nothing appeared to happen, but no errors or anything so I assume it removed the file... typed reboot and waited.

The system came up with the login prompt, but now instead of grey, white and black boxes where windows should be I have only a black, blank screen and mouse pointer...

Progress maybe, but not a solution...

Step two?

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

For now I am able to log in using the Kubuntu "live" cd... incredibly slow and limited but at least I can access my files.

Is there a way I can copy the "live" desktop appearance configuration to my installed user settings I can go back and redo my preferences..?

[dibl]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

Have you tried booting into "Recovery Console" -- the second item on your boot menu? On the menu that it throws up, choose "Fix X" -- it may re-set you to the "nv" or else a VESA driver.

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

Thanks dibl

Nope, tried it and at first login the screen was all white instead of all black... but it reverted to all black again.

I am back to logging in with live cd

[dibl]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

So, you get a boot menu, but that's about the last thing you get to see on the screen? Yikes!

When you try to boot normally, do you get the login GUI, aka "greeter"? If so, there's a little icon that looks like a shrunken piece of notebook paper -- can you click that and choose "Console Login"?

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

Yes, I see the login prompt like always... and if I log in I get the splash screen / greeting and the icons fade in as the services are started... but as soon as it tries to load my desktop it goes black.

At the login prompt there is a small display icon titled "Menu" and I can select Console from there... (with or without using the live CD)

What do I do from there?

[dibl]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

Good -- that's a route into the system.

I need to know the make and model of your graphics chip. If you're not sure, log in to the CLI and enter

 lspci

and it will spit out a list of the main hardware items, including a "vga" device.

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

I am running a geforce 9500 GT... PCI-x (512 MB I think...)

That what you needed?

[dibl]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

Yep.

Assuming you are connected, and have the standard repositories enabled, log in to the CLI and then follow this procedure to install EnvyNG, and use it to install the Nvidia driver and configure the xorg.conf file:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...2816#msg152816

Should work -- post back if there are problems.

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

I tried remaking my X config file following the instructions at:

http://www.brunolinux.com/06-Fine_Tu...nfigure_X.html

Sadly I was unable to find a "Safe Mode" option and could not log in as root... apparently I do not know my own root password, kubuntu only asks for the user password... so I just sudo'd the commands. Sadder still is the fact that as soon as I tried '# Xorg -configure' I get an error response that the "number of screens did not match the number of detected devices" whatever that means..?

So there is no newly created Xorg.config.new file in /root...

Is there a way to turn off desktop effects from the shell? That seems to be what started this whole thing... or can I vim my /xorg.config.new file and change what needs changing? Is there a system backup of the config file I can revert to?

[dibl]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

No no no no no no !

Too many wrong notions:

1. There is no root password. The user who installed (YOU, I hope) is the "Super User" when commands are prefixed with "sudo".

2. There is no Xorg.config.new file in /root, or at least there's not supposed to be.

3. There is a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file -- but it is not the same as the one you may have known in other distributions and prior versions. At the end of my linked instruction on how to install the Nvidia driver, there is a command to set it up properly in Kubuntu.

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

that might be why I was having trouble...

According to the instructions I was following there was to be a new file created under /root that you copy over the existing wonky file.

Kubuntu is the only distro I have used (admittedly it is the first in several years) where I could sudo, but not su or log in as the superuser "root"

Not saying it's a bad thing, just means that when following other peoples instructions I have to remember to sudo instead.

I am heading back over to try your last suggestion, follow those instructions and try to get it figured out. So far I am just thankful that I can jump on live and still interact with my files. Worst case I copy the important ones back to new backup drive and reinstall again.

Thanks, I will let you know how it goes!

[daddy4count]

Re: HELP! Screwed myself with desktop effects

I'm halfway through the process... seems to be working.

After this, assuming it works, I should be able to turn on those pesky desktop effects and play around with them... in theory.

I already used the driver utility installed to download and enable the proprietary nVidia drivers... supposedly. It took several attempts to get it to complete the download and respond that the driver was enabled. But according to envyng I didn't have any of the four choices it offered.

waiting for the download to finish now. I'm off for a smoke while it finishes and will post back...

Have I mentioned yet that one of my favorite things about Linux is the helpful community?

Does anybody know how long I would be on the phone with customer service in India if this were a Redmond issue? And they would want to charge me $40 to read me the online help pages.

Gods bless Linux and all who share it.