Blank screen on start up

[eddieg780]

All I wanted to do was change my wallpaper. I right clicked on the desktop and chose desktop settings. I see the wallpaper part but nothing is there to change it. So I chose the one where the wallpaper slideshows, don't remember the exact name now thinking maybe it would give me a chance to select the folder I want to chose the pictures from, like my pictures folder but it didn't. My background went blank. Then nothing would let me change it back. The commands didn't work. So I rebooted, big mistake obviously because I now have no desktop at all. Just a mouse pointer. Can anyone please tell me what might have happened. It's like I have no plasma anymore. I'm on winblows now and can't stand it. Help please!!!!

[eddieg780]

Re: Blank screen on start up

I now have wallpaper but nothing else. What could have happened to my task bar at the bottom? How do I add it back? Is the task bar actually a widget? If so, what is it called? I think the reason I have the wallpaper is I did rm ~/.kde/share/config/plasma* so it looks like plasma is running but nothing else.

[dibl]

Re: Blank screen on start up

If Alt-F2 works, enter "plasma-desktop" with no quotes and hit Enter. Maybe it will bring back your panel.

[eddieg780]

Re: Blank screen on start up

It seems to bring up a small panel and I entered plasma-desktop but nothing happened. I have the cashew in the upper right corner and can add widgets. I can add them ok but still no task bar.

[dibl]

Re: Blank screen on start up

It looks like you have a choice there:

1. Rebuild a panel to your taste, one piece (widget) at a time. The default panel is a combination of several widgets (task bar, pager, switcher, kickoff) -- I've never put it all together myself.

or

2. From the Ctrl-Alt-F1 command line, stop the X server, delete the entire ~/.kde folder, restart the X server, and start with a new default desktop (losing all custom settings in the process).

Sorry.

[eddieg780]

Re: Blank screen on start up

It does seem that the task bar is all separate widgets. I have put them back but can't seem to put them in the order I want them.I tried the separator widget but it doesn't seem to do it either. There all bunched to the left. If I delete the ~/.kde folder will the task bar come back to the original one?

[eddieg780]

Re: Blank screen on start up

I think I got it to work. The spacer had to be pulled out and moved over to the right and dropped back where I wanted the space and all moved right. I would still like to know why my desktop did this.

[eddieg780]

Re: Blank screen on start up

It looks like the task bar is a combination of all these widgets:

trashcan
task manager
system tray
quick access
folder view
digital clock
device notifier
application launcher

I guess you do learn something new every day!!!