How the heck to get old .kde into the current .kde

[urdrwho5]

This is when I don't like Linux because you can't just use the gui type program to copy. You need to drop to consul and use a bunch of DOS like commands of which I am not good at.

This afternoon I used a command like this mv ~/.kde ~/kde.old.

Went back into the desktop and things looked good but I decided I wanted to go back.

So using Sudo Dolphin I just went and copied the 36 MB of folders in the saved folder into the .kde folder. Nope -- it doesn't like that ! Now when I restart it tells me that it can't write into home/.kde or some such error messages.

So I'll need to do it from the terminal but don't know the commands. Any help?

[GreyGeek]

IF you still have the ~/kde.old folder then open a Konsole using Alt+F2 (or 3, 4, 5 or 6). Then rm the ~/.kde folder and use mv ~/kde.old ~/.kde
Get back into the desktop by using Alt+F7. Log out and then back in.

[urdrwho5]

so it would be rm ~/.kde

IF you still have the ~/kde.old folder then open a Konsole using Alt+F2 (or 3, 4, 5 or 6). Then rm the ~/.kde folder and use mv ~/kde.old ~/.kde
Get back into the desktop by using Alt+F7. Log out and then back in.

[Snowhog]

No, it would be rm -R ~/.kde followed by mv ~/.kde.old .kde

[urdrwho5]

I did that for the rm but I had to answer y and hit return for each deletion. After a while I stopped. If I do it without the R would it be automatic?

I never thought it would be so difficult to go back.

No, it would be rm -R ~/.kde followed by mv ~/.kde.old .kde

[Snowhog]

You shouldn't have to respond for every deletion. The -R means 'recursively', so the action is to remove (rm) the .kde folder and everything contained within it.

[urdrwho5]

So I don't have to tell it any path? When I go out to the konsole I am already in my directory and I hope I wasn't deleting a bunch of other stuff. my .kde file resides in home/myname/

You shouldn't have to respond for every deletion. The -R means 'recursively', so the action is to remove (rm) the .kde folder and everything contained within it.

[Snowhog]

The .kde folder is located in your user /home directory. ~ is the shorthand for /home/[your_username] so rm -R ~/.kde is the same as rm -R /home/[your_username]/.kde

[GreyGeek]

Right about the rm command ... my typo. The OP said:

This afternoon I used a command like this mv ~/.kde ~/kde.old.

no leading dot on the kde.old.

[Snowhog]

Which just means that after he has removed the existing .kde folder and its contents, he just renames (mv) the ~/kde.old folder to ~/.kde

[urdrwho5]

Well I am not sure what went wrong and when but everything did get deleted and the folders did get moved but the desktop doesn't look the same. It is a brand new desktop.

There is an empty spot on my bottom panel where the firefox icon was but not it is empty. I click on the spot and get a message - KDEInit could not launch '/home/myname/downloads/firefox/firefox'
On the previous desktop I had some files and they are not there and I also had the trash can --- it is also gone.
Oh well I guess I can keep trying to figure it out?

Thanks for the help.

Which just means that after he has removed the existing .kde folder and its contents, he just renames (mv) the ~/kde.old folder to ~/.kde

[claydoh]

So using Sudo Dolphin

Oops!
Use 'kdesudo' for running graphical programs with admin privileges. Using straight sudo Will mess up your file and directory directory permissions, as you experienced.

As the files you are working with are in your home dir there is absolutely no need to use sudo or kdesudo in the first place, normally.

Also due to the way KDE / plasma store for its an ram and write them back to disk it is a good idea to do things from outside a kde session if you see old settings persist after starting with a clean setup.


sent from my LG V10 using Tapatalk

[urdrwho5]

Now that the old KDE that I moved is no longer working (no idea why) I'm wondering what I could move to the new working KDE. The new one has none of the settings from the old one but maybe I could move some of the previous folders into the new one.

What happens with the old .kde is that the splash screen gets to the end and then I have a black screen with a cursor on it.

[urdrwho5]

Good news. I found the original file that was saved. I followed the instructions you all gave and my desktop is back up to normal.

Now how do I make a copy of the .kde file so that it has the correct permissions, etc. I'd like to save it to an external drive.

Now that the old KDE that I moved is no longer working (no idea why) I'm wondering what I could move to the new working KDE. The new one has none of the settings from the old one but maybe I could move some of the previous folders into the new one.

What happens with the old .kde is that the splash screen gets to the end and then I have a black screen with a cursor on it.

[GreyGeek]

You can use "man cp" to learn up on the copy command.

As YOU, not root,
cp -rp ~/.kde ~/.kde_bkup

"-r" copies it recursively, which includes all subdirectories and their files.
-p" preserves the ownership, permissions and timestamp.