SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

[Ocajublinky]

Alright, so absolute beginner, windows refuge, loving Kubuntu

I recently changed my desktop's look and then it went all scary on me, I can get "to" the desktop,

This means that everything is "there" but I can't see it, or I can only see outlines, but I can't reset the settings because I can't see where to go

This all happened when I clicked on two effects from system settings. I changed it so that when the windows are minimized they just disappear instead of animating the minimization, and this desktop snow effect that lets it snow on the desktop, it sounded cool.

I am always confused on these forums so if you could take it slow for me I would appreciate it,

I am running Intrepid Ibex

[aged hippy]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

One way to do it - if you haven't made lots of customisations which you wish to keep - is to stuff the live CD into a drive, boot it, and find the .kde directory then re-name it.
That's with a dot in front of the kde.

Another way if you have another OS on the HD is to boot into that and do it from there.

A new one with default values will be generated when you re-boot.


Edited for clarity.

[toad]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

Here is your recipe:

1. log in
2. press CTRL+ALT+F4
3. log in
4. type

mv ~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc ~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc~

Explanation: ~ stands for /home/your_username
5. press CTRL+ALT+F7
6. press CTRL+ALT+backspace
7. login again

HTH

[aged hippy]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

^^ I'll have to remember that one...
It looks easier.


I thought you were a noob !

[Ocajublinky]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

I enter the code and I get bash : not directory etc, so I ,with what little shell knowledge I had, used cd command to get as far in there as possible,

There was no .kde4 file, but there was a .kde, so I used that, and then got all the way to config, but there is no kwinrc
so I found:
~/.kde/share/config

but no Kwinrc,

Is there some other information I can give you guys that might help?

Thanks for your help

[toad]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

Aarrgh! You are quite right - this was for 8.04 Hang on...

[toad]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

8.04 had ~/.kde4, in 8.10 it reverted back to ~/.kde - but you know that already

You MUST have a kwinrc in ~/.kde/share/config/ - please note that kwinrc is not equal to Kwinrc. Linux is case sensitive.

In the light of this please go to ~/.kde/share/config/, do a

ls -la

to list all files in that directory and you will see a kwinrc

Now rename it to ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc~ by doing a

mv ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc~

Carry on as above and report back.

[Ocajublinky]

Re: Can't See the Desktop

Yay that worked with the exception of adding a sudo here and there

But it did not like renaming it the same thing, so I renamed it kwinrc1, it worked, hope it doesnt comeback to bite me
thanks guys!

[toad]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Thanks for marking it as solved!

The ~ at the end of the file is the "normal" way of marking a backup, that is why I suggested it. What you did is perfectly acceptable and you may as well delete it now

Shouldn't really need a sudo though as you were moving in your home directory only where you have full read and write rights.

[tinker]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Shouldn't really need a sudo though as you were moving in your home directory only where you have full read and write rights.

Except in the case where someone has been mucking around in there with root privileges and saving files as root. Doing that has the potential to affect system operation drastically and is one more reason why users benefit from understanding file ownership and permissions.

[dibl]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Shouldn't really need a sudo though as you were moving in your home directory only where you have full read and write rights.

Except in the case where someone has been mucking around in there with root privileges and saving files as root. Doing that has the potential to affect system operation drastically and is one more reason why users benefit from understanding file ownership and permissions.

Right. Save a file in ~/.kde with root privileges, and you're done logging in to the GUI or running X as a user.

[toad]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

If anyone ever did anything silly like that it would, naturally speaking, be a typo and the offending finger should be cut off for good measure.

A quick and simple remedy is of course a:

sudo chown -R your_username:your_username /home/your_username

[toad]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Aargh, I wanted the reference to your_username to be in italics!

[dibl]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Some/most tags don't work inside the "quote" tags, for some reason. Colors don't work either.

[aged hippy]

Re: SOLVED: Can't See the Desktop

Oh, don't they now?

there was once a Topic around here somewhere...

i'm sure there was...

perhaps it got bored with being ignored.