After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

[krud14]

Hi again. I am trying Kubuntu for the first time. But I have a dilemma. After I have adjusted the desktop effects, the whole screen goes black. When I try to log back in, the computer screen still remains black. I tred to reboot my pc, but it won't let me. What should I do.

[flarson]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

That is an interesting effect.

It seems you have nothing but a black screen at the moment so you need to get to a different virtual terminal so you can login and work on it. So try Ctl-Alt-F1, that is, hold Ctl and Alt and press F1. You should then get a text terminal login. So login. Then do

mv .kde bad.kde

which will move your old kde configuration, including your interesting effect, out of the way.

Then do

sudo invoke-rc.d kdm stop

followed by

sudo invoke-rc.d kdm start

At this point KDM will restart and you will be back at your usual login. Login and you should have returned to the default Desktop configuration.

P.S. You could use sudo invoke-rc.d kdm restart but I have found it works better to give it a chance to die before restarting.

[krud14]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

Can you plz explain some more? I get the first part, but I don't get the part after the ctl-alt-f1. For the mv .kde bad.kde part, am I suppose to type that in then hit enter? I've already done that, but I get something saying no such file or directory.

[arochester]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

An alternative might be: Don't boot into your normal kernel (from the boot screen at the beginning). Boot into Recovery Mode (the second one down the list). It has an option "Try to recovery Xserver" (Then proceed with a normal boot).

[krud14]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

Thanks. it worked! Everything is set back to default. But does this mean that I can't use the special effects?

[arochester]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

You probably CAN enable desktop effects - but for now you know how to get back if you make a mess of it.

Look here: http://kubuntuguide.org/Intrepid#Compiz_Fusion

[GreyGeek]

Re: After I try to add desktop effect, the whole screen is black..

IF it happens again open a konsole from the black screen and check the ownership of the ~/.ICEauthority file. If it is not your account name then stop kdm, use chown to make you the owner again, and restart kdm.