[kde-linux] How to reset your KDE desktop

[Stephen CS Howe]

thanks a lot !!
Next time it happens ( happens about once every 3 months), I will try to
delete this file only, then report back on results.

On Sat, 2006-02-25 at 03:36, James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> Stephen CS Howe wrote:
> > Dear All,
> > 
> > I looked around on the web but could not find any reference to this
> > topic anywhere.
> > Ovr the last few years, I have had numerous experiences in which , after
> > some system crash, I can login to the login screen of my distribution
> > (Febora, various versions), but, then when i try to login as my normal
> > user, during KDE initialization , the desktop freezes , the system
> > completely locks up, and a manual reset of the computer is necessary to
> > unlock the computer.
> > 
> > The only method I have found to recover from this problem is then to
> > proceed as follows:-
> > 
> > 1. Login as root
> > 2. Delete the directory .kde in the /home/"username"/ directory.
> > 3. When you login again as "username" the desktop works again.
> > 
> > What I want to know from you brainy folks is the following:
> > 1. Is there some kind of log that would tell me what component of kde
> > has broken ?
> > 2. Is there a better way of unblocking my desktop ?
> > The above method works, but , of course, you loose all your desktop
> > settings.
> 
> Due to changes in KDE you should no longer delete the $HOME/.kde 
> directory.  Note that I think that these changes were a bad idea but 
> they don't seem to listen to me.
> 
> Probably what happened was that a file in:
> 
> 	$HOME/.kde/share/config[<version>]
> 
> was corrupted.  Unfortunately, if a system crashes, files that are open 
> when it goes down can be corrupted.  The EX3 file system helps, but it 
> doesn't always prevent it.  So, with KDE not running, rename that 
> directory to like.
> 
> 	$HOME/.kde/share/config.save
> 
> and restart KDE.  This will destroy all you your configurations and you 
> will go back to the defaults.  But you can restore most of them by 
> copying the files from the "config.save" directory to the new one that 
> is created when you restart KDE.  Sort them by date and restore the ones 
> that were at least an hour old when it crashed first.  Restoring newer 
> ones is a risk and you need to decide if you want to risk it.