Desktop settings and configuration disappeared (repeatedly)

[Joe(theWordy)Philbrook]

It would appear that on Jul 14, Myriam Schweingruber did say:

> On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 14:21, Michael Bona <mbona at web.de> wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I am using Kubuntu 10.04 with KDE 4.4.2.
> >
> > I have just had my desktop settings disappear (again). What I mean is
> > that after logging in I do not see me desktop with my panels, icons,
> > widgets etc. as set up by ME but rather the standard desktop a new
> > user might see.
> >
> > This first happened after a distribution update from 8.10 to 9.04 (I
> > think) then again on 9.10 to 10.04 and now for the first after a cold
> > reset (push the reset button).
> 
> I had this quite recently when upgrading to KDE SC 4.5 RC on Kubuntu
> 0.04. What solved my issue was to exit KDE and remove all plasma
> configuration files in $HOME/.kde/share/config/ in a command line
> session (which you can open with Ctrl+Alt+F1). You can then return in
> the X session (which is on Ctrl+Alt+F7) and restart KDE. Of course you
> will have to do your settings again, but those should now be saved
> when you exit KDE next time.

If you'll try an idea from a FORMER kde user...
	{I USED to use kde exclusively, But kde4 chased me into
	 the arms of other desktops <E16, e17, & xfce (Xubuntu)}
But I still lurk here and occasionally speak up.

Anyway On some of the distributions I've use I've had a similar problem with 
e17 losing all my user preferences. I found that by making a backup of 
~/.e17 I could restore the backup of that directory tree to get my settings
back.

Would it not work to do something like:

exit kde
cd
cp -R .kde .kde_BU

(and possibly I think I remember a .kde4 dir?)
cp -R .kde4 .kde4_BU

Then the next time Your settings get lost...

exit kde
cd
cp -R .kde_BU

(and if applicable)
cp -R .ked4_BU .kde4

By backing up the entire kde directory structure you'd pretty much have to
include the config files involved...

Of course if you use this method you need to remember to redo the backup
every time you change the slightest kde setting or you risk losing the
changes upon restoring the old settings.

Hope this helps!

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