How to get default desktop from partial install?

Peter Garrett peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au
Mon Feb 19 14:06:44 UTC 2007


On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:42:58 +1000 (EST)
PaulJ at netcall.com.au wrote:

> My question is: how do I reset the desktop to be the standard Ubuntu
> desktop as if from a completely clean install?

Most of this is user configuration files in the "dot g* " files of your
home directory, I suspect. I would try this

* Make a directory ( say "gnome.broken" ) in your home dir
* move all the "dot gnome* && dot gtk* && dot gconf files and directories
out of the way. A broad brush approach would be something like 

mv .gnome* .gconf* .gtk* gnome.broken/ 

You might prefer to hit ctrl+h in the Nautilus file manager to see the
hidden files/dirs , and move them that way. A bit of a fishing
expedition...       I might have left something out anyway :)

* log out, log in again - you should get all the defaults created again.

If you have custom tweaks and icons/launchers etc, this might not be
enough. I found that merely upgrading from one version of Ubuntu to the
next can have unexpected effects on your default user account in Gnome.

Of course, you could do the *sane* thing, and use Fluxbox instead  ;-) 

Peter ( whistling innocently)




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