Desk top missing

[Bart Silverstrim]

Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
> --- Bart Silverstrim <bsilver at chrononomicon.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
>>> --- Bill Taylor <th1bill at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Big Snip,
>>> Maybe some kde users like Derek
>> can
>>> offer some help to us, hopefully. 
>> What I would probably end up doing is create a new
>> *administrative* 
>> user (so the new userid can sudo). Log in as the new
>> user, copy the 
>> previous user directory to the new user directory
>> (like under a ~/temp 
>> folder or ~/oldhome). Then use the utilities to
>> delete the old user, and 
>> recreate the old username as an administrative user
>> and copy the old 
>> data to the now recreated username.
>>
>> It may not restore the data to the exact same state,
>> but it may fix the 
>> problem you're seeing. Using chown -R back to the
>> proper ownership after 
>> each step should give you access to your data.
>>
>> That's one possible fix, though.
>>
> Thanks Bart, for your reply and answer. I'm not sure
> I'm up to the fairly complex task you provide.  But I
> will keep your response in my Debian folder to use
> whenever I get the courage to try it.  Thanks again
> for you efforts,

You're welcome, glad to try and help when I can.

If you're unsure, the process doesn't get destructive until you *delete 
your "current" username*. That means you can, right now, without worry...
1) create the new user
2) log in as the new user
3) create, as the new user, a directory in your new user's home 
directory (mkdir ~/oldhome)
4) copy your current user data into that directory (using sudo cp -R)

If you don't mind creating a new username, you can just use that for 
awhile and get acclimated to it. The deleting old user and re-creating 
it is just if you're really attached to your current username on your 
home computer.

In that case, you'd create the new user as an administrative user (in 
the users and groups tool under administration)...say, newuser.

Log in as newuser, you should get a "clean" desktop.

open a terminal.

"mkdir ~/oldhome"
"sudo cp -R /home/olduser ~/oldhome"

You should have lots of churning for awhile. Once done, do
"sudo chown -R newuser:newuser ~/oldhome"

More churning. You should then be able to
"cd ~/oldhome"
and do a directory and your old user's files should all be in there, 
owned by your new user. You can then move/copy/etc. the files wherever 
you want.

You'll still be able to log in as your old user if you wanted to, the 
copy (sudo cp -R operation) won't hurt it at all, and you'll be able to 
test out the new user to see if it will meet your needs.

-Bart