Desk top missing

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- Bart Silverstrim <bsilver at chrononomicon.com>
wrote:

> 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
> 
Thanks for the added info, Bart. It is reassuring. I
presume that when I get to the new user stage and the
old files/folders are not on the desktop(kde 4.1) then
it is no point in continuing.  Correct?  Say the new
user desktop has all I wanted, I would just copy from
old user home the files I wanted to keep for
configuration, etc. as one way of getting the desired
results. Then I could just chown -R olduser if I had
to have it?  OTOH, is there anything I can do to also
fix the old home to get the desktop back?  Sorry for
the additional questions but it would be a clearer
understanding for me if you would answer them.
Thanks much for your help.  BTW, I'll eventually do
this but I may dally for a bit and will post the
result when I get to it.  Thanks again,
 

Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net