Ubuntu destop switching

[jmmckee]

My apology in advance for a newbie question.

Briefly: My netbook has Ubuntu 9,04 installed. Desktop mode uses the remix layout. I was curious (I know, curiosity killed the cat) what the classic desktop looked like. I want to go back to the remix layout. The menu rather abruptly disappeared, probably something else I mucked up. This leaves me with only icons on the desktop. Another user is unchanged, thus I now it is a user setting. .

Would somebody kindly either direct me to appropriate documentation - I have looked at a number of sites, but obviously the wrong ones, or tell me how to restore the remix desktop?

John McKee

[Matthew Powell]

There's an entry in the menu to toggle that, I think it's called Switch Desktop Mode.  Check under System -> Preferences.  I'm on UNR 9.10 and it's not there anymore.  (Not sure why one would install UNR, then switch to the standard desktop, anyway, so maybe that's why it's been removed.)

Now, since you say your menu has disappeared, hit ALT+F2 and run 'alacarte'.  That's the menu editor.  Browse through that, look for that switch desktop mode launcher, and check the properties.  Find the name of the app, and run that directly.

If you still can't find it, nuke your .gnome* files and I think that'll restore you to a stock gnome desktop, in this case, with the netbook launcher enabled.  (this is probably what I'd do if I were you, I'm too lazy to hunt down the switcher)

And for what it's worth, 9.10 UNR is pretty nice, I'd strongly suggest you install it from scratch.

[jmmckee]

ALT + F2 is ignored. Switching to a console sort of works. I renamed .gnome, but the desktop is still mucked. Perhaps, with .gnome missing, the saved version was copied. Shortly after that, console works bizarre. Key a "j" and the screen shows: [4~, which makes me think it is showing escape sequences. Oddly, the backspace key works as expected, removing one character at a time.

John McKee.

[Matthew Powell]

Ditch .gconf* as well.

[jmmckee]

Doing that shot down all the icons. I copied directories from the othe user, chown and chgrp.. Still hosed. Maybe I'll get a bright idea after some sleep. On the good side, I only hosed one user, not the system.

John McKee

[Aaron Brown]

jmmckee wrote:
> Doing that shot down all the icons. I copied directories from the othe user, chown and chgrp.. Still hosed. Maybe I'll get a bright idea after some sleep. On the good side, I only hosed one user, not the system.
>
> John McKee

It might be time to create a new user account for yourself, then copy
the files you care about from your home directory to the new user.

If the new user works as you want, and if you want to keep using your
original username, you could delete your old user and re-create it, then
copy the files back again.

If you have backup files on external media using a non-Windows file
system (not FAT* or NTFS), you may want to work out the user and group
ID (the numeric value) for your original username before you blow it
away. When you create your user over again, you can specify that ID,
which will make it easier to claim ownership of all your old backup files.

Before going to this extreme, you could also try replacing files in your
existing $HOME with the stuff in /etc/skel.

- Aaron

--
Aaron Brown :: aa...@thebrownproject.com :: www.thebrownproject.com

[Seth Galitzer]

You may also need to blow away .config. It seems more apps are using
that instead of .gnome or .kde.

Seth

--
Seth Galitzer

The beatings will continue until morale has improved.

[Christofer C. Bell]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Matthew Powell <ma...@linuxfriends.net> wrote:
> Ditch .gconf* as well.

Here's my little "reset_gnome" script. Perhaps it will be helpful to you.

#!/bin/bash
rm -rf .gnome* .gconf* .config .dbus .dmrc .gstreamer-0.10 .icons
.metacity .nautilus .qt .recently-used.xbel .thumbnails
.update-manager-core

--
Chris

[jmmckee]

Replacing the files from /etc/skel sounds like the prudent approach. I knew they were in /etc, from YEARS ago. Nice to know that they are in a separate directory now.

Thanks.

John McKee


-----Original message-----
From: Aaron Brown aa...@thebrownproject.com
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:15:04 -0600
To: kul...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [KULUA] Re: Ubuntu destop switching

>

> jmmckee wrote:
> > Doing that shot down all the icons. I copied directories from the othe user, chown and chgrp.. Still hosed. Maybe I'll get a bright idea after some sleep. On the good side, I only hosed one user, not the system.
> >
> > John McKee
>

[jmmckee]

Thanks Chris.

John McKee


-----Original message-----
From: "Christofer C. Bell" christof...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:14 -0600
To: kul...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [KULUA] Re: Ubuntu destop switching

>

> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Matthew Powell <ma...@linuxfriends.net> wrote:
> > Ditch .gconf* as well.
>
> Here's my little "reset_gnome" script. Perhaps it will be helpful to you.
>
> #!/bin/bash
> rm -rf .gnome* .gconf* .config .dbus .dmrc .gstreamer-0.10 .icons

> metacity .nautilus .qt .recently-used.xbel .thumbnails
> update-manager-core
>
>
> --
> Chris
>
> >

[jmmckee]

I keep wondering what is supposed to happen when a non-root user at a college, for example, clicks on an innocent check box and trashees things. I used to work at a college, and it was "interesting" when students managed to do damage a lot less involved than the little check box. Of course, that was a long time ago, in a simple time.....

John McKee

-----Original message-----
From: Seth Galitzer seth...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:33:45 -0600
To: kul...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [KULUA] Re: Ubuntu destop switching

>

> You may also need to blow away .config. It seems more apps are using
> that instead of .gnome or .kde.
>
> Seth
>

> jmmckee wrote:
> > Doing that shot down all the icons. I copied directories from the othe user, chown and chgrp.. Still hosed. Maybe I'll get a bright idea after some sleep. On the good side, I only hosed one user, not the system.
> >

> > John McKee

> >
> > -----Original message-----
> > From: Matthew Powell ma...@linuxfriends.net

> > Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:58:21 -0600
> > To: kul...@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: [KULUA] Re: Ubuntu destop switching
> >

> >> Ditch .gconf* as well.
> >>
> >> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 22:55, jmmckee <jmm...@flinthills.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ALT + F2 is ignored. Switching to a console sort of works. I renamed
> >>> .gnome, but the desktop is still mucked. Perhaps, with .gnome missing, the
> >>> saved version was copied. Shortly after that, console works bizarre. Key a
> >>> "j" and the screen shows: [4~, which makes me think it is showing escape
> >>> sequences. Oddly, the backspace key works as expected, removing one
> >>> character at a time.
> >>>
> >>> John McKee.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original message-----
> >>> From: Matthew Powell ma...@linuxfriends.net

> >>> Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:31:03 -0600
> >>> To: kul...@googlegroups.com
> >>> Subject: [KULUA] Re: Ubuntu destop switching
> >>>

[jmmckee]

The problem was in .config. Specifically, when classic mode was selected to replace remix, the directories autostart and desktop-switcher were added.

Thanks for the help.

> > >>>>> classic desktop looked like. I want to go back to the remix layout> >>> The