Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
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AG wrote:
Due to something that got seriously borked on my wife's Lenny system, I
have decided that the best way to tackle this is to create a new account
for her and transfer existing files over (excluding the KDE config files
which is where the borkness seems to be).
The reasons for doing this are because somehow one or more of the KDE
configuration files has resulted in a number of problems, such as losing
desktop icons and removable media (e.g. an USB stick) triggering OOo
rather than opening the actual medium, and small but really irritating
things like that, which despite my best attempts to fix remain unfixed.
When I create a new account to test these issues in, I cannot replicate
the problems, so am keen to transfer non-configuration files over (with
the exception of the applications she uses).
The approach that I was thinking of would be to burn the files and
directories (including her KMail and Evolution directories as well as
the IceWeasel bookmarks) onto a CD, delete her existing /home/<user
directory> and then add her as a new user again, and then transfer what
is on the CD back into the newly created account.
Can anyone see any potential gotchas to this approach, or recommend a
more sophisticated way of accomplishing the same objective?
TIA
Instead of messing around with different users, just follow this simple,
standard steps.
* Get yourself a good backup of all data. (This should have happened
before, then you would not have these problems, at least some of them).
* Move the offending config files, ie. the .kde* directories to
somewhere else (rename them as has already been suggested), while logged
in via shell/console with no kde session running.
* Log into kde and recreate a new standard profile.
* If there are any other applications behaving in funny ways, (re)move
their configs as well.
If you ever run into similar problems again, just restore the configs
from your last working backup.
Save yourself the effort of deleting (and later restoring) *all* user data.
Good luck!
Johannes
Thank you all for your suggestions. I am a simple man, so would like
to try to keep this process as simple as my brain can cope with. On
the basis of this, I will follow Johannes' suggestion simply to avoid
issues around permissions, transferring files over (& inadvertently
copying over files that are corrupted) and all that goes with it. I do
know - having already established this empirically - that the default
KD Environment does work fine and that the issues with lost desktop
icons and OOo being triggered upon inserting a removable USB stick just
happen in my wife's current account and not in any of the dummy
accounts I've set up, nor indeed when she logs into Gnome. Therefore,
renaming the .kde files sounds like a sensible way to proceed, and then
logging on so that the default (vanilla) KD Environment is set up
fresh. In that way I can quickly test the issue around the USB stick
for example, and if all goes well with that, I can systematically work
my way through the other niggles she has and check those off too.
Once again, I really do appreciate all of the ideas and suggestions so
far - great learning process too that there are different ways of
approaching the issue, each with pros and cons. I'll report back to
the list just so that archives can reflect what will (hopefully!) be a
resolved issue.
All the best chaps.
AG
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