Re: Strategic approach to recreating an existing user
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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
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