How can I reset my desktop to be like new?

Question

After I upgraded to 11.10, I made some mistake which totally destroyed Unity(I'm not sure at all what I did). I deleted all the configuration files that I knew of, and now at least it will start, but it's using the Raleigh theme and the Gnome icon theme. I can't do anything to change it in Gnome-Tweak or Appearance settings. The problem isn't just limited to unity; it affects Gnome, too. If login to the guest session, everything is fine.

The themes, theme engines, and icon themes are installed.

Note: I have tried everything, and no answer on this site has fixed my problem, including this one

So is there a way to reset everything back the way it was, but still keep my bookmarks, passwords, and application settings?

unity --reset doesn't work.

possible duplicate of How do I reset my Unity configuration? — Bruno Pereira, Oct 30 '11 at 20:27
The question you linked to is not exactly relevant to your case. BTW have you changed your theme in the appearance settings back to Ambiance? — RolandiXor, Oct 30 '11 at 20:30
@RolandTaylor Yes, I have changed it back and forth to all the themes. Also, the question I mentioned is very close to mine, but the solutions don't work for me. — bntser, Oct 30 '11 at 20:41
See this. Doesn't seems to have a solution : http://askubuntu.com/questions/70572/reset-unity-and-gnome-to-default-values — BЈовић, Oct 30 '11 at 21:11
The thing is, it is possible to reset your configuration, but you would lose a lot of settings for the applications you use. — RolandiXor, Oct 31 '11 at 22:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 30 '11 at 21:06

1

Since login to guest works nice why not create a new user, backup your files in to the new user account, delete the old user?

answered Oct 30 '11 at 21:06

Bruno Pereira

73,643

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '11 at 21:08

1

As far as I know, everything in linux is a file. Therefore, this should be enough to reset gnome :

rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

After removal, log out, and back log in.

answered Oct 30 '11 at 21:08

BЈовић

4,564

Are you sure there isn't any personal data stored in those directories? – Stefano Palazzo Oct 30 '11 at 21:14
1

@StefanoPalazzo As far as I know, no (but I am not sure). Bookmarks for firefox is in ~/.mozilla. Similarly, other applications have their own directory in the home directory. Some KDE applications have their configurations in ~/.kde directory, like for example kdevelop. – BЈовић Oct 30 '11 at 21:17
@StefanoPalazzo I don't think so. – bntser Oct 31 '11 at 00:57

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 31 '11 at 01:33

1

After a lot of trying things out, I backed up my .config folder, created a new account, and replaced my config folder with the new one.

answered Oct 31 '11 at 01:33

bntser

1,456

How can I reset my desktop to be like new?

3 Answers3

Linked