Startup Suddenly Different

[mwolf]

I'm not entirely sure how to describe this, but I booted Linux Mint, selected (I think) LinuxMint 12 from GRUB (since I haven't yet figured out how to set the selection as default and make it stick), and when the login screen came up, the background was blue and different. I restarted, ensured I selected the correct item from GRUB, but the login screen came up with the blue background again. I logged in, and found my Desktop to be completely different with no access to the software I have installed. My data appears to be intact.

I tried restarting in recovery mode but resumed normal boot, still different, still missing applications. One odd thing is that it has a big selection on the top right which when you select it, gives options for the appearance of the desktop, almost like a CSS file (Cascading Style Sheet.)

I am completely at a loss for what to do.

What did I break?


I forgot to mention that when I rebooted or initially booted, the computer restarted itself after selecting Linux Mint 12 from GRUB. It has done that every time I freshly boot into LinuxMint 12 from GRUB after a restart.

I also figured out that it appears that GNOME is what I was seeing. I think I was using KDE before, but its gone, I think. I'll mess around with different desktops to see if I can get the original back.

Any ideas what might have happened?

[xenopeek]

A picture may say more than 247 words Please take a screenshot (Print Screen key should do that; if no program comes up, check in your Pictures folder if the screenshot was already saved there) or photo from the desktop you are seeing and upload that, for example, on http://tinypic.com and share the download link here for us to have a look.

Also, at the login screen you should be able to change the session you will log in to. See if you can change that back to KDE, then don't bother with the above

[mwolf]

A screen shot will do no good because there is no before to reference.

I did see that on a couple of startup attempts that a message came up saying something along the lines that ".ICEauthorization" or similar couldn't be updated.

I found a workaround that may actually be better. I'm using a version of Gnome that I actually like better. I think what happened is a system file for the desktop got corrupted.

I dearly wish Linux were more user friendly. I also wish documentation was informative, instead of instructive. I don't want to know what to do, I want to know why I do what is suggested. It's my computer, I want to know how to use it. But documentation and people on forums tend to instruct rather than inform; meaning you will always be answering questions because no one will ever really solve anything.

Have the linux community ever thought of an organized approach to documentation to ensure user friendliness?

[xenopeek]

The common things that can go wrong are usually stickied on the forum, or written as a tutorial here or on the Community site. Of course many desktop environments have their own website with detailed documentation, which you can also consult. For most commands and system configuration files you find a detailed manpage explaining what it does and how to use it (type "man man" on the terminal to get started with using manpages). But yes, many things can go wrong and not all of it will be documented. Even if it is documented, that doesn't mean users facing that problem will search for it before asking a question on the forums (probably often also because they don't clearly know what to search for), or if they search that they will find it. Hence the forums, where you can ask and others will try to help