Go back to default XFCE-Linux Mint session?

[index91]

Im using linux mint 17.2 with XFCE. My graphical interface went down so i had the stupid idea of going to tty1 and type "startx". Xfce started with a default session look, witch is different than what i got before doing this. It has a differente appeareance.
How can i go back to the previus xfce-LinuxMint17 default appearence?

This is the kind of session i have now: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... t-xfce.png

This is the kind of session appearence i had and want to have now: http://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/scree ... a/xfce.png

Session manager only offers Xfce default session and xfce session as options. None of them are giving me the kind of appearence i want.

Thank you very much.

[Habitual]

When you typed startx in tty1, who were you logged in as?

[index91]

When you typed startx in tty1, who were you logged in as?

I was logged as "hernan", my defaul user in linux, not as root.
Thanks for responding so quick.

[Habitual]

When you typed startx in tty1, who were you logged in as?

I was logged as "hernan", my defaul user in linux, not as root.
Thanks for responding so quick.

That's what I really was getting at, so I should have just asked "Did you startx as root?".

Anyway, open a terminal on the desktop and look for/at

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ls -lF .config/xfce4/

You may have to re-create your desktop 'experience' as the screenie appears that a default desktop is now yours.

[index91]

This is the output of

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ls -lF .config/xfce4/

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total 28
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 14:47 desktop/
-rw------- 1 hernan hernan   26 oct 17 01:42 helpers.rc
drwxr-xr-x 8 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 13:16 panel/
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  109 oct  1 15:36 xfce4-screenshooter
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  462 sep 23 20:31 xfce4-taskmanager.rc
drwxr-xr-x 3 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:57 xfconf/
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:58 xfwm4/

What should i do now?

[Habitual]

This is the output of

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ls -lF .config/xfce4/

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total 28
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 14:47 desktop/
-rw------- 1 hernan hernan   26 oct 17 01:42 helpers.rc
drwxr-xr-x 8 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 13:16 panel/
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  109 oct  1 15:36 xfce4-screenshooterrm -fr .cache/sessions/*
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  462 sep 23 20:31 xfce4-taskmanager.rc
drwxr-xr-x 3 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:57 xfconf/
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:58 xfwm4/

What should i do now?

Looks identical to mine.
Open a terminal and issue

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rm -fr .cache/sessions/* && exit

and then log out and back in?

[index91]

This is the output of

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ls -lF .config/xfce4/

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total 28
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 14:47 desktop/
-rw------- 1 hernan hernan   26 oct 17 01:42 helpers.rc
drwxr-xr-x 8 hernan hernan 4096 nov 18 13:16 panel/
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  109 oct  1 15:36 xfce4-screenshooterrm -fr .cache/sessions/*
-rw-r--r-- 1 hernan hernan  462 sep 23 20:31 xfce4-taskmanager.rc
drwxr-xr-x 3 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:57 xfconf/
drwx------ 2 hernan hernan 4096 sep  2 13:58 xfwm4/

What should i do now?

Looks identical to mine.
Open a terminal and issue

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rm -fr .cache/sessions/* && exit

and then log out and back in?

Introduced that command, made a reboot and nothing changed my friend.

[Habitual]

Then I don't know, but as I said, you may have to re-create your desktop.
Do you have (a) recent backup(s) of your $HOME directory contents?

[index91]

Then I don't know, but as I said, you may have to re-create your desktop.
Do you have (a) recent backup(s) of your $HOME directory contents?

No, i don't, i dont have any backups.
By re-creating my desktop i would just loose all configurations like direct-access links, panels, and those kind of things? cause i can live with that. The problem would be missing important files in my home dir, but i think they will just continue there after the re-creation, will they?
Thanks

[Habitual]

I'm sorry, I thought you were on 17.1

I cannot even guess what you need to do on 17.2

My apologies.

[index91]

I'm sorry, I thought you were on 17.1

I cannot even guess what you need to do on 17.2

My apologies.

Absolutely no need to apology for that. Thanks for helping me, i should ask apologies to you for my english first of all, haha.

Is there an specific term for refering to "re-create" the session experience? Cause if there is, i would like to google it.
I've already reinstalled xfce4, my knowledges are very poor, but the problem comes with "startx", and i assume that xfce is not being loaded correctly or something. Im under xfce right now, so i think that there might be some parameters xfce is not loading correctly from my session-data and is loading by default from somewhere else.

[Habitual]

I have been known to rm these 2 directories for a "default experience".

Requires that you issue these in tty logged in as yourself.

So log out of the desktop and login to tty as yourself.

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rm -fr ~/.config ~/.gconf && exit

Then Ctrl+Alt+F7 or F8 to get back to gui login.
Login as yourself and you should be golden.

Your English is fine.

[index91]

I have been known to rm these 2 directories for a "default experience".

Requires that you issue these in tty logged in as yourself.

So log out of the desktop and login to tty as yourself.

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rm -fr ~/.config ~/.gconf && exit

Then Ctrl+Alt+F7 or F8 to get back to gui login.
Login as yourself and you should be golden.

Your English is fine.

Tryed that and still the same .
May be i'll reinstall this OS. Just a silly mistake to take note off., it's a pity because i dont have time to do it right now, so i'll have to bare it.
I installed this OS in separated partitions for /home / and /usr folders so it doesnt have to be a total mess. I can simply reuse the /home and /usr data, right?

Thanks men

[Habitual]

I think re-using /home (and the same login name) may cause an issue on a re-install.

Are you certain there aren't 2 /home partitions and possibly the wrong one is mounted?
You haven't mixed software sources, have you?

If you were to re-use /home and /usr
I'd login as root and move /home/hernan to /home/hernan.backup
That way after the install you could selectively and cautiously look through /home/hernan.backup and move critical files those to the new /home/hernan
directory, unless you plan to not use the same username for the new install...?

The message here is "backups"

as root:
mv /home/hernan /home/hernan.backup
Then do a re-install, do not format /home or /usr during "Something Else" in the install Wizard.

[index91]

I think re-using /home (and the same login name) may cause an issue on a re-install.

Are you certain there aren't 2 /home partitions and possibly the wrong one is mounted?
You haven't mixed software sources, have you?

If you were to re-use /home and /usr
I'd login as root and move /home/hernan to /home/hernan.backup
That way after the install you could selectively and cautiously look through /home/hernan.backup and move critical files those to the new /home/hernan
directory, unless you plan to not use the same username for the new install...?

The message here is "backups"

as root:
mv /home/hernan /home/hernan.backup
Then do a re-install, do not format /home or /usr during "Something Else" in the install Wizard.

Yes, im certain there aren't two users and haven't mixed sources, the problem is just with some config in the session.
Yes, understood, i installed this OP renaming a previous dir called hernan to hernan2, and then coping some hernan2 files. But i've never used a previous /usr partition. Any considerations about that? should not give me any trouble isn't it?

So to close this topic: Typing startx in tty is a bad idea?

Thanks, really appreciate your help, people like you make linux more usable to dumbs like us

[Habitual]

I think re-using /home (and the same login name) may cause an issue on a re-install.

Are you certain there aren't 2 /home partitions and possibly the wrong one is mounted?
You haven't mixed software sources, have you?

If you were to re-use /home and /usr
I'd login as root and move /home/hernan to /home/hernan.backup
That way after the install you could selectively and cautiously look through /home/hernan.backup and move critical files those to the new /home/hernan
directory, unless you plan to not use the same username for the new install...?

The message here is "backups"

as root:
mv /home/hernan /home/hernan.backup
Then do a re-install, do not format /home or /usr during "Something Else" in the install Wizard.

Yes, im certain there aren't two users and haven't mixed sources, the problem is just with some config in the session.
Yes, understood, i installed this OP renaming a previous dir called hernan to hernan2, and then coping some hernan2 files. But i've never used a previous /usr partition. Any considerations about that? should not give me any trouble isn't it?

So to close this topic: Typing startx in tty is a bad idea?

Thanks, really appreciate your help, people like you make linux more usable to dumbs like us

Why /usr is separate is unknown to me, but hey, it's your system and if you created a separate /usr then that's all I need to know.
Your reasons are your own and it is not necessary for me to know the reason.
But I will say this, /usr is not for "user" and only contains system-level files. No user of the system should ever have to write files there.

Typing startx... I am not clear why this was done, as LM is designed to start a graphical session for us.

If you decide to re-install. Choose "Something else" and mount but do not format the /home partition and I'd use
20G for / (this will create and include a /usr mount also).

If you have reliable backups (USB?) for /home/hernan then I'd suggest a clean install.
You have nothing to lose by learning custom partitioning of your hard drive.
How to install with manual partitioning
Take particular note of the /home partition details

If you only have the one hard drive...
I suggest:
20 G for /
5G for /swap (I have 16G of RAM, so this never gets used)
and the rest for /home

Hope that helps.

[snickie]

Hello!
I had exactly the same problem as you after installing a fresh version of Linux Mint 17.2 on a new SSD. Luckily i made a backup of my home directory so I could get back to the default look after logging out, deleting the .config directory, copy this directory from backup and doing a restart.

I don't know why I cant get my default look back by killing X and doing 'startx' on the command line!
It is v very annoying to have two desktop looks and not being able,in a simple way, to get the look I had when installing the system in the first place.