How do I get my desktop layout back?

[arcturus]

I'm fooling around with widgets in the panel and, well, things went from bad to worse. 

I would like to get the original, freshly installed 'look' of 2012 KDE back, widgets, wallpaper and all.

I booted the liveCD but the file structure on it wasn't easy to figure out.  Other posts suggested a restore desktop app in the repo's but I didn't see it nor was it clear whether it's applicable.  It's my understanding ~ /.kde/share/config is the directory containing the files?

[gseaman]

kde4-config-legacy
Basic KDE 4 Configuration
This package provides legacy settings for KDE >= 4.8.3

This is what you are looking for. You have to save any personal settings, because everything related to the desktop will be set to the default. I hope this helps.

Galen

[aguila]

To go back to "Start", delete the whole ~/.kde folder (or rename it). After that, log out and back in.

The forum search should also give you good results on ".kde"

[Phil]

Hi arcturus,

Welcome to the fun house.
Messing about with your setup is half the fun. Keep on doing it, but backup things.

The item Galen mentions will get back all your user desktops to pristine condition.

Or for more fun fire up a konsole terminal and obliterate the hidden dot file .kde4. It will recreate itself but will be a default .kde4 desktop, not PClinuxOS. To get that go with Galen.

Next having your desktop back start messing with it again, EXCEPT:

Back to terminal konsole.
Backup .kde4 to say .kde4bak (Command is cp -a .kde4 .kde4bak)
Remember to back up your desktop from time to time.

After messing with your desktop and getting it into a really terrible state:
Back to terminal konsole.
I find you have to obliterate .kde4, and I tend to do it as root, so care:
make sure you are in your home directory
su
(roots passwd)
rm -rf .kde4 (that is that obliterated)
cp -a .kde4bak .kde4

Log back in. I tend to be logged out of the user desktop when doing this.
Note you have virtual terminals Ctrl +Alt+F1-7 with F8 or F9 being the desktop.

Alternative is to use a new Activity. Right click the desktop, see if you have a spare activity or create a new one, make sure you do not mess with your main desktop. mess around with a different activity.

Knowing how to recover your desktop gives you peace of mind. Protecting your perfect desktop is strongly recommended.

[aguila]

Now that was a good and extensive explanation. Very well done, Phil.

Do we have a post like this in the Wiki or the Tipps & Tricks section?

[arcturus]

Hey thanks for all the suggestions.  Now I can really mess things up knowing what I know now!

[Bald Brick]

Hey thanks for all the suggestions.  Now I can really mess things up knowing what I know now!

But note that removing ~/.kde4 may be dangerous unless you simply rename your current version as something like .kde4.old. For years deleting ~/.kde used to be a panacea for all KDE-related problems.

Then some fool decided that storing emails from KMail under ~/.kde4 was a good idea. It isn't. But ever since then you should never remove ~/.kde4 without saving the old version as a backup.