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#1 2019-02-08 20:55:56

loutech
Member
Registered: 2019-02-08
Posts: 2

broken config after editing default background, how to troubleshoot?

I was handed a machine running Xubuntu 16.04 which from my understanding runs xfce4 as the wm. Apparently the person downloaded an image from the internet to their Desktop directory, selected it as their wallpaper using right-click "Desktop settings..." and , i imagine, deleted the image from their Desktop at some point in time. The laptop was handed to me when xfdesktop-settings ceased to work properly anymore.

The problem is that when in  xfdesktop-settings, navigating to the default "backgrounds" directory from "Folder:" nothing shows up as if the folder was empty (it is not). Navigating to "Downloads" directory where a test image was downloaded exhibits the same behavior.

Luckily the person did not empty their "Trash" and I restored the image they initially used as their background. Once it was restored from "Trash" to the Desktop directory it showed up as the default wallpaper and shows up in the preview/selection window in xfdesktop-settings. Nothing else does however. When more images are added to the Desktop directory they show up in the preview/selection window as under normal operation.

I've removed the sessions folder from ~/.config directory , logged out and logged back in and the issue still persists.

Could someone please let me know how I can troubleshoot this issue further so that it can be fixed?

Last edited by loutech (2019-02-08 21:00:45)

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#2 2019-02-08 23:33:04

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: broken config after editing default background, how to troubleshoot?

can you create a new user?  if you can, try it, so we can see which problems are system-wide (such as missing packages) and which problems are user specific.

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#3 2019-02-09 22:43:06

loutech
Member
Registered: 2019-02-08
Posts: 2

Re: broken config after editing default background, how to troubleshoot?

I'd like to preface by saying that I  don't have much experience messing around w/ xfce4 ...

Anyway, I created a new test user and xfdesktop-settings behaves as it should. I noticed something interesting however, when logged in as the test user xfdesktop-settings not only has backgrounds directory (which is empty) but also a "backdrops" directory which seems to contain the default xfce4/xubuntu wallpapers.

So, it seems the settings that were borked are user specific. I'm not sure how "backdrops" disappeared from this user's xfdesktop-settings manager but when I re-selected it from "Files:" the default wallpapers magically re-appeared.

Seems like the issue is solved but if anyone has any  idea as to why "backdrops" disappeared from xfdesktop-settings (under Files:) I'd love to hear about it as i thought that folder stayed in the listing by default.

Thanks!

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#4 2019-02-10 02:25:27

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: broken config after editing default background, how to troubleshoot?

one option that i have used before is to backup everything (twice to be safe) in the affected user, save that somewhere, like putting it in the test user home directory.  then delete the affected user and create it again.  you might want to be sure it gets the same userid number as before.  now it should have files like the test user and work like any fresh new user.  try to make it usable with the same customizations and other settings/properties it had before, or change it as desired.  if you can get it usable, just restore data files it had, from the backup. but avoiding anything in .config/xfce4 and just do normal new-user changes using xfce tools (GUI or CLI as desired).

one of the project ideas i have (i'm still relatively new to xfce, myself) is to make a program that scans through your xfce changes and produces a "menu" that can be saved that is a list of all the changes you have made.  in "restore mode" it would show the old saved changes and describe how to change it again (the reminder) with a button to bring up the appropriate app or menu to do it in.

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