Some time today I screwed something up I assume and now I think the problem is the kde desktop is not being loaded correctly. After booting up my screen is completely black, but the comp is still working well otherwise. My compiz effects still work normally, I can use alt-f2 and open apps, basically use it normally, but there is no kmenu, no toolbar, no plasma widgets, no background. Would this be a problem with the plasma thing not loading right, or with the actual desktop itself, or maybe the xorg.conf file, because I have been messing with that a bit lately?

Thanks for any advice ya can give me.

If you can still start up the System Settings you could try setting it to start with an empty session and see if that restores your desktop. You'll find the Session Manager under the Advanced tab. Once you've applied the setting log out, then log back in again.

If that doesn't work the other method you could try is removing your hidden .kde4 folder. You do this before logging in.

Do Alt & Ctrl & F1 to swtich to a terminal.

Log in as yourself.

Now do:Once that is done, type exit to log out then do: Alt & F7 to bring back your graphical login. Now log in as normal.

I'm not sure if this applies to the first method but, with the second method you will lose any customisations you have done to your desktop (compiz should still work) such as plasmoids on the desktop, custom colour schemes etc. You are in effect resetting your desktop back to default.

** To be on the safe side backup your personal data before taking any action **.

Your second suggestion worked perfectly, thanks!

Glad to have helped