My problems with getting Fedora set up the way I'd like it (most notably the pointless .xsession-errors, see showthread.php?s=&threadid=133914) got me wondering which method would be best for ensuring that the attempt to modify a setting or another wouldn't make me have to re-install ...

I would've thought always making a backup of all files adjusted and clearing the home directory when needed would do the trick, but now it seems the system is in a different state than when installed, as if Fedora itself had made adjustments in some configuration files BASED on what I did.

Any suggestions on how to restore settings, short of re-installing?

-ack-

Your idea from the previous thread was a good one. Creating a new user, and using that as a model to restore from. If you have a back-up that you can use. Let's say, that you make a change using a GUI interface. After, making the change, you could bring up a shell session and use the find command to note all of the files added or updated. E.G.
find ~/ -cmin -10

If you make a note of what was changed you could restore these files from your previous backup. At least using the find command this way, you can learn where the settings are changed.

Thanks a lot! Seems like a fairly evident technique for figuring out what's really happening now, but somehow I still managed not to think of it even though I am quite familiar with find.. Probably wrote the command more than 30 times last evening, and I know loads more about configuration files already.

-ack-