-How to reset Xfce to "factory" settings in Etch ?
 

Hi Friends,

My 2 Etch boxes are doing perfect, thanks to the help of some posters here. On one of the boxes, I experiment problem in Xfce : I am missing the "window frame" (the bar on top of the window, with the "minimize", "maximize" and "close" buttons).

I think it is because the first time I used Xfce, its default resolution was 1280x1024, on a 17" CRT monitor that is better under 1024x768 res'... So I booted under Gnome, edited xorg.conf, and all was fine... Except that Xfce behaves funny.

I have to mention that it is only the case under my own user account. When I boot Xfce under my wife's account, it is absolutely fine.

So here's my question :

-Is there a way to reset Xfce to its "factory" settings , or its default configuration ?

Thanks in advance for your advices,

I'm not an XFCE user so you'll want another opinion, but maybe removing (well, first try renaming) the .xfce directory, or equivalent, under your home directory? Some programs create their config files in "hidden" directories (that start with a dot) under the homedirectory of a user, so I'd start off by checking if xfce uses one and then rename it and restart xfce..if it doesn't work, move the directory back in place or if it does, remove it.

it didn't work, but thank you for your assistance anyway.

What did you change/remove? I don't have a .xfce directory. My settings are kept in .config
I have not looked closely, but don't just remove the .xfce/Xfce4 directory, rename the entire .config directory.

what I did was renaming .config to ***.config***

That didn't change anything...

If xfce (which I also don't know) creates configuration files on runtime then it's not possible for you to do it.
Either there is an option for xfce Restore default setting
Or you reinstall xfce
1)(apt-get PURGE ... followed by apt-get install, not apt-get reinstall)
2) you reinstall with forcing the overwriting of the configuration files of xfce and it's dependencies.

My way of knowing configuration files for a package is this:
dpkg -s <package_name>
then you have to backup/erase these conf files.
and then you reinstall xfce giving dpkg option
--force-confmiss
so that when reinstalling the package it will see that conf files are missing and recreate them (without confmiss the system will never erase/recreate your conffile for safety reasons)

Sorry it's only rough ideas, not a list of commands.

Thank you, I'll try it over the week-end, and post my feedback...

I am mostly a Gnome user, but on those boxes, Xfce makes a difference, because they run on a Via Samuel C3 (796Mhz) cpu...

[QUOTE
I have to mention that it is only the case under my own user account. When I boot Xfce under my wife's account, it is absolutely fine.

So here's my question :

-Is there a way to reset Xfce to its "factory" settings , or its default configuration ?

Thanks in advance for your advices,[/QUOTE]

As it only goes funny in your one account, you could try by creating a new account for yourself and then delete the old account.
Hope this helps
james

I do believe that XFCE settings are also stored in .cache directory. You could try to rename / remove that one as well.

Ok,I want to thank all the posters who helped me out. It worked, I now have a brand new Xfce "out of the factory" !

Here's how I managed to do it, thanks to your advices :

-1- In Synaptic, search "Xfce", and select all Xfce related packages, for complete removal. Close Synaptic.

-2- Delete files in .cache (in /home/username, hidden files)

-3- Delete .config (also in /home/username, hidden files)

-4- in terminal, apt-get clean

-5- Open Synaptic again, search for "Xfce", and install all Xfce related packages.

And that's it, folks !

I signed out my session, and signed in again in a "shiny brand new" Xfce, without any of the problems of the old one !!!

I hope this might help other users who encountered the same problem as I did...

Easy Answer
 

I just opened Nautilus as the root user, went to my .config folder, selected my xfce folders and deleted them. Then I opened a tab in the root user nautilus and navigated to my wife's .config folder and copied her xfce folder to my .config folder. Worked like a charm.
Typing

sudo nautilus

in the terminal will give you the root user file/folder navigation. So, the file paths are

/home/yourname/.config

In Nautilus, click the "View" option, then select "Show Hidden Files". This will reveal your hidden folder, which all begin with a "."
I typed this to help others looking for an easy answer.

Also, you can create a new account and open Xfce with it, and you should have a brand new Xfce .config file to use.

Hi,
i have a few comments on you "steps"

Unless you "purged" not just removed the packages, system config files would be left behind. Anyway, unless you were doing strange things as root, these files should be fine.

Things other than xfce will store data in these directories so you may now find other programs behaving differently to how they did before.

All this does is remove .deb files that apt has previously downloaded, forcing you to download them again: completly unrelated to your problem

Probably all you had to do was log in on a console and

Evo2.

try this
 

vi ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml
change <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="1024x768"/>

By ToCaDo157

ps:Fun!

Make new user and delete old user
 

I know this is late, but these solutions did not work for me so I made another solution here (tested)
I created a new user and gave it admin rights. Then I deleted my old username.
I will next create a new user with my old name.
This worked.

I deleted too many files that I thought were necessary and ended up in a login loop.
Luck had it, that I was able to create a new account because I followed some good advice.

Always have two desktop managers installed in case you mess one up!
That was how I got to like xfce over lubuntu which loads 2 as fast as lubuntu lxde (not sure why)

Thanks for your help. It led me to my solutions. Google is awesome.