Restting ubuntu
 

my ubuntu 9.10 works fine. i play around with it and its all fine . but i want to start it over from a fresh new start ans if it was the first day i had ubuntu. how do i do this?

also note i have already tried "rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity"

and either i am doing it wrong or it does not work. i really want to start my ubuntu over again from the begining without having to reinstall

It might help if you said exactly what you are trying to restore to default, is it just a user account? Or something else? If you are looking to put Ubuntu fully back to initial settings on everything then you are likely to be looking at a reinstall if you have been messing around with the settings, a reinstall in that scenario would be a lot quicker.

remove everything from home directory
 

another solution might be , removing everything that is available in the home directory. every hidden files and folders...everything except your documents..

An easier and safer alternative would be to rename the existing /home/<user name> directory and create a new one with the same name, ownerships and permissions.

i want to put Ubuntu fully back to initial settings on everything without reinstalling