Hey everyone, I just recently got into Linux, and I've been experimenting with the various desktop environments available out there. I'm currently running Linux Mint 11.

I tried to install Enlightenment by using a "sudo apt-get install e16" command. I then logged out of my session and re-logged in with the E16 session. I played around with it for a bit, but decided that it wasn't for me, and decided to log out again and re-log in to my Gnome session. I was surprised to find a mixture of Gnome and E16, it appeared as though it was Gnome using the E16 window manager. I then proceded to run a "apt-get remove e16" command and then restarted the computer. When I logged back in, I found a somewhat wrecked version of Gnome, with an X instead of an arrow for a mouse, no window decorations and no Alt-Tab nor Alt-F4. I decided to run Compiz Fusion and reloaded Compiz and everything went back to normal. How do I correct this? I don't want to have to run Compiz Fusion to reload Compiz everytime I log in...

Cheers

you could try to apt-get install gnome (maybe some stuff got removed when you uninstalled enlightenment)

and then delete all of the gnome configuration files and they should be all auto-recreated back to default.

Where are all of the gnome configuration files?

Exactly that can happen; I used to use KDE with the enlightenment window manager occasionally. Eventually decided it just looked too weird, though. E17 is nicer...

I'd guess that you have accidentally removed the Window Manager for Gnome. If you look through synaptic, you should find something that corresponds to that description which isn't listed as installed.

Something like .gnome (ie, a hidden file). It might be .gnome2 or .gnome3, if your distro has gone out of its way to allow you to simultaneously install multiple gnome versions without interference. Or, it might not. In any case, 'ls -a' rather than 'ls', or configure your file manager to show hidden files.

see in synaptic if metacity is not removed from your system in accident. if you are using linux mint then compiz probally installed , if you want then you can install compiz-fusion-icon by which you can change the window manager of gnome without logout . you can also see which windows managers are installed .

Metacity isn't removed, nor Compiz, and it is using the compiz-fusion-icon that I'm able to reload the window manager. It appears there isn't a problem with what's installed, but rather that the system isn't using Compiz by default. Using ls -a I see a .gnome2 and a .gnome2_private. Which one of them should I delete? And are you sure that it'll return to default?

Cheers

Neither; rename them, so you can get them back, if it doesn't work out.

I renamed them, rebooted and new versions of the files were created (I had to re-set the desktop background and the password keyring). However, it still defaulted to the cross instead of arrow and no window decorations/compiz effects, and I had to reload compiz using the fusion icon. Any other suggestions?

Well, after breaking some other things, I decided to just start over from scratch and reinstall Linux Mint

Cheers