Simple Gnome problem...I hope

[Spooky_Kilt]

So last night i installed ubuntu 9.4 for netbooks on my eeepc 1005ah. I first had problems with getting wifi and ethernet to work but i solved that by fallowing the instructions from this page

http://www.jfwhome.com/

it worked well and after i did that i switched from the netbook desktop mode to the classic one. i then did some messing around with the panels to get them how i liked. so far that has been all i have done on my netbook but when i went to turn it on today all my panels were gone. the only thing i could get open was ubuntu help by pressing f2 which did not help. I am also able to get into firefox because i right clicked on the desktop and made a new html file which i can click to get firefox open.

that is all i am able to do. i also noticed that i have no window borders.


I have no idea what to do so hopefully somebody can help me out here.

[yabbadabbadont]

Try hitting Alt-F2 to open a run dialog. Then enter "gnome-panel" (without the quotes) and hit enter. That should get you back one of them. Then you can right-click on the new panel and use the options there to add another one.

[Spooky_Kilt]

i tried that. nothing happens when i press alt f2 i think its more of a problem than just a lack of panels. i also have no window borders so i can not move them around resize them or minimizethem or anything

[yabbadabbadont]

Try using the failsafe session. If that works, then try removing the hidden (the names start with a period) directories .gnome* .gconf* and .metacity*. Then login normally and see if it helps.

[Spooky_Kilt]

i dont have a login screen. i set it to just login automatically

[yabbadabbadont]

Now you know why that can be a bad idea... ;)

Hit Control-Alt-F1. That should drop you to a text console. You can then login there and use the "rm" command to remove those directories. You will need to use the "--recursive" option to remove them and all their contents. Normally I wouldn't suggest this as it will remove all your custom gnome settings. However, since you just installed it last night, I doubt that you'll lose much.

Edit: Once you have done that, just run "sudo reboot" to restart the machine to see if it worked.

[Spooky_Kilt]

so i logged in and after that i should type in
rm .gnome
rm .gconf
rm .metacity

right? sorry i am not good at these things i am new to this

[Spooky_Kilt]

oh and i found a way to get into the file system. i looked to see if the hidde gnome files were there and they were. any way i could set them to default or something?

[yabbadabbadont]

What I meant was:

rm --recursive .gnome*
rm --recursive .gconf*
rm --recursive .metacity*
Then run the "sudo reboot" command to restart.

[Spooky_Kilt]

it said i dont have a .metacity file

[yabbadabbadont]

Then don't worry about that one.

[Spooky_Kilt]

awesome! its back thanks for the help!!