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How to Reset Ubuntu/Gnome Settings to Defaults without Re-installing
14 02 2007
As a new user, there comes a time (or there will come a time) when you are playing around with Ubuntu/Gnome, trying different themes, different engines, different window managers, etc, and all of a sudden you run into a problem that you can’t seem to find a way to fix it.
Computer FrustrationMaybe some of your customized settings are causing your gnome-panel to crash all the time or causing your windows and applications to look ugly, even having window buttons (close, minimize) disappear. You start Googling and spending a lot of time - sometimes days - trying to find how you can fix it.
You are frustrated (sometimes hitting your monitor/tower yelling some vulgarities at it as if it understands and you will kill it if it doesn’t fix it… there’s no Valentine’s love there, that’s for sure) and are ready to go back to Microsoft Windows.
But wait!
You keep thinking, “I wish I could just reset it back to its defaults, like a clean install, without losing all my applications and data.”
Well, you’re in luck. There is a way to reset your Desktop settings back to their defaults. If you keep in mind that everything in Linux is a file, all of its settings are files. All of Gnome’s customizations are located in their own specific folders. And these settings are user specific; they are in your Home folder. If you would create another user and log in with that user, you wouldn’t have any of the problems you are having in your own account. If you remove all these folders, you essentially remove all the settings. Therefore, we will remove the folders needed to reset Ubuntu/Gnome back to its defaults.
UPDATE (2008.01.30): Keep in mind that this will only reset your Gnome-specific settings. If you are having problems with your video card, display, x-server, etc., this WILL NOT fix your problems.
If you don’t have access to your graphical (GUI) desktop to delete these folders in Nautilus or you’re stuck at the login screen, drop to a terminal by hitting CTRL + ALT + F1, login to your account, and run this command:
rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity
Get back to your GUI desktop by hitting CTRL + ALT + F7.
Login and VOILÀ! Just like the first time you ever logged into your Gnome desktop.
Too bad. I mean that both ways.
5.99 per month to give you free shipping? Sounds like a great plan! Except when you find out that they CHARGE YOU FOR THE SHIPPING AND THEN REBATE YOU AT THEIR CONVENIENCE. So you pay 5.99 per month, then have to hope freeshipping.com actually rebates you.
There are a number of letters on the internet stating that freeshipping.com is charging OVER the shipping cost of your order,as well as random other fees.
I thought it sounded too good to be true.
The easiest way to setup a dual head on CENTOS with an NVIDIA card is the following:
1) Make a backup of the working /etc/X11/org.conf file (name it xorg.conf.original.singlehead)
2) Download the NVIDIA linux driver but do NOT run (you can't anyway with X running)
3) Go to the System Tools and select DISPLAY
4) SETUP a dual head with the configuration that you want and click OK to write out the xorg.conf file
5) Open a terminal and make a backup of the newly written xorg.conf file to xorg.conf.nv-driver.dualhead
6) Edit the xorg.conf file to change "nv" for the driver to "nvidia"
7) Copy the newly edited "nvidia" xorg.conf file to xorg.conf.nvidia.dualhead.useme
8) Delete the xorg.conf file
9) Kill X (CTRL_alt_bksp) - and wait for startup to fail
10) Hit ALT-F1 to enter new terminal and LOGIN as root
11) Install NVIDIA driver from NVIDIA .run package file (you have to chmod X it first)
12) Rename xorg.conf.nvidia.dualhead.useme to xorg.conf in /etc/X11
13) startx
- Pulls to standing
- Sits up by himself
- Vocalizes with syllabic speech (in Haiku)
- Uses toys bimanually and interactively between hands
- Cruises on furniture
- Crawls everywhere
- Sleeps 12 hours (not in a row, but he is working on that)
- Plays peekaboo
- Smiles at self in mirror
- Splashes in bath
Happy baby
The definition of "sliding by" is that instead of doing the actual work, the individual
chooses to avoid the work instead making excuses and spending a tremendous amount of energy in the work's avoidance. Most people know these "sliders by". When there is work to do, the person chooses NOT to do the work or delay the efforts so much that they are relegated to creating an unacceptable product. They then engage in a highly complex excuse and avoidance framework of efforts, usually requiring more time than the work really would have taken.
I see this is in the Bush administration. Gonzalez? Should have just kept the Justice department working on cases. Not a question of whether what was done was legal or illegal (it was just wrong, by the way). Gonzalez had the justice department engage in efforts NOT TO DO THEIR JOB. Now, he and they are spending more time explaining non-truths and poor decision making than actually doing work. Wonder how those cases are going at Justice? They likely aren't.
Sliders by.
Stephen L. Johnson was sworn in as the 11th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 2, 2005. He assumed the position with the stated goal of promoting and maintaining the utilization of sound science while using collaborative, innovative approaches to solving environmental problems. The EPA implements and enforces the nation’s federal environmental laws and regulations; the Agency has over 17,000 employees nationwide and an annual budget of $8.6 billion. Really now?? Is this sound science? EPA Chief: Bush Climate Policy Working By H. Josef Hebert
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Related Topics
|  The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday the growth of greenhouse gases by less than 1 percent in 2005 shows the administration's program to address global warming "is delivering real results." The pronouncement by EPA Administrator Dave [Stephen] Johnson brought a quick response from some environmentalists. "Things have come to a pretty sad state of affairs when the EPA tries to spin increased greenhouse gas emissions as a victory," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental advocacy group. The EPA said its annual greenhouse gas assessment showed that 7.26 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were released by U.S. sources in 2005, an increase of 0.8 percent from the previous year. "The Bush administration's unparalleled financial, international and domestic commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is delivering real results," Johnson proclaimed in a statement. "As America's economy continues to grow, our aggressive yet practical strategy is putting us on track to reach President Bush's goal to reduce our nation's greenhouse gas intensity 18 percent by 2012," he continued. Greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing an average of 1.2 percent a year since 1990, according to the Energy Department, and the smaller increase in 2005 may have had little to do with Bush's climate policy. "The slow growth in emissions from 2004 to 2005 can be attributed mainly to higher energy prices that suppressed demand, low or negative growth in several energy-intensive industries, and weather-related disruptions," the Energy Department said in a separate report on greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina disrupted oil and natural gas supplies from the Gulf of Mexico, causing gasoline prices to jump briefly well above $3 a gallon and caused havoc in a number of industries that rely heavily on natural gas. The EPA report shows a 3.6 percent decline in greenhouse gas emissions by industry in 2005, some of which presumably reflected the hurricane-related energy supply problems. Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants increased by 2.8 percent in 2005. The EPA report tracked emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels -- the principal greenhouse gas -- and the carbon equivalent of five other greenhouse gases. As to the administration's focus emissions "intensity" which tracks releases as they related to economic growth, environmentalists argue that avoids the argument for actual reductions in amounts of gases going into the atmosphere. "The climate system doesn't respond to emission intensity. It's a red herring," said Ben Dunham, an attorney for U.S. PIRG, an environmental advocacy group. He said most climate scientists believe you need as much as an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. | ||||||||||||
actually studying, they instead live for the weekends and bide time during the week. In the end the marginal success that the student might have enjoyed on some tests or assignments would be FAR overshadowed by an overall underachievement.
You can see the clear comparisons to Bush there. Bush is a 19 year old kid stuck in hard science classes hoping that he can figure it out by trying anything that comes to mind.
Instead of working with the regional neighbors, eating crow while doing so, he chooses to publicly denounce them and have "private" talks. This mode of discourse is quite annyoing to the American public, who has to figure out what is actually true. "Yes, we say they are satanic on TV, but, in private, we are smarter than that. We talk with them. In a small room, they are reasonable in small numbers, as are we. Trust us, we know what we are doing." How?
...
more later.
Not why I came to UF, but a nice perk... :-)
------BEGIN ARTICLE
Free 411 Calls? You Bet : Dory Devlin : Yahoo! Tech:
Free 411 Calls? You Bet
Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:07PM EST
See Comments (583)
Tired of paying $1.50 or $2 for every directory assistance phone call? Then don't. There truly is such a thing as free directory assistance, though it may cost you a little in time and patience. Jot this down:
1-800-FREE411.
A Boston-based company called Jingle Networks offers this free alternative to expensive 411 calls via your cell phone or land line. How and why do they do what they do for free? Just as radio and TV shows are supported by advertising, the directory assistance service is sponsored by companies advertising with the service. So, yes, that means you may hear a short, audio ad when requesting a phone number, but not every time.
When I tried it out, the automated system got the name I was requesting wrong, but a live operator quickly came on the line and found the phone number. I heard (and ignored) an ad for a credit card before I got my number, but it didn't drone on too long. Generally, you'll hear ads related to businesses you're requesting to contact and will be given the opportunity to connect to the advertised business. But an ad here and there seems worth saving $1.50 a pop.
The company vows on its web site that it does not give out cell phone numbers or other private information.
I tried another free directory assistance number I've come across, 1-800-411METRO, but this time got a message saying, "All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later."
You can also find numbers on the 1-800-FREE411 web site, but if you're near a computer, there are other free online directories, including Switchboard and Yahoo! Yellow Pages.
So far, I haven't found anything better than 1-800-FREE411 for when I'm on the road. Have you?
BTW, "shoddy record keeping" can also mean that the letters or documentation did not exist in the first place and the safe answer to inquiry is, "the documents were misfiled and cannot currently be located".
I would conjecture that the reason that so many government departments are in such disarray at this point is due to the cronyism in the Bush administration. Mike Brown. Michel Chertoff. Porter Goss. All incompetent, but loyal followers. They get important posts and can do nothing with them since they are woefully unprepared for the job.
The cronies need to go.
Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 9 minutes ago
The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.
The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. He found that agents sometimes demanded personal data on people without official authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.
The audit also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to ask businesses to turn over customer data. The letters are administrative subpoenas that do not require a judge's approval.
"People have to believe in what we say," Gonzales said. "And so I think this was very upsetting to me. And it's frustrating."
"We have some work to do to reassure members of Congress and the American people that we are serious about being responsible in the exercise of these authorities," he said.
Under the Patriot Act, the national security letters give the FBI authority to demand that telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses produce personal records about their customers or subscribers. About three-fourths of the letters issued between 2003 and 2005 involved counterterror cases, with the rest for espionage investigations, the audit reported.
Shoddy record-keeping and human error were to blame for the bulk of the problems, said Justice auditors, who were careful to note they found no indication of criminal misconduct.
Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concluded.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said many of the problems were being fixed, including by building a better internal data collection system and training employees on the limits of their authority. The FBI has also scrapped the use of "exigent letters," which were used to gather information without the signed permission of an authorized official.
"But the question should and must be asked: How could this happen? Who is accountable?" Mueller said. "And the answer to that is, I am to be held accountable."
Mueller said he had not been asked to resign, nor had he discussed doing so with other officials. He said employees would probably face disciplinary actions, not criminal charges, following an internal investigation of how the violations occurred.
The audit incensed lawmakers in Congress already seething over the recent dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys. Democrats who lead House and Senate judiciary and intelligence oversight panels promised hearings on the findings. Several lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats alike — raised the possibility of scaling back the FBI's authority.
....
Hope others have better luck!
- Mood:
cheerful
Task: How to halt/stop user called didi
Type the skill command as follows:
# skill -STOP -u didi
You muse be root to stop other users.
Task: How to resume already halted user called didi
Send CONT single to user didi, type the following command:
# skill -CONT -u didi
Task: How to kill and logout user called didi
You can send KILL single, type the following command:
# skill -KILL -u didi
Task: Kill and logout all users
The ultimate command to kill and logout all users, type the following command:
# skill -KILL -v /dev/pts/*
Please note that send users warning message or logout notice using wall command to avoid data loss.
Other useful nifty utilities provided by procps package
- w : Show who is logged on and what they are doing
- kill : Send signal to a process aka kill process
- top : Display Linux tasks and other important stuff
- vmstat : Display virtual memory statistics
- free : Display free and used memory (RAM) statistics
- slabtop : Display kernel slab cache information in real time
- Mood: calm
