Desktop settings reset every login or restart [SOLVED]
- Thread starter Clownish
- Start date
The title says practically nothing.
Are you running Linux? Which one? You don't say!
What desktop? XFCE? KDE? MATE? Cinnamon? You don't say!
Which desktop settings are reset? You don't say!
Did you install to hard drive? Or running off of USB or DVD? You don't say!
Sorry if this sounds rude, but please understand that we cannot drive in the dark with our eyes closed. At least open our eyes a little and tell us more of your story. You have told us nothing that can help us to help you.
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- 12,774
I was just typing a reply with the same questions but worded differently but you beat me to it so no use in me posting a reply with the exact same questions.
edited and apologies, I'm green as grass
Here's some rough guidelines:
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We understand... we were all green too. No harm, no foul. Hang with us, and hopefully we discover the trouble together.
So let's flesh that out some more...
Do you mean that you have added programs to your taskbar, and that they disappear after reboot? Put another way, is the taskbar returning back to it's default apps and not saving your additions?
Or a different scenario: Is there an app on the taskbar that you make some setting changes to (like Firefox)... and then after reboot the app is still there, but that the setting changes to it were not saved?
How are you saving your new apps to the taskbar? Using drag-and-drop? Or right-click on a program and tell it to "Add to favorites?"
Be as specific as you can on this issue. What apps are giving you trouble? And/or what settings are you changing that are not saving?
In the meantime, I will spin up Ubuntu on a virtual machine to see if I can duplicate what you are doing. Ubuntu is not my normal distro, so it helps a lot if I can see more clearly and follow the same steps as you.
I added some programs to favourites on the dash to panel and removed some (atm I'm just trying with chromium to add and Firefox to remove) and if I log out or restart they all revert to the default programs when first installed. I've just reinstalled the OS, let it update, and it's still doing the same thing.
It is working correctly for me. I installed 20.04.2 and updated, installed Chromium, used "Add to favorites" to put it on the panel (the only way as drag-and-drop did not work), rebooted and Chromium was still there. I added Solitaire to the panel, and it was still there after reboot. Removed Firefox and rebooted... it was still gone. I made changes (added bookmarks to each browser) and tried again. Still working properly for me.
When you installed Ubuntu, did you allow it to finish "checking the disk" or did you use CTRL-C to abort that check? I'm just fishing with this question, but it might be a clue that your download has some corruption.
Did you check the integrity of the .iso file?
Your running the Gnome desktop environment?
I never skip checks. Seems like a silly thing to do on a first install.
The .iso could be corrupt:-
Run those commands and post the ouput for our Moderator: Wizard.
Right I'm away from the grindstone and dead set on trying to help you guys help me!
as requested
as requested
Code:
df -h
df: /run/user/1000/doc: Operation not permitted
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 1.6G 3.6M 1.6G 1% /run
/dev/sda5 219G 19G 189G 10% /
tmpfs 7.9G 25M 7.8G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 7.9G 0 7.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop1 138M 138M 0 100% /snap/chromium/1479
/dev/loop0 55M 55M 0 100% /snap/core18/1880
/dev/loop2 56M 56M 0 100% /snap/core18/1988
/dev/loop3 163M 163M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
/dev/loop5 30M 30M 0 100% /snap/snapd/8542
/dev/loop4 50M 50M 0 100% /snap/snap-store/467
/dev/loop6 65M 65M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
/dev/loop7 256M 256M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/36
/dev/loop8 63M 63M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
/dev/loop9 52M 52M 0 100% /snap/snap-store/518
/dev/loop10 219M 219M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/66
/dev/loop11 32M 32M 0 100% /snap/snapd/11036
/dev/sda2 512M 4.0K 512M 1% /boot/efi
/dev/loop12 138M 138M 0 100% /snap/chromium/1497
tmpfs 1.6G 44K 1.6G 1% /run/user/1000
Code:
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0 7:0 0 55M 1 loop /snap/core18/1880
loop1 7:1 0 137.2M 1 loop /snap/chromium/1479
loop2 7:2 0 55.5M 1 loop /snap/core18/1988
loop3 7:3 0 162.9M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
loop4 7:4 0 49.8M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/467
loop5 7:5 0 29.9M 1 loop /snap/snapd/8542
loop6 7:6 0 64.8M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
loop7 7:7 0 255.6M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/36
loop8 7:8 0 62.1M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
loop9 7:9 0 51M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/518
loop10 7:10 0 219M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/66
loop11 7:11 0 31.1M 1 loop /snap/snapd/11036
loop12 7:12 0 137.2M 1 loop /snap/chromium/1497
sda 8:0 0 223.6G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 513M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3 8:3 0 1K 0 part
└─sda5 8:5 0 222.6G 0 part /
sdb 8:16 0 698.7G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 200M 0 part
└─sdb2 8:18 0 698.5G 0 part
sdc 8:32 0 931.5G 0 disk
└─sdc4 8:36 0 930.9G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 romI've been thinking about this and watching the thread's progress.
I don't have any help for you directly, but I may have a clue that can help someone else help you.
Let's say I actually wanted to reset the icons and layout, the pinned apps and all that. If I wanted to do that, I'd run this command:
I don't suppose you've added that line somewhere where it happens at boot?
If I wanted to cause the behavior you're seeing, I'd use one of the many ways to add that to the boot (or login) processes.
I don't have any help for you directly, but I may have a clue that can help someone else help you.
Let's say I actually wanted to reset the icons and layout, the pinned apps and all that. If I wanted to do that, I'd run this command:
Code:
dconf reset -f /If I wanted to cause the behavior you're seeing, I'd use one of the many ways to add that to the boot (or login) processes.
I don't believe so. How would I get my boot info up? I'll keep searching but if you can bosh it to me here that'd be cool
This should prevent any weird startup scripts, but that was a good thought. And my fresh install to VM does not misbehave the same way. I wonder what angle @wizardfromoz is looking at with hard drive partitions? My VM also has a pair of loop devices for Chromium that exactly match the OP's mountpoints, but I have different loop numbers. His are loops 1 and 12, mine are 0 and 1. I don't normally use snap, so these are unfamiliar to me, and especially why they need pairs of entries.
@Clownish, did you install ANY other software besides Chromium?
To begin with I did install a few other bits. VLC, Audacity, and Steam. Since the clean install I tried using only Chromium as a test but the problem persists. To make matters worse I just had a power cut and its now booting in the default Gnome DE. I have since sorted that out and it's all good practice I guess but I'm downloading another ISO file and creating a new boot disk in anticipation as to what @wizardfromoz says