SOLVED Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

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kbf

SOLVED Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by kbf »

Workspace 1_001.jpg
AMD dual core 1.4ghz, 4g ram, nvidia 750 ti,hdd1 500gb, hdd2 150gb (sys), 2x 2tb ext usb hdd
inxi -S
System:(N/A) Host: aurion Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 2.6.13 Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Hi all. New to mint, relatively new to linux but liking it.
Been trying different apps out, mostly audio and video players, settled on exaile & vlc so I got the vlc skin pack, installed, didn't work right as the skinned player would appear over my fullscreen movie while playing so I removed them. Had to do some root maneuvers to delete them but ever since then, after a reboot, just over half my desktop is unusable from the top left corner to the middle bottom just above the panel.
The wallpaper displays correctly along with the panel, but if I drag an icon over from the right, it just slides back again. Any desklets I add, if on the left side, are stuck in place & I can only remove them with the Desklets app. Also no mouse actions at all, such as clicking on a desklet/conky mod or left click drag select or right clicking, all do nothing but the Menu and panel are unaffected!
Disabling desklets & extensions or removing conky makes no difference. Really basic desktop setup with only cairo dock & conky running gotham & seamod.
One big clue I think is that once I created another user, logged off & on to that user, the desktop was fine. I'm guessing it's something in my user directory that's the culprit. Screen shot illustrates the border where you can see my cursor left click selecting and hitting a wall or invisible zone. :?:
Please advise me on what to look for/at ie: conf files, broken libraries, should I remove things & can I provide more info.
I've been at this for a few days now, here and google in general, but no luck and having no clue what to look for so I'm at a loss.
Any advice, tips, pointers are welcome as I've come from a long history of Windows so a lot of linux is new to me but I'm liking it. Previously was dual boot Mint_64/Win7_32 but scrubbed win due to a virus!
Cheers in advance
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Cosmo.
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Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by Cosmo. »

Yes, you are obviously right, that the problem is inside your home.

To find the origin of the problem - but without making additional problems - I suggest to make it the following way:

Log off your main account.
Log in your test account (I assume, there is nothing to loose with it).
Copy(! not move!) all hidden files and folders from your main account to your test account. (Leave the non hidden files and folders to save time and space.)
If done, log off immediately and back into your test account.

I expect, that the problem is now there also.
Now open in the test account your file manager and rename the 2 most suspicious hidden folders:
.config -> .config.bck
.local -> .local.bck
If done, again immediately log off and back in. (The 2 folders will be recreated automatically with default content. This will not bother.)
Problem still there or gone?
kbf

Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by kbf »

Thanks for approving my post and the quick reply.
My apologies, as I forgot to mention I've encrypted my home folder & am not sure how to copy the files over as I have tried to use ecryptfs-mount-private at the term but I'm guessing it's not working as the temp account isn't encrypted and wouldn't let me view another users' encrypted files anyway as it would defeat the purpose.
How do I proceed?
Cheers
Cosmo.
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Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by Cosmo. »

Copy the hidden files and folders unencrypted to a stick, than you can copy it with the test account from there.
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all41
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Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by all41 »

Maybe the problem is the .conky time widget size. It appears to be the Gotham style widget.
You could temporarily remove conky from startup and reboot
or in a terminal:

Code: Select all

killall conky
to see if your desktop alignment corrects
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
kbf

Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by kbf »

Sorry for the delay, slight grub mishap lol but sorted now.
Cosmo, ok so I copied all .xxx folders to a lamb account and sure enough, desktop got zoned & owned!
Logged out, renamed both .config & .local then logged back in and you guessed it, the defaults removed the zone glitch. :)
This is definitely closer to answering my problem but I would really like to keep my settings intact as I've got a lot of apps set up now.
What can I do further with those 2 folders to nail this glitch, an elimination process?

all41, yes I killed conky & removed it from startup, logged out and in, but no change to the zone.
Thanks for your suggestion :)
Cosmo.
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Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by Cosmo. »

Rename the 2 folders one by one back to the original, so that we can isolate the folder, which gives the problem. If we know, which of both is responsible, we break it further down.
Rename the first folder to the original name, log off and back in, check; than rename this back and than the second folder to original and again off - in. So we can see, if probably in both folders is a problem (I don't think so, but who knows.)
kbf

Re: Half my desktop is unusable, an invisible zone?!

Post by kbf »

Thanks Cosmo. That's the most I've ever logged in 8 out in one day in my entire life! Lol. Finally got it down to conky & cairo-dock clashing somehow so broke it further down but instead of renaming a folder at one point, accidentally deleted 3 folders! Doh! Couldn't for the life of me find where they went to restore to them.
The glitch persisted so I removed conky 8 cairo-dock completley (purge, auto-remove) and that was that.
Problem solved.
I think a combination of 3rd party desklets, conky & cairo-dock mayhap caused a clash of sorts & something went awry, but don't quote me on that.
all41 you were very close indeed, thanks for your input and to you Cosmo my hat goes off. :D
All is well in my world of linux again. 8)

Last note, problem is gone but I wasn't sure what exactly caused the glitch but I'm thinking that I should mark my post as solved?
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