Desktop settings reset every login or restart [SOLVED]



This hasn't been said yet. Try creating a new user as a test and login with that user and make some changes to your desktop settings logout or reboot and then see if the settings are saved or reset again. If the settings for this user don't reset than you know it's a user specific problem.
 
This hasn't been said yet. Try creating a new user as a test and login with that user and make some changes to your desktop settings logout or reboot and then see if the settings are saved or reset again. If the settings for this user don't reset than you know it's a user specific problem.
Sadly no that didn't work either
 
Looking at your partitions again (and not knowing Wizard's intentions)... I notice 3 total drives. Ubuntu is on /dev/sda, and you've got a 750G on /dev/sdb and a 1TB on /dev/sdc. If either or both are external USB hard drives, can you try unplugging (both, if both are external)... then reboot, then test adding Chromium to the panel and see if it survives another reboot.

If both are internal... don't go to all that trouble. I'm just taking a wild guess on this one. ;)
 
The only thing that explains the resetting of all your desktop setting if that something is clearing your user configuration settings, so $HOME/.config is being cleared every time you logout/login or reboot/login. If you open the menu and search for "Startup Application Preferences", what do you see there?
 
Looking at your partitions again (and not knowing Wizard's intentions)... I notice 3 total drives. Ubuntu is on /dev/sda, and you've got a 750G on /dev/sdb and a 1TB on /dev/sdc. If either or both are external USB hard drives, can you try unplugging (both, if both are external)... then reboot, then test adding Chromium to the panel and see if it survives another reboot.

If both are internal... don't go to all that trouble. I'm just taking a wild guess on this one. ;)
They're both internal

Edit: forgot to mention I have to mount them every boot too
 
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The only thing that explains the resetting of all your desktop setting if that something is clearing your user configuration settings, so $HOME/.config is being cleared every time you logout/login or reboot/login. If you open the menu and search for "Startup Application Preferences", what do you see there?
Gnome Login sound

im-launch
no description

SSH Key Agent
GNOME Keyring SSH Agent

UALinux_Game

UALinux theme
no descripton

Xbinkeys
no description

xbindkeys
Start xbindkeys

All ticked
 
Can you share the exact location where you downloaded the iso you used to install your system? Something seems really off? I have Ubuntu 20.04 installed with Gnome and the desktop settings you are having problems with don't occur in my install.
 
Morning all :)

While I am sleeping DownUnder others do the work for me. :)

UALinux references are interesting.

UALinux is a Ukrainian game pack distro based on Ubuntu Games Pack.

@Clownish are you actually running a legitimate Ubuntu, or is it UALinux?

I wonder what angle @wizardfromoz is looking at with hard drive partitions?

I was looking to be 100% sure the OP had installed Linux and was not just running it on a Live USB, where changes are not saved after the session ends.

That has been confirmed now, as has the fact that he is running under UEFI conditions.

Wiz
more coffee
 
UALinux references are interesting.

UALinux is a Ukrainian game pack distro based on Ubuntu Games Pack.

@Clownish are you actually running a legitimate Ubuntu, or is it UALinux?
Just installed UALinux GamePack. It's based on Ubuntu 20.04 with some tweaks in looks and installed packages, I check the startup applications and the same ones are listed as OP shared so it's not vanilla Ubuntu. I added a few favorites to to the launch bar and rebooted, after the reboot the ones I added dissapeared except for the filemanager and one was added which I didn't add myself. See attached screenshots, so it seems to be an UALinux "thing". So I would say works as intended by the creator of the distribution.
 

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@Clownish I found the problem and I put the solution in easy to follow steps for you in this post as well. You may not understand all of it, the parts in bold are the important parts for you, I take it the rest following this thread will find this information interesting to read since they will understand the whole post.

I found the script responsible for resetting the users settings after each login: $HOME/.config/autostart/.ualinux_gnome_win.desktop, this script launches another script(/etc/skel/.config/ualinux/gnome_win.sh) at login that executes some settings for gnome as well as the following:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell favorite-apps "['firefox.desktop', 'thunderbird.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'org.gnome.DiskUtility.desktop']"
1. Do the following to prevent it from resetting your settings, open a terminal and do the following:
sudo gedit /etc/skel/.config/ualinux/gnome_win.sh
2. Then find the line that mentions the the line I mentioned before which comes right after workplace and comment it out so it looks like this.
#gsettings set org.gnome.shell favorite-apps "['firefox.desktop', 'thunderbird.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'org.gnome.DiskUtility.desktop']"
3. Save the file and add favorites and other personal settings, reboot your system, log back in your settings and favorite should still be there.

*You can also disable the script if you still run into some user settings that get reset.

cd $HOME/.config/autostart
mkdir disabled
mv .ualinux_gnome_win.desktop disabled
Keep mind that during an update they my revert this change so you may run into it again in the future, just so you know what to do if it happens again. Whoever thought of this bug/feature for this distribution is a ******* IDIOT!!!! Going to bed now it's almost 4:00am here just had to figure out what was causing this.
 
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UALinux references are interesting.

UALinux is a Ukrainian game pack distro based on Ubuntu Games Pack.

@Clownish are you actually running a legitimate Ubuntu, or is it UALinux?


It's based on Ubuntu 20.04 with some tweaks in looks and installed packages, I check the startup applications and the same ones are listed as OP shared so it's not vanilla Ubuntu. I added a few favorites to to the launch bar and rebooted, after the reboot the ones I added dissapeared except for the filemanager and one was added which I didn't add myself. See attached screenshots, so it seems to be an UALinux "thing".

That's why I asked. :) No need to knock yourself out, my friend, but thanks for going the extra yards.

If you use our Search facility here (which everyone should), you find references to UALinux back to 2015 from Devyn Johnson, and article written in 2017 by his father, Jarret Buse, and references to me answering questions on it in 2018.

As recently as 4 - 5 days ago, it featured in a thread by clanmaurice, here, that I was in

https://www.linux.org/threads/duel-boot-linux-gamepack-ualinux-and-windows.33059/

I have the latest iso, but I don't know that I will be installing it - too much mucking about.

Cheers

Wizard
 
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@Clownish If you picked the distribution because it has an easy setup for gaming, I would recommend PopOS over UALinux.
 
@Clownish I found the problem and I put the solution in easy to follow steps for you in this post as well. You may not understand all of it, the parts in bold are the important parts for you, I take it the rest following this thread will find this information interesting to read since they will understand the whole post.

I found the script responsible for resetting the users settings after each login: $HOME/.config/autostart/.ualinux_gnome_win.desktop, this script launches another script(/etc/skel/.config/ualinux/gnome_win.sh) at login that executes some settings for gnome as well as the following:

1. Do the following to prevent it from resetting your settings, open a terminal and do the following:

2. Then find the line that mentions the the line I mentioned before which comes right after workplace and comment it out so it looks like this.

3. Save the file and add favorites and other personal settings, reboot your system, log back in your settings and favorite should still be there.

*You can also disable the script if you still run into some user settings that get reset.


Keep mind that during an update they my revert this change so you may run into it again in the future, just so you know what to do if it happens again. Whoever thought of this bug/feature for this distribution is a ******* IDIOT!!!! Going to bed now it's almost 4:00am here just had to figure out what was causing this.
Thank you so much! This worked! Thanks to all of you for your help! You'll no doubt be hearing more from me in future lol. Thanks again for everybodies help. Thank you thank you thank you!!
 
Very nice work @f33dm3bits! :cool::)

@Clownish, again to remind you (and any readers) how important it is to describe your problem or situation as fully as possible. Had you been specific about UALinux instead of Ubuntu.... you might have saved a lot of head-scratching (and lost sleep!). But happy that your solution was found. You might edit the title of this thread to say [SOLVED].
 
@Clownish, again to remind you (and any readers) how important it is to describe your problem or situation as fully as possible. Had you been specific about UALinux instead of Ubuntu.... you might have saved a lot of head-scratching (and lost sleep!). But happy that your solution was found. You might edit the title of this thread to say [SOLVED].
[/QUOTE]

As you say chief! Sorry like I said I'm very new to this. I installed from a ubuntu ISO and didnt even know what UALinux was, what the difference was, or that that was the version/distro I had. Apologies to any and all I may have inconvenienced.
 
Hi,

I am new to UBUNTU and Linux and having the same issue.

I don't seem to have the files in the /etc/skel/ directory

"it's empty".

I am using Ubuntu 18.04. LTS. Here is my df -h

udev 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 2.0G 1.3G 767M 62% /run
/dev/sda1 20G 5.6G 14G 29% /
tmpfs 1.8G 342M 1.5G 19% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 800M 0 800M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop0 56M 56M 0 100% /snap/core18/2409
/dev/loop1 299M 299M 0 100% /snap/snapd/46
/dev/loop2 47M 47M 0 100% /snap/snapd/16292
/dev/loop3 47M 47M 0 100% /snap/snapd/16010
/dev/loop4 299M 299M 0 100% /snap/snapd/48
/dev/sda15 105M 4.4M 100M 5% /boot/efi
tmpfs 368M 16K 368M 1% /run/user/1001


I believe it has something to do with memory? But I am completely lost here and trying to move from windows to ubuntu...
Can anybody please explain how I can keep my settings for sessions when I reboot? I have tried a lot of things and was going to try a symbolic link for the files on the desktop? (after I find them HA!)

I am using both ubuntu desktop and xrdp, using these commands:
sudo apt install lubuntu-desktop

sudo apt install xrdp

I have also tried: sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop and run into the same issues...

Thank you for any help!
 
@siriussteve ....you have posted to a topic which is dated February 2021.

The chances of your post being seen here are very slim at best

Please open a fresh topic.
 

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