What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

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JeepNut
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What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by JeepNut » 2019/07/12 15:44:52

Not having a good experience with Firefox in CentOS7.
I'm running the same version 60.7.2esr on 2 machines both with CentOS7 and things are not the same.
But it's not limited to Firefox, similar complaints about LibreOffice.
As it's across multiple apps, it must be something I've done that I can't seem to "undo".

In the browser, I can't see what I'm highlighting when I grab some text out of a page. It's as if the highlight color is the same as the background color.
This extends to the URL bar as well. Can't see what text I've highlighted in a URL.
I've tried a few different themes for FFox and SOMETIMES I hit one that let's me see what I'm highlighting in the URL.
But so far all themes exhibit the issue with highlighting text in the body of the page.
When I highlight text in LibreOffice I can SEE the highlighting but that app has a paperwhite background.
While Firefox is grey. EVERYWHERE. lots and lots of grey... and it's hiding things.

I'll get a popout window that I know has the traditional "close" button X in the upper right... but it's not there. I can click where I think it is and if I'm lucky I hit it and it'll go away. So it's all there, it's just not visible.

Another issue is with the vertical scrolling bar on the right side. it's a narrow scrollbar and has no "bar" in it to grab that I can see.
I can scroll the page with my mouse wheel but I'd rather not get carpal tunnel syndrome scrolling that wheel to death.
The scroll bar issue is even worse in LO. It's VERY narrow. Much smaller than in the browser. Maybe only a couple dozen pixels. Nearly invisible.
I can scroll the page with the scrollbar if I slowly approach it with the cursor so I can actually click right on the area at any random place and can drag the mouse up/down and scroll the page. But it's terribly disconcerting to not have anything there to "grab" and scroll.


So it seems to me I must have caused this as the same apps on the laptop running the same CentOS and Firefox and LO versions... all act naturally.
I've been trying to "undo" choices I've made and rebooting but to no avail.
Seems like there should be a file maybe that I can just delete and reboot to restore the original behavior.
Any help with that? Or restoring the presentation to some useful state?

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TrevorH
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by TrevorH » 2019/07/12 16:00:41

This sounds to me more like a video driver issue. What video card is in use on the problematic machine and what on the working one? Also check to see if you have the same "Theme" applied in both GUIs.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

JeepNut
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Joined: 2019/06/04 17:58:25

Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by JeepNut » 2019/07/12 16:18:53

ahhh indeed the video hardware is different between them.
The laptop runs an intel adapter (the system that behaves)
While this machine has a nVidia adapter.
In opensuse world, one didn't need to install the nvidia drivers unless needing gaming level video, etc.
I'm a mundane office user so haven't done that here although I do watch movies, videos, etc here.

I will look up the details for installing the nvidia support...
Any caveats?

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TrevorH
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by TrevorH » 2019/07/12 16:37:01

We usually recommend use of the ELRepo third party yum repo for the nvidia proprietary driver. They supply a package called nvidia-detect, so first install the elrepo-release package from their website, then install nvidia-detect from the repo that that adds, run nvidia-detect and install the package it tells you to use for your video adapter.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

JeepNut
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Joined: 2019/06/04 17:58:25

Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by JeepNut » 2019/07/12 19:20:15

TrevorH wrote:
2019/07/12 16:37:01
...then install nvidia-detect from the repo that that adds, run nvidia-detect and install the package it tells you to use for your video adapter.
I'm good up to that point. I did:

Code: Select all

# run nvidia-detect
returned

Code: Select all

bash: run: command not found
I don't see anything "nvidia" in the menu tree...
Obviously I'm misinterpreting how "run" is done.

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jlehtone
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by jlehtone » 2019/07/12 20:40:09

Code: Select all

nvidia-detect

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TrevorH
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by TrevorH » 2019/07/12 21:29:05

Run as in: open a command prompt and type nvidia-detect and press enter ;-)
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

JeepNut
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Joined: 2019/06/04 17:58:25

Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by JeepNut » 2019/07/12 23:11:46

Thanks team. Sorry for being a dunce.
I did sort that out and...
Installed: nvidia-detect.x86_64 0:430.34-1.el7.elrepo Complete!
And
Installed:
kmod-nvidia.x86_64 0:430.34-1.el7_6.elrepo
Dependency Installed:
libglvnd-opengl.x86_64 1:1.0.1-0.8.git5baa1e5.el7
nvidia-x11-drv.x86_64 0:430.34-1.el7_6.elrepo
nvidia-x11-drv-libs.x86_64 0:430.34-1.el7_6.elrepo
vulkan-filesystem.noarch 0:1.1.73.0-1.el7
yum-plugin-nvidia.noarch 0:1.0.2-1.el7.elrepo
Complete!
However, no change in the display of things either in the browser or in LO.
Have rebooted of course now. I can't even use Firefox to do my banking. Thank the heavens for Konqueror.

chemal
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by chemal » 2019/07/13 01:19:49

Suggestions:
1) System Settings -> Desktop Effects -> Advanced: Try other choices for Compositing type.
2) Create an additional clean account to test your preferences theory.

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TrevorH
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Re: What file to wipe out user "preferences"?

Post by TrevorH » 2019/07/13 01:23:27

Have you by any chance customised the theme you use? In an earlier update lots of weird stuff happened to my display and I had to select the original theme that I had customised then re-apply my changes to that and save it.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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