Re: [Evolution] can't change any preference setting

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> this wasn't the best thing to do, since by doing this you lost all
> customized settings for all applications using dconf. Next time for
> testing purpose move dconf files in home or directly just change the
> owner permissions.
>
> sudo chown $USER:$USER .config/dconf/user
> sudo chown $USER:$USER .cache/dconf/user

I think it's unwise to give people command lines like that to enter. 

First, 'sudo' is dangerous - I admin a couple of hundred user machines
where no one has sudo access. About once a week I get an alert about
someone trying to use sudo and invariably there excuse is "the
instructions on the website I found told me to use it".

Changing the ownership to $USER:$USER only works for those systems that
generate a group for each user. It is not ubiquitous.

Specifying .config/... only works if you are in your home directory. It
will fail if you are in any other directory it will fail ... with sudo,
if you are in someone elses directory, it will cause havoc.

> You could use chown for the tmpfs file in /run/user/, too, but as
> already pointed out, in my experiences it simply could be removed
> without unwanted side effects.

That you have noticed so far ...

>  I still welcome an explanation from Andre
> about the "the consequences" that "are way beyond Evolution", since I'm
> not aware of any consequence.
Everything else that uses dconf - after all it is not just Evolution
that does - will be affected by that command. Doing 

  sudo rm /run/user/1???/dconf/user

will mean that you not only loose any dconf changes you have made, but
so will anyone else using the system that happens to have a uid in the
1000-1999 range.

P.