the updates we get are very often but it always doesnt bode well with me because time to time one of these updates came in like a trojan horse at my most busiest time to use my workstation.
Problem
-hidamari live wallpaper turned to static green screen, happened before. switch kernel didnt fix this time.
-browser scrolling is laggy
-software rendering is buggy, launched osu! and it looked like i ripped out the RAM while a game is running.
the problem that makes my device unusable.
My entire gui is incomprehensible. So i asked chatgpt to solve this issue. its the first time i asked mr gpt to do something related to OS. i read the pinned message regarding chatgpt right after i messed up....i apologize.
-the gui is "set to default"
-theme is white but so is the the font and text. I cant see or read anything.
-because everything is set to default im having a hard time getting somewhere in this unfamiliar ui's.
-i use gnome to customise my desktop but i think its buggy, i set it to disable and enable and restart gnome but it doesnt change much other than making things worse
trace of what it was can be seen
-taskbar,theme,icon is different and becomes invisible when hovering over cursor. of which my custom animated cursor is also set to default
-every window is forced maximise when in windowed mode and are not resizable. they also have this red border
-the virtual keyboard keeps prompting whenever i click any text insert box even after i turn it off in the setting
====CHATGPT HISTORY====
Below are the chat history but only the commands i ran:
Step 1 — confirm instantly (no guesswork)
Disable all extensions:
gnome-extensions disable --all
Then restart GNOME Shell:
Alt + F2 → r → Enter
Result:
- If everything becomes smooth → you found the problem
- If still broken → continue below
Good—this already narrows things down quite a bit.
First, that error is expected:
gnome-extensions doesn’t support --all on your version (GNOME Shell 43.9). You have to disable them manually or via a loop.
Do this properly (disable all extensions in one shot)
Run:
for ext in $(gnome-extensions list); do gnome-extensions disable "$ext"done
Then restart GNOME:
Alt + F2 → r → Enter
Case B — still broken
Then this is not extensions, and we go deeper:
Next step would be forcing a compositor reset:
rm -rf ~/.cache/*
Log out and back in.
"for ext in $(gnome-extensions list); do gnome-extensions disable "$ext" done" revert this decision?
Yes—nothing permanent was done. You only toggled extension states.
To revert, you just enable them again.
Restore all extensions (quick way)
for ext in $(gnome-extensions list); do gnome-extensions enable "$ext"done
Then restart GNOME:
Alt + F2 → r → Enter
[my ui layout is completely different. revert all changes to back before i even ask to do any of this]
What you did only disabled extensions, so your “different UI” is just GNOME running in its default state. Nothing system-level was altered.
Let’s restore it cleanly.
Restore all extensions (exact revert)
Run this:
for ext in $(gnome-extensions list); do gnome-extensions enable "$ext"done
Then restart GNOME:
Alt + F2 → r → Enter
If your layout is still wrong
Some extensions don’t restore their state immediately. Force GNOME to reload everything:
killall gnome-shell
(or just log out and back in)
[everything changed. my start tab is on top left previously bottom left. the theme is set to default white and the text is also white making things incomprehensive. and a virtual keyboard keeps popping when i want to enter text]
1. Re-enable your extensions (layout + theme + wallpaper)
Run this again:
for ext in $(gnome-extensions list); do gnome-extensions enable "$ext"done
Then log out and log back in (don’t rely only on Alt+F2 → r this time).
3. Fix white theme + unreadable text
Your theme extension didn’t reload properly.
Reset GNOME theme:
gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-themegsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme
Then reapply your theme using:
- GNOME Tweaks
If you don’t have it:
sudo apt install gnome-tweaks
4. Disable the virtual keyboard (this one is simple)
That popping keyboard is from accessibility getting toggled.
Turn it off:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.a11y.applications screen-keyboard-enabled false
5. If things still feel “off”
Reset GNOME UI cache:
rm -rf ~/.cache/*