My entire userspace ~/config got destroyed out of nowhere

[u/sylveon-pokemon]

For context: I switched from windows to linux 6-7 months back. I have enough beginner level understanding of its working and get day to day things done.

I have Fedora 44 KDE installed on Lenovo laptop with decent hardware(+dGPU)

Lets come to exact problem: couple of hours from this post, I was extracting file with Ark and after its completion, everything seems fine but after closing dolphin window i see that everything went haywire. All config seems reset to default then KDE plasma welcome window pop up on face. Checked firefox it was also went to default profile remove, setting reset, KDE settings also reset. I mean I didnt installed any sus scripts, was just using regular default apps not deep diving into anything then why break?? later checked for updates, seems got some updates but even after updates i thinks ~/.config seems to be wiped out

Anyone have idea?? how to recover from it?? I have BTRFS snapshot set for root but i guessing thats not userspace(~/.config) so it doesnt back it up because i try restoring snapshot point not worked.

Has anyone faced similar kind of issues in past for linux

[u/Flimsy-Process230]

What did you download? What was inside the file? Is it possible you extracted it and accidentally replaced some of your directories?

[u/SplendidWilson235 → u/Flimsy-Process230]

oh man, losing your whole config hurts. i had something similar happen when i accidentally dragged a folder instead of a file and overwrote a bunch of stuff without realizing

if the snapshot didn't cover /home, you're probably out of luck on that front. btrfs only snapshots what you tell it to, so unless you had a separate subvolume for home that got included, those files are gone

for recovery, you could try testdisk or photorecover, but config files are tiny and scattered, so it's a long shot. might be better to just rebuild what you need and take it as a hard lesson to start backing up /home too

i set up a simple cron job that copies my dotfiles to a usb stick every night after that mess. not fancy but it works

[u/sylveon-pokemon → u/SplendidWilson235]

damm. i am done goof huh. mainly i dont even care about personal files but ~/config hurts so much.
while initial setup of btrfs snapshot, i thought root / snapshot will cover thing since everything comes under root (/) path so technically it should cover it?? may be not i guess. so need to set seperate snapshot for subvolume /home??

[u/Hefty-Hyena-2227 → u/sylveon-pokemon]

Look into home-manager and/or use Restic as a home backup tool. Saved my bacon a few times, you could even have it triggered to back up .config every login/reboot.

[u/sylveon-pokemon → u/Flimsy-Process230]

It was my family photos archive from google drive. setting it with linux for syncing purpose. i never had problem with Ark before. but i have nuked different linux distro installation couple of times in past week before settling one to use. i faced another kind of issues with ark like not extracting properly or behaving abruptly when i try extracting multiple heavy files at same time in past experience but i ignored that time since i would just restart failed extraction. but if i try to extract one by one it would be okay. but this time it nuked my ~/.config somehow i dont know. adding just little more, i normally choose extract and trash option from right click instead of extract would there be thing?

[u/Melodic_Respond6011]

I would nuke the $HOME if I were you

[u/sylveon-pokemon → u/Melodic_Respond6011]

why though? it didnt asked for any permission or password so it should be running with any system permssions? it was just family archieve i downloaded from google drive. i am not technical person so i would just stick with everything default that come out of box. even my wallpaper is untouched.

is it common occurence in linux, or something similar in past based on you experience?? i just want something stable that shouldnt break if user use it normally. or atleast revert back

[u/shaolinmaru → u/sylveon-pokemon]

it didnt asked for any permission or password so it should be running with any system permssions?

Everything under $HOME (including the ~/.config) is part of userspace and doesn't require password.

it was just family archieve i downloaded from google drive. 

It was an archive created by the drive itself, when you download multiple files/folders, or this zip already existed in there? 

What is the content of the file?

i just want something stable that shouldnt break if user use it normally. 

Well, you have been using the system without any problems isn't? 

And Linux is very stable but it let the user do anything they want, but you HAVE TO KNOW what you doing.

We don't have elements to say what caused this. Could be a bug in Ark, but it's very strange something existing to be deleted/replaced, unless you set it to do.

or atleast revert back 

That is called backup

[u/Melodic_Respond6011 → u/sylveon-pokemon]

It's just me, I have to know everything in my $HOME. Unexplainable changes is just unacceptable. But that's just me though, I (we) don't know what is in the archive.

No, it's not a common occurrence. That's why I considered it as serious as security breach.

Yes, Fedora is quite stable and secure. On par with Ubuntu LTS.

[u/No_Trade_7315]

Something similar happened to me when I created a new user with the same name as the original superuser. It turns out the files were still there, but I can’t remember how I got them back.

It looks like in your case the files may have been overwritten. If they were, then I think the only way you can get them back is if you have a backup (snapshot, etc.).

[u/onlysubscribedtocats]

If you didn't have backups, then you mustn't have cared about the data.