So I was having trouble with my graphics driver. As part of fixing this, I downloaded a new driver from ATI and completely re-created my xorg.conf from scratch.
After I fixed things, I typed ‘startx’ to see if stuff was working. It started up X, but no windows came up. I tried to kill it and it hard-locked.
I rebooted the computer, and KDE came up. However, the panel and the K menu seem to have lost their settings. My desktop looks right (except the icons lost their positions), but all my favorites are gone and my panel customizations.
Is there any way I can get this back, or is it gone forever?
The installation of video drivers will not alter desktop .kde configuration. Your crashing out could corrupt it. The desktop customizations are not a big deal really so long as all your data is still there.
You could just start with a new .kde and import data info as needed form the old .kde