Restore Menu Bar

[savid37]

I have a Raspberry Pi and I accidentally deleted my desktop. I am unable to find a way to restore it.
I am unable to access anything on my Pi.

[wavic]

Operating system?

[j.crater]

What system are you running? Is it Raspbian OS? How are you connected to Rapsberry Pi? Can you use SSH?

[savid37]

Thanks for the reply. The OS is Raspbian but I don't remember which one. I don't know how to access the information to find out. It would be the one that i downloaded almost 3 years ago. It is a Raspberry Pi 2 that is not networked. It does have a WiFi dongle. I don't know what SSH is.

[j.crater]

Here is how to enable and use SSH connection protocol to access RPi from a PC using putty terminal. But if SSH wasn't configured before (while you still had access to the system), it will not work.

Next thing you can do is use a console cable (USB - TTL serial) and connect to RPi. Here is a quick guide. That should work, if Raspberry's system is still functioning.

If even that doesn't work and you need to retreive/restore data you had on RPi, then you will need to take out the SD card, connect it to PC and retreive/recover the data you want.

[savid37]

I purchased a 3.3v USB-TTL cable from Amazon and downloaded the drivers using the link in the guide that you provided. I installed the drivers, connected the cable to the Pi and plugged it into my MP 5,1. I then copied the terminal command given in the guide and pasted it into the terminal. I briefly saw the message "No such file or directory." It did not last very long on the screen. Then the message "[screen is terminating]". I saw in your message that if SSH wasn't configured before it will not work. I am unaware of ever configuring SSH. I have tried connecting the SD card to the MP but was unable to find any of the files I am looking for.

[sparkz_alot]

I connect to my Raspberry Pi 2 using a headless system (i.e.: no terminal, keyboard or mouse) however, mine is on my network. In both the previous version of Raspian (Jessie) and the current version (Stretch) it was necessary to create a blank (empty) text file named 'SSH'. Note the capitalization and lack of suffix (.txt). This file is then copied to very top of the directory structure of the SD card before any other directories. If done correctly, ssh should be enabled when you plug in the micro-SD into the pi and power it up.

As I said, though, I put mine on my network so PuTTY (or in my case, KiTTY) will be set up different for you.

Just out of curiosity, are you sure the wifi dongle isn't already enabled for networking?

[savid37]

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't successful in networking my Pi previously.

I installed the drivers as indicated in the article you referenced, however I never saw a PuTTY window when I connected the Pi. Did I miss something when installing the drivers? Is PuTTY included in the drivers? Is it separate?

[sparkz_alot]

PuTTY is a separate program.