Growing a VM

I started a VM with the default 8Gb for a linux install. I have successfully added additional HDD to the VM but eventually I hit a problem that required editing the actual size of the main disk. I used the vmware-vdiskmanager (-x 12Gb Kubuntu.vmdk) to successfully resize the VM disk. Then I booted the VM into a gparted image using the ISO as a CD (option in the VMware server). This worked fine. I then edited the partition. First increase the size of the swap. Then shift it to the right and then make it smaller again, before resizing the main partition. Click apply changes and then wait. Or in my case head up to the terrace and enjoy beer and "Schnittchen". The KDE session does appear borked after all this. It complains about some DCOP setting not running. I tried changing permissions on the tmp dir and following general advice on the internet - however moving .kde to .kde_old solved the problem for me. The partition is now showing up as 12 gigs and all the files seem to be okay.