[SOLVED] XFCE4 lost my desktop icons

Message

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:00 am

For some weird reason, after recently updating (alot of which was a re-emerge of XFCE stuff, no idea why) I have suddenly lost all my File/Application launched icons. Furthermore, the 'Desktop' settings menu only has the option to show minimized windows as an icon on the desktop and no longer offers the "File/Launcher" option.

Any ideas on what went wrong?

SOLUTION: Compile xfdesktop with USE flags "plugins thunar-vfs" then you shall have another option available called "File/Launcher icons" in your Desktop settings panel.

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:01 am

Just to add to this - the "Desktop" folder is still in my home directory with all the old contents in tact, soo not sure whats happening.

baigsabeeh · Post by **baigsabeeh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:15 am

Oh no! I'm updating right now. They removed some USE flags. Hang on, I'll let you know if I get this problem.

jeanfrancis · Post by **jeanfrancis** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:24 am

I also lost them... but I never used them... but yes, they're gone

baigsabeeh · Post by **baigsabeeh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:27 am

Some of the USE flags were removed and others were added. Thunar and Xfdesktop do not have the trash-panel-plugin and thumbnail USE flags (irrespective of packages). However, both of those have the plugin?s USE flag to compensate for that. Enable those and then recompile those two packages as I still have my icons with that flag enabled.

jeanfrancis · Post by **jeanfrancis** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:44 am

I already had the plugins USE flag for xfdesktop (I needed it for the Xfce menu panel button (was still there but no option to add it

)).

I just rebuilt Thunar with plugins USE flag... still no icons.

Do you have an option to manage that somewhere? (in Desktop Settings, do you have options to enable/disable desktop icons?)

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:45 am

Nope. Recompiled both Thunar and xfdesktop with the profiles USE flag and it done nothing. Still only the "Minimized applications" option in desktop settings.

baigsabeeh · Post by **baigsabeeh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:45 am

Yes I do. I don't know what else would turn them off then. Maybe you have some other USE flag turned off that shouldn't be like in one of the dependencies.

ilm · Post by **ilm** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:53 am

Did you re-select "Let Xfce manage my desktop" in the desktop settings (found under settings manager)?

I've noticed that every now and then the check box gets unchecked, and when I first emerge xfce 4.4 it wasn't checked.

baigsabeeh · Post by **baigsabeeh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:54 am

Ok that really explains it. I just unchecked and wow whole new world!

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:19 am

Yes it is checked. I've tried unchecking it, logging out so the session is saved, then rechecking it - this caused my wallpaper and rightclick menu to vanish as well so fired up terminal and went to settings from there, re-enabled it and desktop came to life but still no icons.
Just unmerged XFCE4, depclean'd and re-emerged XFCE4 and all its dependancies to no avail.

Screenshot

Above is the XFCE Desktop Settings and my desktop minus the wanted icons

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:26 am

Clearing out .cache did not help. Clearing out 'Desktop' did not help.
BUT strangely if I use Thunar to make links to things (right-click -> Send To -> Desktop (Create link)) the link will show up. Coversely the Available options under my Desktop Settings works just fine. I want the icons damnit.

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:34 am

Xfce 4.4: You can enable the icons in : Settings > Desktop Preferences > Behavior > Desktop Icons. You will need to build xfdesktop with thunar-vfs and libexo support. (./configure enable-thunar-vfs enable-exo)

Trying this now! Will report back.

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:40 am

Compiling xfdesktop with the thunar-vfs USE flag done it.

This is what happens when you're not ballsy enough to play with USE flags you don't understand

baigsabeeh · Post by **baigsabeeh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:08 pm

Salius wrote:Compiling xfdesktop with the thunar-vfs USE flag done it.

This is what happens when you're not ballsy enough to play with USE flags you don't understand

I actually assumed you had that enabled.

jeanfrancis · Post by **jeanfrancis** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:31 pm

Hehe... *feeling like a noob

*

Dieter@be · Post by **Dieter@be** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:57 pm

Hi, same problem here, solution doesn't work though, in fact i've always had these flags for xfdesktop

So since that didn't solve it, i tried adding the same flags to thunar, to no avail

ws dieter # grep thunar /etc/portage/package.use; grep xfdesktop /etc/portage/package.use; emerge -pv thunar xfdesktop
xfce-base/thunar dbus hal plugins thunar-vfs
xfce-base/xfdesktop panel-plugin plugins thunar-vfs
xfce-base/xfdesktop panel-plugin plugins thunar-vfs

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild R ] xfce-base/thunar-0.8.0-r2 USE="X dbus hal pcre plugins -debug -doc -exif -gnome -startup-notification" 0 kB
[ebuild R ] xfce-base/xfdesktop-4.4.0-r3 USE="-dbus -debug -doc -minimal" LINGUAS="-ca -cs -da -de -el -es -et -eu -fi -fr -he -hu -ja -ko -nl -pl -pt_BR -ro -ru -sk -sv -uk -vi -zh_CN -zh_TW" 0 kB

Total: 2 packages (2 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 kB

on a sidenote, why doesn't emerge list these flags (plugins and thunar-vfs for xfdesktop, and thunar-vfs for thunar) ?

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:17 pm

Edit: Nevermind, you are doing this. 5am is too early!

Salius · Post by **Salius** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:21 pm

Code: Select all

matt@laptop ~ $ grep -i xfce /etc/portage/package.use
xfce-base/xfprint cups
xfce-base/xfdesktop plugins thunar-vfs
xfce-base/thunar plugins

Code: Select all

matt@laptop ~ $ emerge -pv thunar xfdesktop

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R   ] xfce-base/thunar-0.8.0-r2  USE="X dbus pcre plugins -debug -doc -exif -gnome -hal -startup-notification" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] xfce-base/xfdesktop-4.4.0-r3  USE="dbus -debug -doc -minimal" LINGUAS="-ca -cs -da -de -el -es -et -eu -fi -fr -he -hu -ja -ko -nl -pl -pt_BR -ro -ru -sk -sv -uk -vi -zh_CN -zh_TW" 0 kB

Perhaps the -dbus of xfdesktop is the issue at hand?

On that note...where has my thunar-vfs flag disappeared to......Blergh.

Dieter@be · Post by **Dieter@be** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:51 pm

yeah, it's remarkable why portage doesn't list some flags

nice find about dbus, I have no idea why i wouldn't want dbus for my dekstop so i'm emerging as we speak

edit: hooray, i fixed it

i would include in your fix in your first post that both xfdesktop and thunar must have those flags enabled.