5:21 p.m.
When upgrading from Fedora 10 to Fedora 11 failed, I did a clean install
of Fedora 11 and restored my personal home directory including the
subdirectory .gconf from Fedora 10. I use Gnome for my desktop environment.
Everytime I reboot/login, all my desktop icons are missing. To get them
back for that session, I run gtweakui-nautilus. Deselecting the "Use
nautilus to draw desktop" and then selecting it restores my desktop icons.
Deleting (by renaming) my ~/.gconf subdirectory and rebooting results in
no changes, the desktop icons are still missing.
Is there some setting that changed between Fedora 10 and 11 that I am
not setting correctly to get my desktop to display my icons?
How do I get my desktop to display the icons without manual intervention?
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: /"One day a peacock. The next day a feather duster."/
--- Democrat Patrick Quinn, Illinois lieutenant governor
11:23 p.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On 07/26/2009 10:30 AM, Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
On 07/25/2009 08:16 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> On 07/26/2009 03:51 AM, Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
>
>> When upgrading from Fedora 10 to Fedora 11 failed, I did a clean install
>> of Fedora 11 and restored my personal home directory including the
>> subdirectory .gconf from Fedora 10. I use Gnome for my desktop environment.
>>
>
> Add another user and see if the icons are getting displayed there
> properly. If that works, then your current user gconf settings are
> somehow screwed up.
>
> Rahul
>
>
Good news and bad news, the good news is that when I created a new
user, the desktop icons appeared as expected and therefore the problem
is in my gnome and/or nautilus settings; the bad news is that the
problem is somwhere in my account settings.
The problem is not with .gconf by itself. I have renamed the
directory and rebooting did not bring back my desktop icons.
Therefore, the problem should be in another set of configuration,
probably in another gnome hidden directory. Hopefully, the problem is
in a single hidden directory and not a combination of hidden directories.
Is there any documentation that would help me understand the Gnome
configuration and hidden directories?
Note that the gtweakui-nautilus shows that nautilus is configured to
handle the desktop display when I log in. Toggling that setting to
off and back to on restores the desktop icons.
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: /"The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children
there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons.
Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed."/
-- G.K. Chesterton
After obtaining a list of the hidden directories used by gnome, I was
able to rename existing directories, log out, log back in and see if the
desktop icons were displayed. Through a series of trials and errors,
the problem was in my old ~/.local/share/applications directory. My old
version contained 395 entries and the new one contained 2.
What is not solved is exactly which of the 394 files is the problem.
Almost all the files in the broken directory are desktop configuration
files along with a couple of list (text) files. I did copy the wine
subdirectory from my broken applications directory to the working one
without a problem while resolving missing wine applications that were
installed.
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: / "There are 10 types of people in this world, those that
understand binary and those who don't." /
4:53 a.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On Saturday 15 August 2009 19:58:00 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
On 08/15/2009 01:39 PM, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Saturday 15 August 2009 16:33:40 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
>> One thing that does bother me about my ~/.local/share/applications-bad
>> directory is that multiple desktop configuration files exist for the
>> same applications. The worst case appears to be for Audacious; there
>> are seven different desktop configuration files for it.
>
> Glad you're getting nearer. I'm curious about this ^^ statement. Can
> you look inside some of those files? Do they look as though they
> actually are all for Audacious, or whether something else went wrong,
> like a corrupted index, that might cause them to be mis-named?
>
> Are there many applications that have these duplicated file? And are
> they applications that were in use (or being launched) at the time of
> corruption?
>
> Anne
It appears that I am getting different results with different programs
when I look at my application-bad directory.
When I use Nautilus, the default app used when opening my home
directory, it lists multiple files with the same application name, in
this example Audacious. These file names do not include an extension
and their type is listed as "desktop configuration file".
When I use Emacs to display the same directory, each file has a unique
file name. Grepping the directory yielded this list:
grep -nH -e Audacious *.*
alacarte-made-37.desktop:9:Name=Audacious
alacarte-made-37.desktop:10:Name[en_US]=Audacious
fedora-audacious.desktop:12:Name=Audacious
fedora-audacious-plugins.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-aac.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-alac.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-mp3.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-wma.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
<snip>
Fascinating as I find this, I confess that I don't have the skills to help
solve it. Are there dedicated Gnome lists where people who understand the
depths of nautilus could take a look? Or maybe even ask the nautilus
developer direct for assistance?
It certainly looks like a situation that you couldn't expect the file manager
to handle.
Anne
--
New to KDE4? - get help from http://userbase.kde.org
Just found a cool new feature? Add it to UserBase
1:58 p.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On 08/15/2009 01:39 PM, Anne Wilson wrote:
On Saturday 15 August 2009 16:33:40 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
> One thing that does bother me about my ~/.local/share/applications-bad
> directory is that multiple desktop configuration files exist for the
> same applications. The worst case appears to be for Audacious; there
> are seven different desktop configuration files for it.
>
Glad you're getting nearer. I'm curious about this ^^ statement. Can you
look inside some of those files? Do they look as though they actually are all
for Audacious, or whether something else went wrong, like a corrupted index,
that might cause them to be mis-named?
Are there many applications that have these duplicated file? And are they
applications that were in use (or being launched) at the time of corruption?
Anne
It appears that I am getting different results with different programs
when I look at my application-bad directory.
When I use Nautilus, the default app used when opening my home
directory, it lists multiple files with the same application name, in
this example Audacious. These file names do not include an extension
and their type is listed as "desktop configuration file".
When I use Emacs to display the same directory, each file has a unique
file name. Grepping the directory yielded this list:
grep -nH -e Audacious *.*
alacarte-made-37.desktop:9:Name=Audacious
alacarte-made-37.desktop:10:Name[en_US]=Audacious
fedora-audacious.desktop:12:Name=Audacious
fedora-audacious-plugins.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-aac.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-alac.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-mp3.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
livna-audacious-wma.desktop:10:Name=Audacious
My guess is that Nautilus is opening the desktop file and displaying the
"name" value from within the file instead of the file name. This
provides the illusion that there are multiple files of the same name.
Up until now, and probably in the near future, I have not modified any
of the gnome menu, directory and desktop files directly. All my changes
have been through applet available by right clicking on the main menu
and select the "Edit Menus" option.
The Gnome Desktop System Administration Guide, section 2. Customizing
Menus, provides the information on the format of the .menu, .directory
and .desktop files and tells how they are scattered all over the system
with system defaults and user overrides. No wonder I could not tell how
the menus are built; they use so many files and in many cases scan
directories for more information to add to the menus. Complex but once
explained it is easy (relatively) to follow. My hat is off to the
people who QA this feature; there are so many variations that affect the
Gnome menus it must have been a nightmare to test extensively.
BTW. My hats are fedoras, completely independent of the OS that I am using.
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: /"The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there
are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy
stories tell children that dragons can be killed."/
-- G.K. Chesterton
12:39 p.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On Saturday 15 August 2009 16:33:40 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
One thing that does bother me about my
~/.local/share/applications-bad
directory is that multiple desktop configuration files exist for the
same applications. The worst case appears to be for Audacious; there
are seven different desktop configuration files for it.
Glad you're getting nearer. I'm curious about this ^^ statement. Can you
look inside some of those files? Do they look as though they actually are all
for Audacious, or whether something else went wrong, like a corrupted index,
that might cause them to be mis-named?
Are there many applications that have these duplicated file? And are they
applications that were in use (or being launched) at the time of corruption?
Anne
--
New to KDE4? - get help from http://userbase.kde.org
Just found a cool new feature? Add it to UserBase
10:33 a.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On 08/15/2009 09:56 AM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
On Sat, 2009-08-15 at 10:31 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Saturday 15 August 2009 05:23:59 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
>
>> After obtaining a list of the hidden directories used by gnome, I was
>> able to rename existing directories, log out, log back in and see if the
>> desktop icons were displayed. Through a series of trials and errors,
>> the problem was in my old ~/.local/share/applications directory. My old
>> version contained 395 entries and the new one contained 2.
>>
>> What is not solved is exactly which of the 394 files is the problem.
>> Almost all the files in the broken directory are desktop configuration
>> files along with a couple of list (text) files. I did copy the wine
>> subdirectory from my broken applications directory to the working one
>> without a problem while resolving missing wine applications that were
>> installed.
>>
> General tip for handling this kind of thing -
>
> 1) copy your existing ~/.local/share/applications directory to something like
> ~/.local/share/applications_sav
>
> 2) restore one directory from the broken directory
>
> 3) if there are problems, you have identified the source. Copy
> ~/.local/share/applications_sav back to ~/.local/share/applications
>
> 3_sub) create the directory that you wanted to copy back and restore essential
> files from it, one at a time, until it breaks. Now you have the real culprit,
> and must recreate that one from scratch.
>
> 4) repeat as necessary - don't forget to start from 1) so that you always have
> the partially restored and still working version.
>
> Slow, yes, but you will get back most of what you had. Making a guess at your
> applications most likely to have been in use when the problem occurred would
> be a good starting place. Identifying the problem(s) at the beginning of the
> process is less nerve-wracking than getting a long way and still being unsure.
> :-)
>
Alternatively, use a binary search (divide the candidates into two
disjoint subsets, test one, then the other, reject the good one,
subdivide the bad into two subsets and repeat recursively, see Search
Algorithms 101). Requires careful bookkeeping but is potentially a lot
faster.
Also useful for finding broken extensions in Firefox :-)
poc
It was late in the morning, as seen at then end of a waking day, when I
finally found the directory that was causing my desktop problems. I had
already used the method that Anne Wilson described to narrow down my
problem to the single directory ~/.local/share/applications, renaming
directories to effectively delete them but still had them available. I
also used a pseudo binary search technique. While I did not divide
potential directories in have, I did have an idea which directories were
not the problem and was able to narrow the search down to three of the
gnome hidden directories.
When I have more time, I hope to investigate what file caused my
problems in the application directory. I did verify that the
application files involving my wine applications, both of them, was
working. I will need to look at the other files to see which ones are
worth testing vs. recreating as needed.
One thing that does bother me about my ~/.local/share/applications-bad
directory is that multiple desktop configuration files exist for the
same applications. The worst case appears to be for Audacious; there
are seven different desktop configuration files for it.
I suspect that my problem originated from my attempts to reorganize my
Gnome menus, using the "edit menus" dialog. So it looks like I will
need to learn more about gnome and how it deals with its menus and the
directory and desktop configuration files. The difficult part of that
will be figuring out exactly where it is all stored and how the
different components are related; what directories, what xml files,
etc. Pointers to gnome documentation would be appreciated; I have
already started reading the documentation available at www.gnome.org,
GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project.
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: /"Behold the lowly turtle," the astronaut had quoted. "He only
makes progress when he sticks his neck out."/
-- Ben Bova, from /"Return to Mars"/
8:56 a.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On Sat, 2009-08-15 at 10:31 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
On Saturday 15 August 2009 05:23:59 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
> After obtaining a list of the hidden directories used by gnome, I was
> able to rename existing directories, log out, log back in and see if the
> desktop icons were displayed. Through a series of trials and errors,
> the problem was in my old ~/.local/share/applications directory. My old
> version contained 395 entries and the new one contained 2.
>
> What is not solved is exactly which of the 394 files is the problem.
> Almost all the files in the broken directory are desktop configuration
> files along with a couple of list (text) files. I did copy the wine
> subdirectory from my broken applications directory to the working one
> without a problem while resolving missing wine applications that were
> installed.
General tip for handling this kind of thing -
1) copy your existing ~/.local/share/applications directory to something like
~/.local/share/applications_sav
2) restore one directory from the broken directory
3) if there are problems, you have identified the source. Copy
~/.local/share/applications_sav back to ~/.local/share/applications
3_sub) create the directory that you wanted to copy back and restore essential
files from it, one at a time, until it breaks. Now you have the real culprit,
and must recreate that one from scratch.
4) repeat as necessary - don't forget to start from 1) so that you always have
the partially restored and still working version.
Slow, yes, but you will get back most of what you had. Making a guess at your
applications most likely to have been in use when the problem occurred would
be a good starting place. Identifying the problem(s) at the beginning of the
process is less nerve-wracking than getting a long way and still being unsure.
:-)
Alternatively, use a binary search (divide the candidates into two
disjoint subsets, test one, then the other, reject the good one,
subdivide the bad into two subsets and repeat recursively, see Search
Algorithms 101). Requires careful bookkeeping but is potentially a lot
faster.
Also useful for finding broken extensions in Firefox :-)
poc
4:31 a.m.
New subject: Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]
On Saturday 15 August 2009 05:23:59 Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
After obtaining a list of the hidden directories used by gnome, I
was
able to rename existing directories, log out, log back in and see if the
desktop icons were displayed. Through a series of trials and errors,
the problem was in my old ~/.local/share/applications directory. My old
version contained 395 entries and the new one contained 2.
What is not solved is exactly which of the 394 files is the problem.
Almost all the files in the broken directory are desktop configuration
files along with a couple of list (text) files. I did copy the wine
subdirectory from my broken applications directory to the working one
without a problem while resolving missing wine applications that were
installed.
General tip for handling this kind of thing -
1) copy your existing ~/.local/share/applications directory to something like
~/.local/share/applications_sav
2) restore one directory from the broken directory
3) if there are problems, you have identified the source. Copy
~/.local/share/applications_sav back to ~/.local/share/applications
3_sub) create the directory that you wanted to copy back and restore essential
files from it, one at a time, until it breaks. Now you have the real culprit,
and must recreate that one from scratch.
4) repeat as necessary - don't forget to start from 1) so that you always have
the partially restored and still working version.
Slow, yes, but you will get back most of what you had. Making a guess at your
applications most likely to have been in use when the problem occurred would
be a good starting place. Identifying the problem(s) at the beginning of the
process is less nerve-wracking than getting a long way and still being unsure.
:-)
Anne
--
New to KDE4? - get help from http://userbase.kde.org
Just found a cool new feature? Add it to UserBase
9:30 a.m.
On 07/25/2009 08:16 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
On 07/26/2009 03:51 AM, Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
> When upgrading from Fedora 10 to Fedora 11 failed, I did a clean install
> of Fedora 11 and restored my personal home directory including the
> subdirectory .gconf from Fedora 10. I use Gnome for my desktop environment.
>
Add another user and see if the icons are getting displayed there
properly. If that works, then your current user gconf settings are
somehow screwed up.
Rahul
Good news and bad news, the good news is that when I created a new user,
the desktop icons appeared as expected and therefore the problem is in
my gnome and/or nautilus settings; the bad news is that the problem is
somwhere in my account settings.
The problem is not with .gconf by itself. I have renamed the directory
and rebooting did not bring back my desktop icons. Therefore, the
problem should be in another set of configuration, probably in another
gnome hidden directory. Hopefully, the problem is in a single hidden
directory and not a combination of hidden directories.
Is there any documentation that would help me understand the Gnome
configuration and hidden directories?
Note that the gtweakui-nautilus shows that nautilus is configured to
handle the desktop display when I log in. Toggling that setting to off
and back to on restores the desktop icons.
--
Steven F. LeBrun
Quote: /"The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there
are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy
stories tell children that dragons can be killed."/
-- G.K. Chesterton
7:16 p.m.
On 07/26/2009 03:51 AM, Steven F. LeBrun wrote:
When upgrading from Fedora 10 to Fedora 11 failed, I did a clean
install
of Fedora 11 and restored my personal home directory including the
subdirectory .gconf from Fedora 10. I use Gnome for my desktop environment.
Add another user and see if the icons are getting displayed there
properly. If that works, then your current user gconf settings are
somehow screwed up.
Rahul
5367
days inactive
5389
days old
9 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Anne Wilson -
Patrick O'Callaghan -
Rahul Sundaram -
Steven F. LeBrun