Lost Desktop Icons in F11 [Partially Solved]

[Steven F. LeBrun]

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

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