[ solved ] All but 3 icons disappeared off desktops?

[wedgetail]

Going along nicely with my KDE-mini, fully updated.  Noticed there was 4 updates and carried out the update.

Upgraded the following packages:
libnewt0.52 (0.52.13-1pclos2011) to 0.52.14-1pclos2011
newt (0.52.13-1pclos2011) to 0.52.14-1pclos2011
pclinuxos-gfxboot-theme (4.1.19.18-4pclos2011) to 4.1.19.18-5pclos2011
pclinuxos-release (2011-2pclos2011) to 2012-1pclos2012

Rebooted and most of my desktop icons are gone, 3 left those seemed to be the rightmost, Kruler, Firefox and Filezilla.

Did a quick search on forum but so far has not found anything.  I do not think it is caused by the update but perhaps triggered.  The reason that I have had the same thing happen a couple of times but each time a re-boot seemed to fix the problem.

I seem to remember there is a way of re-building the Icons ?

Anybody got suggestion to what direction I should go?

[Bald Brick]

The icons you are talking about -- have you created them as widgets or are they just .desktop files in the directory a folder view is pointed at?

If the latter, could your folder view possibly have been transformed into a desktop view?

[wedgetail]

Bald Brick

Thank you, your post  did help.

  I have a very clouded idea of what you are talking about.  The "desktops" are a bit of a mystery to me, so try to leave it/them alone since going to KDE4.  I am tempted to say I have not created the icons they just pop up when I drop a file there by placing it in the Desktop directory using Konqueror.  

I do know that by right clicking on the Desktop -> Folder View Settings -> View -> "options" and when this odd thing happens on occasion I think I have recovered by changing between Desktop and Folder View until it comes right.  I tried this this time  but it did not seem to do anything.

Reading your post I decided to do the same again (also another re-boot in the form of a complete power down/startup, I forgot this yesterday, only rebooted) plus I changed my wallpaper to something a bit more plain so nothing would hide under the foliage. (Landscape with trees).  To my delight all my 21 missing icons are back.

I notice that the icon for Firefox, K-ruler and Filezilla do not show up in the directory Desktop does that mean they are a widget?

All the missing 'files' are the ones that I see in Konqueror when I look in the directory Desktop (never occurred to me to look with Konqueror yesterday  , guess because nothing seemed to be wrong with the running of KDE-mini).

If the latter, could your folder view possibly have been transformed into a desktop view?

Yes I believe this is what happened, but understanding the Desktop and how it ought to be used is still above me.  

 

[Bald Brick]

The distinction between folder view and desktop view is not that complicated.

With a desktop set to folder view it behaves a bit like a KDE3 desktop, i.e. it shows the icons in ~/Desktop or any other folder you tell it to use.

If you set it to use desktop view you won't see those icons directly on the desktop (but you might want to add a folder view widget to the desktop instead, in which case you could see them within that widget).

So a folder view desktop is like a folder view widget that covers the whole desktop.

Whether you use folder view or desktop view you can add icons to the desktop in other ways, e.g. by dragging them there from a menu, or by right-clicking them in a menu and then clicking "Add to Desktop". These icons will then be created as widgets on the desktop and they will remain there even if you switch from folder view to desktop view.

The problem is that unless you've changed the way either kind of icons look, they may look alike. However, if you don't see them in desktop view they probably aren't widgets. And on mouse-over, with widgets unlocked, the icons that are widgets will (like other widgets) show the same vertical bar that allows you to easily, move, resize, rotate or close them.

[wedgetail]

Bald Brick

Thank you for elaborating and I admit this has clarified my perception enough for me to start some experimentation. I will see how I get on with this.  At the moment I have folder view set and added a folder view widget to that. The widget label says home I will dance with this for a day or two and see what I think.

The problem is that unless you've changed the way either kind of icons look, they may look alike. However, if you don't see them in desktop view they probably aren't widgets. And on mouse-over, with widgets unlocked, the icons that are widgets will (like other widgets) show the same vertical bar that allows you to easily, move, resize, rotate or close them.

This helped explain why my icons look different, I like to work in konsole and then I may pipe the result of some action say fdisk -l to the Desktop, like this:

[root@localhost gert]# fdisk -l >>/home/gert/Desktop/120119-result_fdisk.glk
[root@localhost gert]#

The .glk extension associates with nice standout icon for text files so I can instantly see it is one of 'mine', as well I know where the Desktop is.

Works well for me, and of course on mouse over I notice the difference.  Now I understand a little bit better.