FC3 not showing desktop icons

[shrike]

I've just installed FC3, and when I save something to the desktop, nothing appears. They will show up in terminals, and when I browse to the desktop folder, but that's all.

To get them to appear I've got to browse to the folder, and reload it. Is there a way I can change this?

[markwolfe Veteran]

Hmmm... I have FC3 installed on a laptop at work, and I can look at it tomorrow.

Are you using Gnome, KDE or XFCE? (the three available WMs for FC3 on installation options)

[shrike]

gnome.

It seems that the problem has gone away now.. but I'll keep my eye on it.

[shrike]

actually... it's still happening. I can move things there, and they get displayed, but if something is created directly on the desktop it won't show up.

[markwolfe Veteran]

What are you doing that doesn't work?

I just right-clicked and did a Create Document > Empty File, and it created a file which was shown. I was able to gedit it and save it. It exists on my desktop, and through the command line.

Not sure what is going on with your system... :unsure:

[SoNiCfReAk]

I have seen this bug before on several distros running Gnome 2.8, it happens after Gnome Panel crashes which some how screws up Nautilus' icons. Just restart your xserver and it will fix it.

[shrike]

that seems to be it, SoNiCfReAk, but how do I restart my x server? I've restarted the comp a few times, and ctrl+alt+<--

[markwolfe Veteran]

You can kill X properly by doing an init 3 to switch to text, then an init 5 to switch back to X.

Or use CTRL + ALT + [backspace] ;)

The both will kill X and start it up fresh.

[hornett]

Shrike, have you tried hilighting a desktop icon and pressing Ctrl + R to refresh the icons?

[shrike]

I didn't know that I could... but thanks for the tip :)

[Smitjel]

This happens to me too. I'll save a file, say a pdf from the web, to the desktop and then I'll minimize all windows to look at my desktop. The pdf I just downloaded won't be on the desktop. I can open Nautilus and browse to my desktop and it still won't be there. I have to hit reload to make it show up. I can also browse to it using the terminal. As soon as I do an "ls" in my desktop folder, it shows up.

It's happened numerous times since I've install FC3...clean install too. It has to be a Gnome 2.8 bug.

[Lokheed]

This happens to me too.  I'll save a file, say a pdf from the web, to the desktop and then I'll minimize all windows to look at my desktop.  The pdf I just downloaded won't be on the desktop.  I can open Nautilus and browse to my desktop and it still won't be there.  I have to hit reload to make it show up.  I can also browse to it using the terminal.  As soon as I do an "ls" in my desktop folder, it shows up.

It's happened numerous times since I've install FC3...clean install too.  It has to be a Gnome 2.8 bug.

585081939[/snapback]

No its not a Gnome bug. Gnome is now using gamin as the monitor through its file browser (Nautilus). This program ensures that Nautilus is always kept aware of any changes that are made. That is why you need to hit refresh to view any newly added file. Fam was the old way and gamin is really a branch of fam which stands for File Alteration Monitor so you can decypher what that means.

I dont know if FC3 installs any of them as they are not needed but do make your file manager recognize changes and keep up with them much more efficiently. Even in KDE this is the case and it takes a few seconds or sometimes even a refresh to show a newly added file through the gui. Microsoft Explorer ovecomes this by being in a constant state of "refresh" which isnt to good on memory usage.

But this is not a bug, its normal behaviour. Check your install and see what you have running. Since you are using Gnome, make sure you install the latest version of gamin and stick it in your start script so it loads by default, this should help in Nautilus keeping track of newly created files. Conversely if you run KDE, gamin, while being a much better work off fam, runs quite poorly, so you will have to stick with fam which runs off the horribly unsecure portmap...

[shrike]

I've noticed that it's not just my desktop, it's also my Gnome menu. I can easily refresh the desktop, but the menu takes a restart of X.