- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated May 17-10:16 pm by iznit.
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scruffyeagle
I have a problem with my desktop icons being moved around.
I’m running antiX v21 on a Dell Precision M6300 laptop, in a dual-boot arrangement. Windows 10 Pro is on one partition, and antiX 21 is on another.I keep all my data files on external drives, in encrypted partitions. When I boot up A21, all the icons on my desktop look like white pages. When I have the external partitions mounted as drives (using VeraCrypt), I then refresh the desktop. During the refresh, the desktop finds the target files on the external drives, changes the colors of the launchers, and verifies (registers?) the links. (Those launcher links don’t work, until the desktop has been refreshed.)
My problem is that when I first boot up the desktop, many of the launchers get displaced out of the tidy arrangement I prefer to keep them in. They move up toward the top of the screen, joining rows there. Then, I have to relocate them one by one, back where I want them to be. This happens to 6 out of 21 launchers.
Counting (1,1) as being at top left in the grid, in (x,y) coordinates:
{(4,3), (5,3), (4,4), (5,4), (4,5), & (5,5)} all get displaced y-2 (2 up).Describing this differently, a group 2 wide x 3 tall gets moved 2 positions up, to reach the top edge of the screen, while retaining its internal order.
This doesn’t cripple the machine in any way… But, it’s a daily nuisance.
I’ve attached a screenshot, showing how I want the arrangement to be. The last 2 columns of the middle block are what get shifted up to the top when it happens.
Is there any way to stop this behavior?
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spirit@M6300A214:~ $ inxi -Fxxxrz System: Kernel: 5.10.57-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 Desktop: IceWM 2.9.6 vt: 7 dm: N/A Distro: antiX-21_x64-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) Machine: Type: Portable System: Dell product: Precision M6300 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 8 serial: <filter> Mobo: Dell model: 0JM680 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A14 date: 12/06/2011 Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 65.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 65.7/73.3 Wh (89.7%) volts: 12.6 min: 11.1 model: PS2 DELL 00 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full CPU: Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo T7250 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Merom rev: D cache: L2: 2 MiB flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 7978 Speed: 1761 MHz min/max: 800/2001 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1761 2: 1857 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA G84GLM [Quadro FX 1600M] vendor: Dell driver: nouveau v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:040d class-ID: 0300 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1400x900~60Hz s-dpi: 96 OpenGL: renderer: NV84 v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes Audio: Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:284b class-ID: 0403 Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.57-antix.1-amd64-smp running: yes Network: Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5756ME Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express vendor: Dell driver: tg3 v: kernel port: df00 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1674 class-ID: 0200 IF: eth1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> Drives: Local Storage: total: 1.2 TiB used: 7.84 GiB (0.6%) ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD3200BPVT-75JJ5T0 size: 298.09 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 1A03 scheme: MBR ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD My Passport 0748 size: 931.48 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1019 scheme: MBR Partition: ID-1: / size: 38.15 GiB used: 7.84 GiB (20.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 Swap: ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 9.77 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda5 Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: SODIMM C gpu: nouveau temp: 67.0 C Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 Repos: Packages: apt: 1955 No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/antix/bullseye bullseye main nosystemd nonfree Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list 1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 1: deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free 2: deb http://security.debian.org/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list Info: Processes: 168 Uptime: 50m wakeups: 2 Memory: 3.84 GiB used: 1.27 GiB (33.1%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 alt: 10 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: roxterm inxi: 3.3.06 spirit@M6300A214:~ $Attachments:
christophe
Which desktop are you using – rox-icewm or zzz-icewm?
My thought is – switch to the other one.
But use control centre – default applications – to set the default file mgr you like best, regardless.
(I can’t understand what you are describing, but I do understand that the icons get messed up.
I don’t know how to keep them in place, but since we have 2 options, maybe the other one will not alter the icon placement.
I don’t use any icons on desktop, so I don’t know from experience.)
Also perhaps just move over your nice layout, giving room for the drive mounter icons (or whatever is moving out of place) – I know that’s giving up – but sometimes the computer won’t give in… 🙂
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
Brian Masinick
https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/30515/icon-placement-when-it-opens-a-new-window
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Window_manager
https://www.unix.com/unix-desktop-questions-and-answers/33873-controlling-icon-placement.html
I’m not 100% certain that anything in these topics will guarantee the results you are expecting but it is worth reading them anyway, then “experiment” and see if ANY of the methods and geometry resources will help you.
One possibility that might help if NOTHING ELSE works is to examine the x and y coordinates and offset positions of each icon and then script them into a procedure. If nothing else works at least you can automatically run your procedure as part of your login process and that may also solve the problem. Yes, that’s a hack, but it will probably work.
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Brian MasinickFor a few days, I thought that I’d found a solution for this dislocation of icons problem. I moved all the launchers so there was no space remaining above them on the screen; i.e., moved them all compacted to the top. That would be the first screenshot I’m attaching here.
(how they should have been screenshot)But, when I booted up the machine today, it threw them around again. This time, it wasn’t able to move anything up – so, it moved them down. I’d had 3 clusters across the top of the screen. The malfunction took the 1st column of 3 icons from both the 2nd & the 3rd cluster, and moved them down & to the left. Then, to cap it off, it moved both 2nd & 3rd clusters compacting to the left, but leaving one column of the misplaced icons in-between. That would be the 2nd screenshot I’m attaching here.
(new malfunction moved icons dn)Note that the launchers look like white pages, because I haven’t mounted the external drives & then refreshed the desktop in these screencaps.
BUT, it doesn’t throw the icons around every time. I booted the machine twice today. The 1st time, it displaced the icons. The 2nd time, it didn’t.
This really is quite annoying. Why is it doing this?
iznit
Why is it doing this?
start of session, when the manager attempts to re-populate the desktop icons….. it checks availability of each link destination, and discards any “saved” [[[from last session]]] icon items which are [[[at that moment]]] unavailable aka broken.
The external and or encrypted mounts are not consistently being mounted quickly enough. The momentarily invalid links are skipped. Moments later when items become available, the manager autogenerates new “icon items” [[[graphic image + text label + destination]]] and assigns “”next available”” x/y coordinates to each.
possible cross the fingers “solutions” or work-arounds:
increase the STARTUP_DELAY value, in ~/.desktop-session/desktop-session.conf
or add a line “sleep=10 &” [[[guessing what delay value]]] in ~/.desktop-session/startupWhy is it doing this?
start of session, when the manager attempts to re-populate the desktop icons….. it checks availability of each link destination, and discards any “saved” [[[from last session]]] icon items which are [[[at that moment]]] unavailable aka broken.
The external and or encrypted mounts are not consistently being mounted quickly enough. The momentarily invalid links are skipped. Moments later when items become available, the manager autogenerates new “icon items” [[[graphic image + text label + destination]]] and assigns “”next available”” x/y coordinates to each.
possible cross the fingers “solutions” or work-arounds:
increase the STARTUP_DELAY value, in ~/.desktop-session/desktop-session.conf
or add a line “sleep=10 &” [[[guessing what delay value]]] in ~/.desktop-session/startupThank you for your reply. I’m sure you’re right, that this malfunction is being caused by currently broken links – but, the external encrypted partitions won’t mount at all as drives, until I manually mount them one by one. So, those links won’t become valid until after the targets are mounted. I don’t know of any way to automate those mountings, without leaving the passwords &/or key files hanging around on the computer for others to also find & use. (Restricting accessibility is the point of encryption, right?) So, nothing will change, nothing new can be found, during an automated startup delay.
It sounds like the way to fix this, is to prevent the actions the manager takes upon finding the broken links.
iznit
another possibility….. login to plain icewm session then once the remote mounts are in place [[[test to find how long this takes]]] use the Desktops>OtherDesktops menu item to changeover to a fm+icewm session
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