Desktop icons do not show.

[Member roland]

Dear friends,

I have been in a similar situation to this on a previous occasion but with release 17, and after learning somewhat I was able to resolve the problem, but I wish to discuss the reason behind it, having happened again with release 19.

After a recent re-install of 19.3 I was careless enough not to check the Repos I was using as defined by Repo manager. This caused my install to use a mirror that I specifically wished to avoid, (ftp.cica in Spain as opposed to anorien.csc in Coventry, UK). I am directed by geographical default to Spanish mirrors as I am based in Spain, but have paid the price before of failing to be doubly careful about my pointing at the preferred mirror.

I have reason to believe that packages on the Spanish mirrors are not in every case the same as those on the UK mirrors. Maybe they are out of date or different for operational reasons?

My Desktop folder was populated using rox-filer drag/copy option from /usr/share/applications folder in the usual way. The icons appear as expected when using (I believe) code from the UK mirror. They do not appear when using code (I believe) from the Spanish mirror.

Maybe there is something else causing this? How can I put things right without a wholesale re-install?

It will be noticed that there is a text in window in the blank screenshot which is carried over from another workspace I had in use at the time, leading me to suspect I have incompatible package(s) installed. I cannot run an apt-get dist-upgrade, either with or without –fix-broken or –fix-missing, both fail to complete.

Is there any way out of this mess?

I realise that a fresh install is implicated here.

Thanks in advance for all responses.

Attachments:

1. 

   roxfiler_desktop.jpg
   

2. 

   screen_without_icons.jpg
   

1. inxi_zv8-3.pdf

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi roland, first please do,

sudo dpkg –configure -a

If that runs correctly then try to update, should it throw errors you may need to
fix those next.

after that do
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt clean

[Member Xecure]

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First, the real problem.
ROX desktop icons will not (and will never) match the files stored in the Desktop folder. That is just how it is, and has always been. Dragging icons to the rox desktop will NOT include them in your Desktop folder, and dragging files to your Desktop folder will not add them automatically to the Rox desktop. You are confusing Rox with Spacefm.
Select the Space-icewm session, and (if you enjoy Rox filer more than spacefm), you can use Control Centre > Preferred Applications > File Manager (and change it to rox-filer.desktop) so that the default file manager becomes Rox (if you enjoy Rox the most).

It doesn’t matter the mirror you use. This will not change rox’ behavior.

About mirrors, most of them in Europe I have tested and are up to date. If you are curious to know how up to date each mirror is, check https://antixlinux.com/mirmon-packages/
I am very thankfull of anticapitalista and the antiX team for providing this very informative page. It has helped me in the past with a UK mirror that was not getting the updates I wanted. In comparison, the Spanish mirrors seem more reliable.

EDIT: Also, after changing a mirror using repo-manager, you need to sudo apt update to regenerate the package list. Try that first, and then post the output of sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Xecure. Reason: typo
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Xecure. Reason: Regenerate packages list

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi Xecure, not just the icons as a problem, ignored that as.

roland wrote I cannot run an apt-get dist-upgrade, either with or without –fix-broken or –fix-missing, both fail to complete.
Is there any way out of this mess?

I never use desktop icons as they seem pointless and very annoying, always hidden below application windows when needed.
Autohide taskbar with entrys is waaay more efficient and leaves max workspace.

regarding mirrors German ones are (in my experience) reliable and up to date. UK not so good.

[Member roland]

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Thanks to all for these very useful responses. I was only populating the Desktop folder with Rox because some while back I read in a post that such was the only way to get them to appear on the desktop, and under release 17 I used that method and found it did work. I am not a Rox enthusiast and much prefer SpaceFM in combination with Space-IceWM.

I am well aware that many do not like desktop Icons, as a mainframer we never had such luxury, just a green command line, but I have got into the habit of using 6 workspaces, and move along to a clean one showing the full set of icons when I need to run something already covered up by a window. However I am flexible enough to look at alternatives, and will try the autohide taskbar when I get my Repos in order again.

I shall move to the German mirrors before going through the interesting suggestions.

Thanks for the prompt answers!

[Member Xecure]

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roland wrote:

I was only populating the Desktop folder with Rox because some while back I read in a post that such was the only way to get them to appear on the desktop, and under release 17 I used that method and found it did work

Yes. It works if you are using spacefm as desktop icon manager, but not if using Rox as desktop icon manager. You were probably using spacefm as icon manager on antiX 17, and using the copy function of rox-filer to “drag and drop” the .desktop files to the Desktop folder, which works very well to copy them over (much user-friendly for mouse driven use).

Let us know how it goes and share the update/upgrade output if something goes wrong.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member roland]

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I ran the suggested repair actions but there were fails in particular concerning antix-goodies which seems to be missing, see pdf of terminal log attached. I for the time being stayed with the Warwick mirror until I have time to learn more about the German ones.

Attachments:

1. actions_suggested_repos_mixup.pdf

[Member Xecure]

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Yes. The antix-goodies 0.8.1 had a small bug that was reported yesterday but now it is fixed and a new package 0.8.2 is available in most mirrors.
For that Conventry mirro, the version is 0.8.01

$ apt policy antix-goodies
antix-goodies:
     0.8.01 500
        500 https://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mxlinux/packages/antix/buster buster/main amd64 Packages

Change the repo to London (mxlinux.mirrorr.uk2.net) and you will se that this mirror is more up to date:

$ apt policy antix-goodies
antix-goodies:
  Installed: 0.8.02
  Candidate: 0.8.02
  Version table:
 *** 0.8.02 500
        500 http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/antix/buster buster/main amd64 Packages

This should fix your problem.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi roland,
Looks like you are pretty much fixed again. Good news.
Many choices for mirrors.
Frankfurt, Aachen or Erlangen are very reliable, and kept well up to date.
Frankfurt is directly on DE CX node so also usually very fast.

Changing mirrors is easy, I often just look which is fastest for any bigger download
actions.

[Anonymous]

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If you would like to now use a rox-managed desktop
and wish to “import” pre-existing items from your ~/Desktop/ directory, you can:

1) open rox-filer or spaceFM filemanager and navigate to ~/Desktop
2) depress and hold Ctrl key, and click items of interest to multi-select them
3) drag the selected items to a blank spot on the pinboard, and release. Rox will generate pinboard icons for the items, nicely organized “all in a row”.

Some potential points of confusion for anyone new to interacting with rox pinboard icons:

When an “actual item, residing in ~/Desktop” represented as a roxicon is (externally) deleted//renamed, rox will display an exclamation point as the icon image (rox will not autoremove the now “broken” roxicon)

When you select (focus) a rox pinboard icon and, via right-click, use the Remove action,
only the roxicon is removed (not the associated item residing in ~/Desktop)
vs
When you select (focus) a rox pinboard icon and press the Delete key,
rox does also delete the associated item (without displaying a confirmation prompt)

ps:
AFAIK, no rox option exists to toggle “display confirmation prompt when deleting pinboard item(s)”

[Member roland]

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I now seem to have my Repos in order again, after switching top the Frankfurt mirror and running the scripts suggested by Moddit, thanks to all contributors to this post which was caused entirely by my own carelessness in not looking which is my preferred mirror before running apt or apt-get.

I really must get moving on two aspects of antiX maintenance:-

1. Learning the alternative methods that exist of maintaining my package loadset. Although at heart I am a terminal/command-line user I often see references to alternatives which are unknown to me.

2. Learning enough about the alternative window managers to be able to try them out effectively. I have been a user of SpaceFM with Space-iceWM since release Luddite and have evolved ways of working with them that have perhaps deterred me from looking at the alternatives, perhaps to my loss.

[Member roland]

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Just a postscript to the icons not showing.

I now have 2 PCs on the desk here, both running 19.3, both right up to date, Markedly differing hardware but as far as I can see very similar indeed in the basic loadsets and installed packages, but not the same kernels,

On one PC the icons do not appear, on the other PC they do appear. Both desktop folders were set up as described with Rox-filer drak and drop / copy function. On the one where they do appear, after a cold boot they sometimes do not appear. Running Restart-Session from the Logout menu causes them to appear.

Curious.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi roland, on your comment one
1. Learning the alternative methods that exist of maintaining my package loadset. Although at heart I am a terminal/command-line user I often see references to alternatives which are unknown to me.

I use command line for management and updates most of the time. For updates using a bash alias so I enter only update to get apt upfrade && apt full-upgrade for example.

I like to use Synaptic as an easy way to see where packages and files are installed. Sometimes to quick and dirty install a package from testing or unstable. Should you do
that please do not forget to disable the repo again and reload package list or you may find the need to reinstall to return to stable base.

The antiX installer as safe way to install backports/latest packages.

on 2, here pure ICEWM fits needs well with most users. Stable and easy to customize. Its just a matter of taste I guess. PPC has made some fantastic scripts for his favorite desktop. well worth a try.

Regarding your icon problem, sorry need to wait for PPC or Xecure.
Have no experience in that way of working. 🙂
Shameful Plug again, bad lad me.:
Find autostarting applications to specified workspaces at a given size and position in the window more efficient. Menu is more or less ornament as all important “non autostarted” applications are started from the autohidden task bar.

[Member Xecure]

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roland wrote:

On one PC the icons do not appear, on the other PC they do appear.

Make sure that both boot into space-icewm (if spacefm is your preferred desktop icon manager). You can confirm with
cat $HOME/.desktop-session/default-desktop

If both do boot into the same desktop session described above, then you need to increase the startup delay. Until I have time to return to the gui I was making, you need to do it by editing the desktop-session.conf file.
xdg-open $HOME/.desktop-session/desktop-session.conf &
and increase the number in STARTUP_DELAY to 5, for example:
STARTUP_DELAY="5"

After this, startup will take a bit longer, but you will be sure that the desktop icons will load properly (I hope).
You can experiment and decrease the number to 3 or 4, until you find the optimal delay, but really 1 or 2 seconds should not slow the startup too much.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

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