Missing desktop icons

[john9159]

Yet another nail in the coffin for Linux!
All icons have disappeared from the desktop.
Found nothing using the search for missing icons from desktop.

[colinkx250]

What icons the task bar or icons on the desktop?

[john9159]

"All icons have disappeared from the desktop."

[colinkx250]

How did you manage that,only joking.
Can you right click the desktop, click applications,Settings, Settings manager ,Panel. Check if the auto show hide panel option is not ticked.

[Mike]

"All icons have disappeared from the desktop."

John, just to clarify, are you able to see the panel with the menu or do you mean just the portion of your desktop where the wallpaper is? Also, are you able to right-click and see the right-click menu?

[john9159]

Hi
Thanks for the replies.
Colin - I have tried as you suggested although cannot see an auto show/hide panel option anywhere.
Have tinkered with other option too but to no avail.
mlsmith - icons disappeared first, then the background wallpaper. I can right click but as said above, nothing seemed to solve the problem.
Could do with these icons back as they were there just as temporary documents before moving them elsewhere (e.g. ext. USB device) but now they've gone.

[bobw]

Hi john9159.  Can you see the missing items in the File Manager under /home/<username>/desktop?

[gold_finger]

@john9159,

This is not a response to your immediate problem because I don't really know what may have caused it.


Do you want to learn to use Linux?  Or is your intention to just use it temporarily until you can get a new Windows computer?

Since you've stuck with LL for two months, I'm guessing that you'd like to learn it and have it work for you.  But I get the feeling from reading through all of your prior threads that you may just not know the best way to do that and are ending up trying to fumble your way through things, which just ends in frustration.  Don't feel too bad -- that happens to everyone!

Although some individual programs (Firefox, LibreOffice, etc.) may work the same in both operating systems, Linux is not and never will be a "free" version of Windows.  They are different OS's, are structured and operate differently, and frequently have programs that perform similar functions but don't operate in exactly the same way.  Switching to Linux requires learning how things are done in Linux.

If someone who only knew Linux tried to switch to Windows, they'd have the same problem in reverse.  I used Windows for about 23 years.  I switched to using Linux exclusively about 5 years ago.  I'm so used to the Linux way of doing things now that I get extremely frustrated whenever I have to attempt doing something in Windows -- which is almost always me fixing something that went wrong on other peoples computers.  If I ever had to go back to using Windows regularly, I'd have to spend some time re-learning some of the Windows ways of doing things.


I'm going to recommend three things that I believe will greatly improve things for you.  All you'll need to do is set aside dedicated blocks of time (1-2 hours here and there) over the next week or two for the first two items listed.  You won't be a Linux master in two weeks, but you will have a much better understanding of the basics and gain some much needed confidence.  The third item on the list is just a list of links with further infomation that you can use at your leisure over time to increase your skills.

• Read the first three chapters of Introduction to Linux.  That will give you a good grasp of some of the basics and will immediately help clear up much confusion.  If you need to re-read some sections to really "get it", go ahead and do that.  Bookmark the link to the book and you can refer to other chapters for more specific info if/when needed at a later time.
  
• Read the entire Help Manual for Linux Lite.  Much of it may not immediately apply to anything you need to do, but reading the various sections will help you see how things are done in Linux and some things may trigger ideas on how to accomplish other tasks that are important to you.
  
• After doing the above for the first week or two, use the links on this page to learn other things in your spare time.  I'd particularly recommend using the first tutorial listed under "Command Line Basics" section.  Even though you may not end up using the command line much at all, it will be very beneficial to get a basic understanding of the most common commands.
  

[Valtam]

Excellent reply gold_finger

[Mike]

Indeed. That was an excellent response.