Xfce Forum

homeless

Member

Registered: 2009-06-24

Posts: 3

panel icons

i'm new to xfce, and i've noticed i'm unable to customize my panel icons.  there are two grey icons, which i believe i mistakenly created, and when i click on them, i get "failed to execute child process."

the short of it is that right-clicking on icons does nothing.  do i have to go to the root to delete these worthless icons?  if so, how?

also, i'm unable to move the app icons.  any advice?

thank you.

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: panel icons

i'm new to xfce, and i've noticed i'm unable to customize my panel icons.  there are two grey icons, which i believe i mistakenly created, and when i click on them, i get "failed to execute child process."

the short of it is that right-clicking on icons does nothing.  do i have to go to the root to delete these worthless icons?  if so, how?

also, i'm unable to move the app icons.  any advice?

thank you.

If you right click on any 'xfce4-panel-plugin' or 'Launcher Icon' on your panel and select 'Remove' from the drop-down list then it should remove that icon or plugin.

If you want to add that xfce4-panel-plugin again then right click the panel and select 'Add New Items...'

Snood

Member

Registered: 2009-05-02

Posts: 56

Re: panel icons

Using the right-click context menu was going to be my suggestion, but then I realized that the OP stated that "right-clicking on icons does nothing".

I fiddled around with various desktop settings but couldn't find anything in a GUI dialog that would cause that context menu to stop working. I think we're going to need more information.

I'm not sure whether or not a screenshot (showing the appearance of the panel) would be of any value. I am kind of curious about the "worthless" icons and their origin.

It would probably be a good idea to let us know which Linux distribution this is, and definitely a good idea to let us know which version of xfce it is.

homeless

Member

Registered: 2009-06-24

Posts: 3

Re: panel icons

i'm running linpus lite and xfce 4, i believe.  sorry, new to linux.  right-clicking on the panel yields no results, same with right-clicking on the icons. 

i believe i mistakenly created the icons using the launch feature.  stumped...

Snood

Member

Registered: 2009-05-02

Posts: 56

Re: panel icons

I'm unfamiliar with Linpus Lite, so don't know if there might be some specific modification of xfce in that distro which could make something like what you're seeing possible. If xfce is a desktop environment supported directly by Linpus Lite, the folks in their distro-specific forum or newsgroup may be better able to help you.

Otherwise, the people here at this forum may need the precise version of xfce. (Version 4 is probably not enough information.) It might also be useful to know exactly how xfce was installed on your system. Was it installed directly during the initial installation, installed from the distro's repositories using a package manager, or downloaded and installed by compiling it / use of tarball / whatever.

To get the exact version of xfce normally you'd just right-click on the desktop, selecting "About xfce" in the context menu, and then looking on the Info tab of the resulting dialog. (I think that works for all recent versions, but I'm new to this, too.)

I'm probably going to be out of my depth. I'm just participating in this thread in the hope of helping you to provide the information more expert users than I will need to help you with this. But I'll try to be useful, too. My hope, though, is that somebody wiser in the ways of xfce may know exactly what's causing this issue on your system.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to sign off for about 12-14 hours now, but I'll be back.

homeless

Member

Registered: 2009-06-24

Posts: 3

Re: panel icons

thanks, snood.  i appreciate it. 

i perused the acer/linpus forum and found that hitting alt + f2 and typing "xfce4-panel -a" duplicates the right-click menu.  that functionality makes so much of a difference.  thanks again!

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: panel icons

Using the right-click context menu was going to be my suggestion, but then I realized that the OP stated that "right-clicking on icons does nothing".

Oops. I only skimmed the comment. My bad.

Snood

Member

Registered: 2009-05-02

Posts: 56

Re: panel icons

thanks, snood.  i appreciate it. 

i perused the acer/linpus forum and found that hitting alt + f2 and typing "xfce4-panel -a" duplicates the right-click menu.  that functionality makes so much of a difference.  thanks again!

So you got it fixed? If so, that's good news. On my system that command just brings up the Add New Item dialog from the right-click context menu. That's useful, in and of itself, but wouldn't provide the ability to remove or move items already on the panel.

Anyway, I'm glad you're making progress.