xfce "forgets" icon positions

nuc · 2012-10-08 19:39:03

Hi!
Every time after logging into a xfce my icon positions get lost. All icons go into the middle row of my desktop (I suppose it's the default position).
When I use compiz as a window manager, the icons also lose their position, but go the the left side of the screen.

Any suggestions how to solve this issue?

best regards
nuc

PS: On my Laptop (also ArchLinux) everything works fine.

EDIT:
just found this bug: https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9192

Last edited by nuc (2012-10-08 21:08:33)

golinux · 2012-10-09 02:39:40

nuc wrote:

Hi!
Every time after logging into a xfce my icon positions get lost. All icons go into the middle row of my desktop (I suppose it's the default position).
When I use compiz as a window manager, the icons also lose their position, but go the the left side of the screen.
Any suggestions how to solve this issue?

Since XFCE is currently useless as a traditional desktop, I surrendered and solved the problem by eliminating all desktop icons and instead linking them to a hidden top panel. For convenience, I still do keep some dot folders hidden on the desktop. Since I can't see them they can move around at random and it makes no difference. Since the switch, I'm actually liking an empty desktop . . .

nuc · 2012-10-09 11:42:38

So this is a common issue?
What I did notice is that desktop icons in xfce are not implemented very professionally, e.g. try to move several marked icons or change the row size of your panel and you'll see how all the desktop icons will mess up. Even moving just one icon "feels" kinda unprofessional (surely you know what I mean).
Saying xfce is "useless" as traditional desktop is just not true. GNOME 3 is useless. xfce has potential and I'm sure xfce devs have already discussed improving the situation (click) but till now nothing changed.
So: What do the devs say?

Last edited by nuc (2012-10-09 13:05:03)

golinux · 2012-10-09 14:04:36

nuc wrote:

So this is a common issue?

I believe so. There is no way (that I have found) to place icons in specific places on the desktop and have them stay there.

nuc wrote:

Saying xfce is "useless" as traditional desktop is just not true.

Let me qualify that . . . icons on the desktop are useless. Everything else works quite well.

nuc wrote:

GNOME 3 is useless. xfce has potential . . .

Which is why I'll be using XFCE (and not Gnome 3) when Wheezy goes stable.

ToZ · 2012-10-09 18:15:44

Perhaps this thread might be of some help: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1919849. See post #5.

Last edited by ToZ (2012-10-09 18:16:30)

ts14ic · 2013-09-14 12:18:22

A working workaround here:
http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=30787#p30787
Maybe it will work for you smile

rijnsma · 2014-08-10 19:05:16

Why doing a new Xfce, while things are not right???
I'm not fond of bad code while there's better (also when it is not the newest..)

I do have the problem.
(I never saw jumping icons on the desk in Xubuntu 12.04 for instance...
only somewhere in the Gnome 2 period with icons on panels with earlier distro's..)

Last edited by rijnsma (2014-08-10 19:10:03)

rijnsma · 2014-08-17 16:46:42

Ok. Now I'm back to Mint 17 until about 2019 with the smooth and fast MATE DT (it was a clone on my shelve because I saw Linux Lite).
After two weeks of fighting with Xfce icon-positions in Linux Lite.... grrrr.. I'm done.

It was not an emergency, not every icon jumped, but I felt it like annoyance and before one knows it is an obsession...
Why?.. with this very nice desktop which served me so well in Xubuntu 12.04??
I don't want to workaround icons.

Edit character.

Last edited by rijnsma (2014-08-18 10:34:41)

MountainDewManiac · 2014-08-17 23:53:39

rijnsma wrote:

Why doing a new Xfce, while things are not right?

If everything was perfect, there would be no need to create a newer version.

Interesting that you've had the same issue across multiple distros. I've never experienced it (I wish I knew what is different with your setup, so I'd be able to help).

I, too, have learned the beauty of a "cleared" desktop. But when I'm working on files, I often save them there to remind me to continue when next I turn the computer on - and they are still exactly where I've paced them.

Regards,
MDM

rijnsma · 2014-08-18 10:26:04

MountainDewManiac wrote:

If everything was perfect, there would be no need to create a newer version.

I don't agree with you.
Xubuntu 12.04 tt LTS served me fantastic.
In Linux Lite I had the new Xfce... so there some icons went nuts. Another member on their forum reported it too.
That is a pity I think for a very nice desktop-software over the years (not very, very popular maybe, but don't distroy it like KDE old and/or Gnome 2?)...

I also had the problem in WattOS for a period, about 4 years ago when I made it Xfce instead of Lxde.
And I have had it on panels in an old version of PCLOS but that was Gnome 2. These bugs disappeared after updates.

A desktop (with one click control) for me is the most important, handy, fast, free configurable switchboard (along the menu, wich is not so fast and the very important 'out of the way-icon'-panels which áre fast). It is also a display which has an appearance I like, like it always was meant from the time there was an Apple Lisa, Atari etc. and I like it to stay that way. big_smile
A pc is certainly not a handheld or such in my eyes. A handheld does not really need a desktop. Maybe even a tablet not, but one can discuss that one.

I'm back in Mint MATE 17 Qiana LTS now like I wrote, until 2019 I hope. I made it a clone here when I tested LLite.
Mint 17 MATE LTS is doing super (also rather fast). I can do my work the way I like it. Thanks for answering. Good luck! big_smile

Last edited by rijnsma (2014-08-18 10:47:09)

Marc73 · 2014-11-18 08:25:36

Hi,

Here is something that worked for me.

I noticed that the problem appeared when I created a panel along the upper side of the screen.
When I changed this panel from 32 pixels to 40 pixels, it solved the issue. I noticed that the icons sometimes got slightly under the panel what gave me the idea of trying to change the size of the panel.
Hope this can help others and maybe help identify the origin of the bug.

rijnsma · 2014-11-18 09:54:48

I've experimented too with what you write. I also see the fenomena for at least 3 years in Ubuntu-distro's.
But the solution did not work always here.

Hope this can help others and maybe help identify the origin of the bug.

Great post!
Let's wait. I have not enough knowledge to repair it under the hood by myself. :wink:

Last edited by rijnsma (2014-11-18 09:57:06)

rijnsma · 2016-05-02 04:29:25

After years of great 'Mate' because of terribly jumping Xfce4-icons:
I found the solution:

The system as we use it (like me in Linux Lite or former WattOS like I wrote) needs desperately something like 'lightdm-gtk-greeter'. Anyway, a 'greeter' that doesn't force the system off balance (it appeares).
I installed it simply with Synaptic and almost ALL my problems with icons in Xfce were gone like snow before the sun. (Certainly when I also tick 'automatically always save session on logout' in 'General-tab' of the 'Settings' next.
'Save' in the logout-window in Xfce4 will disappear.)

Now this pc behaves very normal and quiet as it ought to be. The OS now works like a charm.
I think it has to do with resolution-switching at boottime. Looking at my (stretched) desktop-background and splash booting I can see clearly now the moment (format-switch of the desktop) where I think things went wrong.

Of course here is more about this issue ->

Strangely I never have had the problem with the SolydX distro, which I also have on a partition.
And in retro also not with Xubuntu 12.04.

Last edited by rijnsma (2016-05-05 04:11:30)

umaruuun · 2021-07-23 13:02:57

Hi guys!

I am from the future.
Joe Biden is the president of the USA, and Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk are having a billionnaire space race.
Playstation 5 and Xbox X came out and there is a global pandemic that created a shortage of graphics cards because people are mining cryptocurrencies.
Almost 10 years have passed. Linux has become a viable gaming OS, for god's sake. And yet, this issue still persists.
My icons are in a different place every single time I boot up the computer, no matter how many there are or how I arrange them. This is a bad joke. Literally unusable desktop unless you have 1 or 2 icons on there.

Golovanoff · 2023-08-01 02:33:33

Hi!
There's 2023, but bug still present.
Xfce 4.18, 2 monitors.

Pheeble · 2023-08-01 23:18:29

Golovanoff wrote:

Hi!
There's 2023, but bug still present.
Xfce 4.18, 2 monitors.

I've been facing the same problem on Linux Mint 21.2 XFCE. On installation, there are no 'Default Icons' on the desktop, eg. Home, Rubbish, etc.

I discovered that if I enabled the Home icon on the desktop, then the problem disappeared and the desktop icon positions persisted between reboots. When I remove the Home icon, the problem returns.

Presumably this is a bug.

morciej · 2024-04-14 17:13:04

This worked for some months. Putting in a "Home" icon used to solve the issue i.e. icons started having placement preserved across reboots (even manual placement, not just automatic.) Now back to "XFCE will place them icons where it damn well likes" under Mint 21.3 XFCE. Tried deleting .rc files (all of them and the symlink) from ~/.config/xfce4/desktop but no luck.

The REAL ODDITY is that IF I log out and in MULTIPLE TIMES then EVERY SECOND TIME the icons go to the SAVED positions, but every OTHER time they get shuffled.

Last edited by morciej (2024-04-14 17:23:20)

annoying_daniel · 2024-06-14 06:22:54

I had the same issue cropped up recently again the past month and it was also driving me nuts. I did a number of things at once and apparently something worked this time for me, but I can’t say for sure which item actually did the trick to make the icons stay this time:

• On the desktop, I renamed every item (including folders) to ensure nothing has a whitespace character (this includes matching the “edit launcher” entry with the actual “rename” entry)

• I rm’d every item in ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/ except the most recent and the shortcut to the latest.

• ^in the single .rc file above, I double-checked nothing had a whitespace character.

• In the desktop icon settings, I played with the icon size, toggled off “show icons on primary display” (they still show, lol), toggled on hidden files, toggled on/off thumbnails, and then toggled on/off every “default icons”, leaving only home and trash selected – playing with the “home” toggle and moving the existing icons on the desktop to ensure that home was automatically placed exactly at position (0,0) on toggle-on and trash was at (1,0) at toggle-on.

...I rebooted and they finally stuck for me. Who knows what the real issue is and why it keeps cropping up occasionally after like 6 months. roll

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#1 2012-10-08 19:39:03

xfce "forgets" icon positions

#2 2012-10-09 02:39:40

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#3 2012-10-09 11:42:38

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#4 2012-10-09 14:04:36

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#5 2012-10-09 18:15:44

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#6 2013-09-14 12:18:22

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#7 2014-08-10 19:05:16

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#8 2014-08-17 16:46:42

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#9 2014-08-17 23:53:39

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#10 2014-08-18 10:26:04

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#11 2014-11-18 08:25:36

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#12 2014-11-18 09:54:48

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#13 2016-05-02 04:29:25

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#14 2021-07-23 13:02:57

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#15 2023-08-01 02:33:33

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#16 2023-08-01 23:18:29

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#17 2024-04-14 17:13:04

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

#18 2024-06-14 06:22:54

Re: xfce "forgets" icon positions

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