Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

rijnsma · 2015-06-03 12:12:33

I had this icon-problem in Linux Lite.
So I experimented as a test with Xubuntu 14.04 (and Xfce 4.10)
With Xfce 4.12 (via PPA) the iconproblem is gone here. big_smile

Last edited by rijnsma (2015-06-03 12:15:56)

nl_simon · 2015-06-07 16:39:55

Hi all,
I am running an Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS. That provides me with XFCE 4.10. I have been using this setup for a year now and it has been working for me. I like the "old fashioned" look and feel and all has been working well.

Recently I got some updates, at least I thought to have seen XFCE when system update was active. And since that time the icons do not stick to their position when rebooting. It is a bit disappointing. Maybe a bit moor than a bit.... It is stupid.

I noticed that when I log out, not shutting down the system, and re-log in all icons are there where I left them.

However, when I shut the system and boot it later, most of the icons have moved.
Most (!) icons are moved to the left hand edge of the desktop. A few JPEGs remain at their position every time and a removable device (thumb drive) is somewhere to the centre right of the screen to my surprise.

Sorry to say but how can it be so hard to simply put icons back where they were? Windows 3.11 did this right. Please note the huge number of "views" on this item; something is not working right for many people.

Last edited by nl_simon (2015-06-07 16:43:44)

rijnsma · 2015-06-07 19:24:15

Maybe this? ->
http://www.webupd8.org/2015/03/install- … 04-or.html

I did it that way. It is right now like I wrote.

Last edited by rijnsma (2015-06-07 19:24:47)

nl_simon · 2015-06-07 20:10:43

rijnsma wrote:

Maybe this? ->
http://www.webupd8.org/2015/03/install- … 04-or.html
I did it that way. It is right now like I wrote.

Hi Rijnsma, Yeah it does work, I will admit. But is this a reasonable solution? Why does it become a mess? I has been working for some time and then someone decides to "update" my system and my desktop gets messed up. So I am still running a 3 year old version of XFCE (4.10 was from 2012) but now, since the update, WITH an annoying error.

Maybe I was a bit grumpy; why does the Linux community not seem able to sort these trivial things? You don't expect a freshly installed system not to boot (as I had with this one). Neither do you expect not to be able to play Youtube video's. Yes, I know the reasons, but still. And at that same level I would expect my desktop to remain as I set it. You would not like your maid to re-arrange the things in the kitchen every day. You expect the salt to be in a particular cabinet, like you expect to find the dishes and the other utensils where you put them.

Anyway, thank you for the pointer! Although I find it avoidance rather than solving. Thanks.

Regards, Simon.

PS: Nice example on Linux support: Solved within 4 hours on a Sunday evening! No company is going to beat this.

Last edited by nl_simon (2015-06-07 20:12:33)

rijnsma · 2015-06-07 20:31:51

I don't know the reason of 'the mess', but I know a lot has happened and in a very fast pace in softwareland.
KDE, Gnome, Qt, other filesystems (ext4, btrfs), grub2, 64 bits after 32, mobiles, system-d and it looks like it will continue.
The Linux community is most of the time a little slow in these things.
I agree: better no updates of things when it can 'break' like the icons on the desktop...!

Anyway, thank you for the pointer! Although I find it avoidance rather than solving. Thanks.
Regards, Simon.
PS: Nice example on Linux support: Solved within 4 hours on a Sunday evening! No company is going to beat this.

You're welcome nl_Simon. :wink:

panamabob · 2015-09-10 09:19:36

Wow this sure works great! I followed sixwingsfire instructions but changed the "iconlockset.sh" file.
I had to add " exec chmod +x IconLockSet.desktop " (without quotes) in the "iconlockset.sh" file in both the locked and unlocked scripts to keep the file executeable. My new file with changes is below.

#!/bin/bash

if grep -q "LockStatus=Locked" "/home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"; then
echo "It is Locked...we will Unlock it"
sudo chattr -i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*
sed '/Icon=/ c\Icon=\/home\/xxx\/Linux_stuff\/Icons\/icon-unlock.png' < /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
rm /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
sed '/LockStatus=/ c\LockStatus=Unlocked' < /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
rm /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
exec chmod +x IconLockSet.desktop
else
if grep -q "LockStatus=Unlocked" "/home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"; then
echo "It is UnLocked...we will Lock it"
sed '/Icon=/ c\Icon=\/home\/xxx\/Linux_stuff\/Icons\/icon-lock.png' < /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
rm /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
sed '/LockStatus=/ c\LockStatus=Locked' < /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
rm /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
sudo chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*
exec chmod +x IconLockSet.desktop
fi

fi

exit

seth · 2015-09-14 08:52:23

Hi!

You can omit the annoying password query for sudo, if you just make the directory read-only. So a more comfortable solution could be something like

#!/bin/bash

IconLockSet="$HOME/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"
if grep -q "LockStatus=Locked" $IconLockSet; then
  chmod 750 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop
  perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-lock\.png/icon-unlock.png/' $IconLockSet
  perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Unlocked/' $IconLockSet
else if grep -q "LockStatus=Unlocked" $IconLockSet; then
  perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-unlock\.png/icon-lock.png/' $IconLockSet
  perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Locked/' $IconLockSet
  chmod 550 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop
fi
fi
exit

Advantages:
* no password query
* no exchange of "xxx" by username needed, because theres a environment variable $HOME which always contains your home path
* no "exec chmod +x IconLockSet.desktop" needed every time. It's enough to do that once.

Anyway: This does not really fix the bug, but is just a work-around.

bye
seth

panamabob · 2015-09-15 04:31:27

Thanks Seth. Your script works great. I did have to add -R on the two chmod lines because it was locking the files in the folder.

#!/bin/bash

IconLockSet="$HOME/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"
if grep -q "LockStatus=Locked" $IconLockSet; then
chmod 750 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop -R
perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-lock\.png/icon-unlock.png/' $IconLockSet
perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Unlocked/' $IconLockSet
else if grep -q "LockStatus=Unlocked" $IconLockSet; then
perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-unlock\.png/icon-lock.png/' $IconLockSet
perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Locked/' $IconLockSet
chmod 550 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop -R
fi
fi
exit

seth · 2015-09-16 00:27:47

Hi panamabob!

I guess, the files inside $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop/ won't be modified but simply overwritten by the xfce-desktop. So in my opinion, a 'chmod -w' on the files will be useless. But if the directory is read-only, then the files can't be rewritten.

Apart from that 'chmod 550 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop -R' does not make sense, because the files in that directory are not executable.

bye
seth

dga · 2016-02-11 10:04:48

Wow... way too complicated. A better way is...

Create this script:

#! /bin/sh
chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*
sleep 40
chattr -i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

Give exec permissions to the script, add the script to the sudoers and run it as root in autostart

Regards

Last edited by dga (2016-02-11 14:35:39)

passer-domesticus · 2016-03-05 22:02:42

shakebake wrote:

Here is a kludge that I did.
...
Put this script in your scripts folder:
It should be named "IconLockSet.sh"

#!/bin/bash

if grep -q "LockStatus=Locked" "/home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"; then
   echo "It is Locked...we will Unlock it"
   sudo chattr -i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*
   sed '/Icon=/ c\Icon=\/home\/xxx\/Linux_stuff\/Icons\/icon-unlock.png' < /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
   rm /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
   sed '/LockStatus=/ c\LockStatus=Unlocked' < /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
   rm /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
else
 if grep -q "LockStatus=Unlocked" "/home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"; then
    echo "It is UnLocked...we will Lock it"
    sed '/Icon=/ c\Icon=\/home\/xxx\/Linux_stuff\/Icons\/icon-lock.png' < /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
    rm /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
    sed '/LockStatus=/ c\LockStatus=Locked' < /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop > /home/xxx/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop
    rm /home/xxx/Desktop/tmp.desktop
    sudo chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*
 fi

fi

exit

...

The disadvantage of this approach is that chattr requires sudo. So this recipe fails for a user who is not in the sudoers list.

P.S.: I just realized that according to http://www.xfce.org/about/news/?post=1425081600 xfce4 version 4.12 has been released. I scanned this announcement for the keyword "icon", but the two hits did not claim that this error is corrected but rather that new features have been added. Is someone out there who might tell me if the root cause of the error has been recognized and fixed? (Perhaps it was not considered worth telling about the fixed error in the announcement which I mentioned.)

Last edited by passer-domesticus (2016-03-06 09:25:02)

passer-domesticus · 2016-03-05 22:08:03

seth wrote:

Hi!

You can omit the annoying password query for sudo, if you just make the directory read-only. So a more comfortable solution could be something like

#!/bin/bash

IconLockSet="$HOME/Desktop/IconLockSet.desktop"
if grep -q "LockStatus=Locked" $IconLockSet; then
  chmod 750 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop
  perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-lock\.png/icon-unlock.png/' $IconLockSet
  perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Unlocked/' $IconLockSet
else if grep -q "LockStatus=Unlocked" $IconLockSet; then
  perl -i -pe 's/^Icon=.*\Kicon-unlock\.png/icon-lock.png/' $IconLockSet
  perl -i -pe 's/^LockStatus=\K.*/Locked/' $IconLockSet
  chmod 550 $HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop
fi
fi
exit

...

seth,
I was glad to find a recipe which does not require to be a sudoer like the approach discussed above using sudo chattr...
So I implemented this one but I get a message

-i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN.

Unfortunately I can not program in perl. What's wrong here?

Photon · 2017-09-11 07:34:30

The bug report https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9192 linked somewhere in this thread is marked as solved, but for me the issue is still there on Xfce 4.12. Is anybody else affected? Maybe the bug report should be reopened?

ToZ · 2017-09-11 10:10:53

Photon wrote:

The bug report https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9192 linked somewhere in this thread is marked as solved, but for me the issue is still there on Xfce 4.12. Is anybody else affected? Maybe the bug report should be reopened?

Maybe this bug report is also relevant to your issue - it has not yet been resolved. Though, using the new 4.13 development release of xfdesktop, I don't see the icon re-arrangement issue any more. They tend to stay put.

Photon · 2017-09-11 13:47:19

Thanks, this seem to be my problem (though I didn't do such an extensive testing as many of the users who commented in the report)! Seems to be a tough one though...

m3n3chm0 · 2017-11-14 15:35:49

Photon wrote:

The bug report https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9192 linked somewhere in this thread is marked as solved, but for me the issue is still there on Xfce 4.12. Is anybody else affected? Maybe the bug report should be reopened?

Dear all,

I'm still having this issue on Xfce 4.12 and Xubuntu 16.04. Today I'll just upgrade to 17.10 so I hope in Xfce 4.14 > this problem is finally fixed smile

Last edited by m3n3chm0 (2017-11-16 15:36:31)

webmate · 2017-12-14 06:16:55

Hello, I've registered just to tell you that I have fixed the issue by simply switching on some default icons (Home and Trash) in "Desktop Settings" menu, under "Icons" tab, "Default Icons".

1421 · 2019-01-10 16:51:12

webmate wrote:

Hello, I've registered just to tell you that I have fixed the issue by simply switching on some default icons (Home and Trash) in "Desktop Settings" menu, under "Icons" tab, "Default Icons".

thanks turning those on actually worked

vogu66 · 2019-01-14 19:30:04

I'm running manjaro and recently switched from 4.14 to 4.19, and the problem of icons regularly (but not always) re-arranging seems to have disappeared. Or at least it has greatly decreased in frequency because I don't recall seeing it recently. However, not sure if there is a cause-effect relationship, it didn't really bother me so I didn't keep track.

xfce-user277577 · 2020-10-06 15:13:30

1.)
iam using Debian 10.6 buster 64bit and xfce version 4.12 on my old Lenovo Notebook, with dualcore processor. First i add in Session and Startup section, application and autostart tab, a new entry with the already known xfdesktop --reload command.

Name: Deskop icons restore
Descr: Reload xfce desktop
Command: bash -c 'xfdesktop --reload'

Secondary i changed the 'splashscreen / startscreen' to Balou, but without the above command at autostart, this is not successful. Try also to reduce your Desktop-Icon-Size. On Icon-Size >30px at my 1264x745 Screen, first icon-problems appear (without above command). Now iam using 47px icon size, without problems.

2.)
No Problems on my office pc Debian 9, 64bit, XFCE 4.12 with icon-size 37px at my 1265x965 Screen and 12 files in ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/. I dont remember, that i ever had problems with my office pc (desktop-icons). Slashscreen is balou here, too.

To do the check on an easy way, of course, i used a bash script (renew file and xfreload), to rearrange the desktop icons. Rough 177 reboots later, it was a good idea.

... works for me.

PS: tested with and without Trash-Icon on desktop

smallberries.john · 2020-11-02 00:23:52

This only happens when you have so many icons on your desktop that it overflows.

Make sure that all of your icons are visible by making them smaller. Right click on the desktop. Select Desktop Settings, then click Icons. There you can set the icon size. I'm using XFCE 4.14.

Ha! · 2022-12-20 23:58:35

This only happens when you have so many icons on your desktop that it overflows.

If you're talking about the "desktop icons rearrange on reboot" problem, that's wrong.
I have this problem now with only 9 icons on my desktop.

annoying_daniel · 2023-06-24 12:22:02

Hi @ToZ or others. This icon reshuffling problem is once again suddenly affecting me. I can't help but think a recent update like say "gtk-update-icon-cache" may be responsible. I also want to say it started happening a couple weeks ago along with subtle Pulseaudio icon changes in my panel. I can rule out multi-monitors.

Manjaro xfce, unstable branch. Any hints that are recent?

phylo · Yesterday 21:04:32

Some of this will probably sound like snake oil.
Relevant spec info: Mint Xfce 22.3 - dual monitors - 1920x1080 43 inch - 32Gb RAM, etc
What eventually worked for my setup - my experience:
0. Panel location & size: Horizontal - Bottom. Panel Preferences: Row size (pixels): 40
1. Desktop Settings >> Desktop >> Icons >> Icon Orientation: Bottom Right Horizontal
2. On boot and reboot icon rearranged - some: Bottom Right Horizontal - some: Top Left Vertical. ???
3. Similar to Marc73 (post #21) the Panel Row size affected icon alignment.
4. Increased Panel Row size from 40 to 41 and on boot and reboot icons remained all together aligned - not - Bottom Right Horizontal - but - Bottom Right Vertical - although - the icon settings was still set as: Bottom Right Horizontal. ?????
5. Well an improvement - Icons aligned and sequential, if not at the right location.
6. Note - if I changed Panel Preferences >> Automatically hide the panel: from 'Never' to 'Intelligently' or 'Always' the boot / reboot icon rearrangement returned.
7. *** Discovery *** : /home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop
8. In the desktop folder are these script files:

/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-3824x1064.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-3824x1022.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1904x1022.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen.latest.rc

9. WARNING: before considering any of the next steps it is imperative to create a recovery point in Timeshift. (...You have been warned) - or - a complete disk image clone on to another SSD.
10. Note: 1920x1080 - my monitors resolutions is missing.
12. This was pointed out to me by an AI agent which gave instructions to have Xfce create the required resolution file. This involved Terminal commands and logout / login. Edit: If I recall correctly - one gets lost in a maze of do this, do that - logout / login did not result in the creation of the file; a reboot or shut down / cold boot did.
13a. Consult an AI Agent for instruction how to accomplish this. As with coding assistance, It's a hit and miss with any particular AI agents - so I use as many as possible. In no preferential order: ChatGBPT, DeepSeek, Claude, Grok, Perplexity, etc., - where one fails, another succeeds.
13b. A problem with an AI agent is it will, far too often, overlook a simple GUI solution for the Terminal. These algos LOVE the Terminal with a veracious horny appetite and you can find yourself on a merry-go-round of endless Terminal failed solutions. The more an AI agent fails, the more veracious this mindless thing chases the skirt of terminal solutions. Stop - know when to cut the chase and change the approach - or - move on to another AI agent.
13C. While a capable MQL4 & 5 coder, the world of Linux Terminal in-depth commands remains a mystery - and AI agents can spit them out at a rate that appears beyond human capability. Point: I prefixed or stared each AI agent queries as such (whether it makes any difference - who the hell knows ?) >> Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce: blah ..blah...blah (Edit: In hindsight it would probably been more productive to have prefixed as such: Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce4 4.18 Display Server: X11)
13d. Display Server Wayland is the future and is purported to - now - have superb Nvidia driver support. Time to explore alternatives.
14. In this case I was using DeepSeek and managed to get the relevant file created - so now the file tree includes a 1920x1080 resolution .rc file: (in hindsight, with what followed, it may have been possible to just create this file in a text editor - should become clearer later on)

home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-3824x1064.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-3824x1022.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1920x1080.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1904x1022.rc
/home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen.latest.rc

15. Now the Icons aligned in accordance with the panel Preferences settings: Bottom Right Horizontal.
16. BUT - there was icon sequential alphabetical order issues.
17. If I right clicked the desktop >> Arrange desktop Icons, the icons would arrange in sequential alphabetical order.
18. On Boot / Reboot the icon alphabetical order was messed up.
19. To rectify I had to edit the >> /home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1920x1080.rc << file.
20. To unlock this file for editing consult any AI agent - a terminal command will be given. (do you have your restore point in Timeshift -or - disk image clone ?)
21. The file column numbering can be edited to custom order the icon sequential column (col) # position - the below should be self explanatory.

[xfdesktop-version-4.10.3+-rcfile_format]
4.10.3+=true

[/home/phylo/Desktop/A - CA.desktop]
row=7
col=13

[/home/phylo/Desktop/SierraChart_64 (C_SierraChart).desktop]
row=7
col=9

[/home/phylo/Desktop/A - UpDate.desktop]
row=7
col=14

[/home/phylo/Desktop/A - Min.desktop]
row=7
col=12

[/home/phylo/Desktop/A - RB.desktop]
row=7
col=10

[/home/phylo/Desktop/A - SD.desktop]
row=7
col=11

22: The alphabetical icon order - in my setup - with respect to Bottom Horizontal Right would be; F (9), E (10), D (11), C (12), B (13), A (14)
23. My custom arrangement EDIT is: F (9), E (10), D (11), B (12), A (13), C (14) -or - similar, can't remember precisely now - however, you get the idea !
24. I changed all file Property >> Permissions to 'Read only'. If the file is to be accessed for edit these Permissions will have to be changed to, 'Read & Write'. Edit: this may not be relevant - long story ..........

FINAL - re hot swap SSDs.
24. I have hot swap M.2 SSD arrangements.
25. If I hot swapped to another SSD and returned to the above discussion SSD on boot the desktop icon - though Bottom Horizontal Right aligned - would not be in my custom sequential order.
26. If I then rebooted or shutdown and cold booted the desktop icons would return to my custom sequential order.
27a. The hot swap solution: Replace all other resolutions *.rc files with the same script contents as the - /home/phylo/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1920x1080.rc
27b. I assume it would be ideal to delete all resolution *.rc files other than the 1930x1080 *.rc file. These files would all have to be unlocked for deletion. Something to be looked into in the future - at the time it was more convenient to execute 17a.

Note: re clause 6.- if I changed Panel Preferences - Automatically hide the panel: from 'Never' to 'Intelligently' or 'Always' the boot / reboot icon rearrangement returned.
This now functions flawlessly on all three settings: Never, Always and Intelligently.

RB = Reboot : SD = Shutdown : Min = Minimize All : CA = Close All : Update (when the update shield shows on the panel - update without opening update manager)

Last edited by phylo (Today 19:16:02)

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#26 2015-06-03 12:12:33

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#27 2015-06-07 16:39:55

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#28 2015-06-07 19:24:15

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#29 2015-06-07 20:10:43

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#30 2015-06-07 20:31:51

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#31 2015-09-10 09:19:36

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#32 2015-09-14 08:52:23

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#33 2015-09-15 04:31:27

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#34 2015-09-16 00:27:47

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#35 2016-02-11 10:04:48

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#36 2016-03-05 22:02:42

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#37 2016-03-05 22:08:03

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#38 2017-09-11 07:34:30

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#39 2017-09-11 10:10:53

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#40 2017-09-11 13:47:19

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#41 2017-11-14 15:35:49

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#42 2017-12-14 06:16:55

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#43 2019-01-10 16:51:12

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#44 2019-01-14 19:30:04

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#45 2020-10-06 15:13:30

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#46 2020-11-02 00:23:52

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#47 2022-12-20 23:58:35

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#48 2023-06-24 12:22:02

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

#49 Yesterday 21:04:32

Re: Desktop icons rearrange on reboot

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