Xfce Forum

guraknugen

Member

Registered: 2018-02-25

Posts: 4

Icons on the desktop

Hi!

I run XFCE in Manjaro and a few days ago I ran the latest updates. Among all those updates, there were some XFCE ones (unfortunately I didn't save that information anywhere, I didn't think I would need to…).

I restarted my computer (since there also was a kernel update) and when I logged in to XFCE all my icons on the desktop were moved to my left screen and I can no longer have icons on both screens. I can move my icons within the same screen, but next time I log in they are all lined up to the left of the screen.

Before update:
All my desktop icons were placed exactly where I want them. Some in the left screen, some on the right screen. I placed them in groups making it easy to find them.

After update:
My desktop backgrounds were replaced with the XFCE default one (easy to change back though, and I did).
All icons were lined up vertically on the left screen. if I try to drag and drop an icon to the right screen, it's immediately pulled back to the left screen. If I move an icon within the left screen, it stays there, but if I logout and back in, it's ”reordered” vertically on the left screen.

Is this a new XFCE ”feature”? If it is, it's really annoying. Is there a workaround, perhaps? other than switching to another desktop, that is. I kind of came to like XFCE (at least until a few days ago…).

$ LC_ALL=C xfdesktop --version
This is xfdesktop version 4.13.3, running on Xfce 4.12.
Built with GTK+ 3.24.5, linked with GTK+ 3.24.5.
Build options:
    Desktop Menu:        enabled
    Desktop Icons:       enabled
    Desktop File Icons:  enabled
$

I don't know if it matters in this case, but I use Compiz. Is it possible that Compiz somehow interferes with XFCE making strange things like this happen?

$ compiz --version
Compiz 0.9.13.1
$ 

My GNU/Linux-distribution:

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=ManjaroLinux
DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.0.4
DISTRIB_CODENAME=Illyria
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Manjaro Linux"
johnny $

My Linux version:

johnny $ cat /proc/version 
Linux version 4.14.105-1-MANJARO (builduser@development) (gcc version 8.2.1 20181127 (GCC)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 6 22:46:52 UTC 2019
johnny $

And finally I use two screens with different resolutions. The left screen is 1680×1050 and the right one is 1920×1080.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,006

Re: Icons on the desktop

I've finally had an opportunity to test with a second monitor and can confirm what you are seeing. One of the enhancements in the last version of xfdesktop was the addition of an icon orientation option (Settings Manager > Desktop > Icons) with this commit.

Running a git bisect confirms that this is the issue.

I have created the following bug report.

Edit: That commit was related to a series of changes that enabled the forcing of icons to a specific screen. There is another option in Settings Manager, "Show icons in primary display", that was intended to control this. Perhaps there is a bug in there. Let's see what Simon says.

Last edited by ToZ (2019-03-14 21:34:28)

---

Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

guraknugen

Member

Registered: 2018-02-25

Posts: 4

Re: Icons on the desktop

Thank you for replying and reporting, it's greatly appreciated. I'm excited to follow this.