No Desktop Icons [SOLVED]

[PaulW]

LinuxMint 0.3.0-2-amd64
MATE 1.2.0-1

When I boot into Linux using the MATE desktop, initially, none of my icons are on the desktop. If I click Menu / Home Folder, a Caja window appears with my home folder. At the same time, all my desktop icons appear. Seems like the desktop icons should be visible from the start. Is this a "feature" of MATE or is there a setting that I may have overlooked?

Thanks for the help.

[äxl]

Do you have Compiz installed and running?

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pgrep compiz

Also please give the output of:

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mateconftool-2 -g /apps/caja/preferences/show_desktop

[PaulW]

Thanks, äxl, for your response. Here's the output as you requested:

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paul@paul-nb:~$ pgrep compiz
paul@paul-nb:~$ mateconftool-2 -g /apps/caja/preferences/show_desktop
true

Shall I download and install compiz?

[äxl]

No. I just asked because there were obviously unrelated issues with Compiz and MATE.
I also experience a strange behaviour with Caja and the desktop (which shoud be managed by Marco).
What's the output of:

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mateconftool-2 -a /desktop/mate/session/required_components
mateconftool-2 -g /apps/marco/general/compositing_manager

Oops ...
I've got the same problem. But since I have a Caja as browser added to Startup Applications I didn't realize it till now.
The line is

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caja --no-desktop --browser computer:///

But when run from terminal it doesn't draw the desktop ... Seems it uses it for both (desktop and browser) when in Startup Applications ...

[PaulW]

Here's the output you requested:

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paul@paul-nb:~$ mateconftool-2 -a /desktop/mate/session/required_components
 windowmanager = marco
 panel = mate-panel
 filemanager = caja
paul@paul-nb:~$ mateconftool-2 -g /apps/marco/general/compositing_manager
false


BTW, when I include the following in my Startup Applications

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caja --no-desktop --browser computer:///

the browser displays and the icons begin to appear, then, immediately, the browser closes and the icons disappear.

[äxl]

Curious. Could you please just add caja as Startup Application?
For me this setup isn't ideal either. As soon as I minimize the autostarted browser it dies. But it redraws immediatley.

[PaulW]

As suggested, I added "caja" to Startup Applications. The results are interesting . . .

When starting from a re-boot: The desktop icons start to display and then immediately, disappear. No caja browser opens.
When starting from Ctrl-Alt-Backspace: The desktop icons display OK; however, if i move the mouse to any icon (without clicking), all the icons disappear.

Are we getting any closer?

[äxl]

More like farther away. Logout should suffice to test the behaviour (Alt+F2 then r don't work for me ...).
Other than that I don't know what else to try. Installing Compiz would only lead to compatibality problems with MATE.
For analysis you could start caja from terminal. Also try the --sync option and look into .xsession-errors when it crashes.

[PaulW]

Not really a solution, but I installed Linux Mint Debian (MATE/Cinnamon) 64-bit from 201204 spin and the MATE desktop icons are displaying just fine. Previous install was from 201109. Don't know what is different behind the scenes, but all is OK now.

[dentex]

Hi,
I found this thread searching for a solution to the same problem.
In my case, the problem shows when running conky.
Since I'm switching from cinnamon to mate, something was set differently "behind the scenes", as you said.

I found that in .concyrc this just works:

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own_window yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager