After the latest update, completely blank desktop

[igor83]

The latest update to Linux Mint Nadia completely whacked my desktop. Luckily I have Firefox set to auto-load. All my icons are gone--completely black screen.

[igor83]

Ok, after poking around the internet, I found a simple workaround to this, but it wasn't elegant.

Open a terminal via super-T or whichever key combination your system uses and enter the following commands:

Code: Select all

cd ~
mv .kde .kde.old


Restart the computer. The default KDE desktop activates. Your shortcuts remain, but some desktop customizations may be lost. At least I have a desktop now. I'm going to leave it alone and forget about customization until the next release of LM.

[firefighter]

This is not only a kde issue. I had the same thing happen in Mate. Anyone for solving this? Lost desktop icons, and all ability to change or do desktop functions. Also noticed that when I open a program (example: Thunderbird), the window boundaries top and bottom are missing. Can't minimize or close with icons on the right; they are not there. Have to close under the file button on the left.

[Armstrong]

It happened to me after I upgraded. I corrected it by going to System Settings/Workspace Appearance and Behavior/Workspace Appearance/Desktop Theme. Change the theme from Oxygen to Air (put your cursor over Air, click, then go to the bottom of the page a click Apply), and everything should return. It did for me. I hope this solves your problem. (I should also add that I have no idea how Oxygen became the selected theme, and, after it was changed, that it reverted to such, unprompted, a little while later. Just another ghost in the machine, I suppose.)
Slainte,
Hunter

[igor83]

It happened to me after I upgraded. I corrected it by going to System Settings/Workspace Appearance and Behavior/Workspace Appearance/Desktop Theme. Change the theme from Oxygen to Air (put your cursor over Air, click, then go to the bottom of the page a click Apply), and everything should return. It did for me. I hope this solves your problem. (I should also add that I have no idea how Oxygen became the selected theme, and, after it was changed, that it reverted to such, unprompted, a little while later. Just another ghost in the machine, I suppose.)
Slainte,
Hunter

Lawsamercy. Well, I'm going to turn off the update manager for good. I think that will put some cement in the operating system. I don't need to boot up to a blank screen. And I don't really see what these updates do for me besides take up time.

I thought it was a KDE issue based on all the buzz going on in the Opensuse, Gentoo and, well, all the distro forums about blank screen in KDE.

[firefighter]

Well, my system appears to be borked! The problem is, I don't quite know how to solve it. I have tried to change the themes and that didn't work. It is totally unusable as is. Can't resize, close windows, desktop icons are gone, just kind of borked!

[igor83]

Well, my system appears to be borked! The problem is, I don't quite know how to solve it. I have tried to change the themes and that didn't work. It is totally unusable as is. Can't resize, close windows, desktop icons are gone, just kind of borked!

I don't have a Mate system anymore, so can't be of much help. You might check whether there's a .mate dir in Home, and rename it, if so. That's about the same thing that I did in KDE. Wish somebody had beta-tested that bad boy before it got released to update manager.