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My desktop icons: trash & mounted drives, disappear when I double-click a desktop URL-link. Rebooting restores them. What's happening?

Searching the Internet did not bring joy.

Details:
I read somewhere that dragging a URL from a browser to the desktop would create a link. I tried it. It does. But when I double-click the link, the link does not open in my (running) browser, and all of the desktop icons disappear. Right-clicking the desktop stops working also.

Seems like a bug. Is it? Or is it user-stupidity? Help, please.

Kind Regards -- Mark.

markfilipak wrote: ⤴Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:51 pm But when I double-click the link, the link does not open in my (running) browser

... and your running browser is ?

URLs work fine in Firefox 58.0.2 if it is the default browser.

kyphi wrote: ⤴Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:21 pm... and your running browser is ?

Firefox 58.0.2 (64-bit).

...About 20 minutes later: Though the desktop picture didn't change, I suspected that something may have been changing the workspace, so I disabled workspaces, rebooted, and reran the test. I did that several times. The symptoms remained the same. I also confirmed that links in emails worked as expected, even if the browser was not running. So the problem is hard & repeatable.

...I just double-clicked on the desktop link again to confirm that right-click on the desktop (i.e., context menu) doesn't work, and it doesn't work. The icons disappear and the desktop context menu disappears. Whatever the problem is, it's making the desktop numb.

...I just disabled the Show Desktop applet in Panel & reran the test. I still have the problem, so I can eliminate the applet. I'm out of ideas.

If it was just a case of the browser not receiving the link, I'd suspect the browser, but the icons disappearing and the desktop context menu malfunctioning? ...

PS: During my web searches, I found a lot of posts regarding desktop icons disappearing but I couldn't find a pattern to them.

Try a right click on the panel, select "troubleshoot" and opt for "Restore all settings to default".

You might also temporarily disable Add-ons and Extensions in Firefox.

kyphi wrote: ⤴Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:33 pm Try a right click on the panel, select "troubleshoot" and opt for "Restore all settings to default".

You might also temporarily disable Add-ons and Extensions in Firefox.

Before I try the desktop link, there is no "troubleshoot" in the context menu. After I try the desktop link and the desktop icons have disappeared, there is no context menu.

...Later update: I tried running the browser in safe mode. No change. Even without the browser running at all, double-clicking the desktop link causes the desktop icons to disappear and the context menu to disappear.

PS: Oh, by the way, I get no messages in '~/xsession-errors' related to this problem.

One more thing. In 'System Settings'>'Desktop', 'Show desktop icons on all monitors' & 'Allow icons from missing monitors to be displayed on the existing ones' are both selected. The thing that, I believe, is most revealing is that the right-click context menu disappears when the desktop link is clicked.

What do you see if you first right-click it and open it with a text editor? It may not be URL a link at all. It may be trying to execute code instead and, as this isn't expected or supported in this way, causes the crash.

Does restarting Cinnamon help? cinnamon --replace in Terminal.

I have found that dragging and dropping (using SHIFT or CTRL) creates a copy of the embedded code in the link rather than its image or the link itself. Simply dragging and dropping a link seems to do the same thing.

Only way AFAIK is to right-click and copy the URL, then use that to create your link.

BG405 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:08 pm What do you see if you first right-click it and open it with a text editor? It may not be URL...

Good idea, but... Looking at this file contents was the 1st thing I did after creating it. You see, I want to manually duplicate these file formats elsewhere. But it was a good idea. Good thinking.

Does restarting Cinnamon help? cinnamon --replace in Terminal.

I have found that dragging and dropping (using SHIFT or CTRL) creates a copy of the embedded code in the link rather than its image or the link itself. Simply dragging and dropping a link seems to do the same thing.

Only way AFAIK is to right-click and copy the URL, then use that to create your link.

I used drag-n-drop, but the result is the same.

I've restarted Cinnamon many times.

Linux Mint 19.1 Mate: What worked for me after much suffering was:
Open control center.
Look and Feel Group
Desktop settings on left
Window manager Marco (somewhere I changed this and nothing worked)

Mate Tweaks:
click Desktop Icons or unclick and click again.
Open the Caja file manager and possibly the Desktop folder. The icons reappeared.

The settings did not hold between logins.
I opened the Caja and then unclicked and clicked the Mate Tweaks Desktop Icons

Some file is not being written to, in order to hold the setting. Next time I see the warnings I have to pay attention and write it down. If I start things at the terminal there are plenty of messages which I don't usually pay attention to. Hope this helps someone.

Linux Mint 19.1 Mate: What worked for me after much suffering was:
Mate Menu

Systemtools (Systemwerkzeuge)
Desktop Settings (Schreibtischeinstellungen)
Window (Fenster/Fensterverwaltung)

I had


and changed it to


and that did the trick after reboot. Thanks for the hint!