Why did my desktop disappear?

[alanstanley]

A strange thing happened to my computer today- on getting home from work I discover my wife perplexed as the computer was completely unresponsive. There was my background image, tool panel in its usual place but with no icons or menu, and the desktop itself was completely empty apart from a couple of screenlets - which were not only still there but also still functioning. Also it wouldn't turn off with the power button, not even with the Alt+printsceen REISUB trick. Eventually and to my relief I got it all going again buy unplugging at the mains and restarting - 2 times. I was worried for a while though. Anybody know what might have happened?

[Acid_1]

when you turned it on, when it froze, did it boot like that or did it work for a bit and then froze? if it worked for a bit, what program(s) were you using?

[alanstanley]

It seems that it booted into the desktop-less state.

[Acid_1]

Did you log in using a terminal, from the sessions list?

[alanstanley]

sorry for delay in replying... I have automatic login configured. This has become something which happens on a semi-regular basis, however I find that a forced shut down followed by a restart always returns the desktop as normal. It is a little bit worrying though.

[Acid_1]

pondering this for a moment, i have realized, that this too happened to me never fear! i am hear anyhow, what i did was i waited for 10-20 minutes and it unfroze, but when i reinstalled a week later, it never did it again.

[alanstanley]

Can't blame the wife for this one!
It is still happening every now and again, but as long as powering off and restarting fixes it I shan't worry too much.

[daka]

Me too!!

I also have a numnber of other buggy interferences. Fortunately they are all minor ewnough to not require a re-install. I do find this particular most recent version "Elyssa" more problematic than all the others.

daka

[Acid_1]

hmmm. Forgot about this thread. And I spelt here wrong (hear ) Anyhow, with all the patches, this Mint is way more stable than 4. (Like, a bajillion)

[Acid_1]

I don't think it's a nautilus issue. That is just the WM. Gnome takes care of the toolbars, and all the other things.

[rbloch66]

I had my desktop freeze, and my icons disappeared.
However, my panel remained.

Following a previous suggestion, I did start nautilus from terminal, and it corrected the issue.

Thanks for the posts!!