about symbolic links on Desktop

[Andrew Conkling]

On 6/1/06, nusret <nbalci_l at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Andrew Conkling <andrew.conkling at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 6/1/06, nusret <nbalci_l at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > 1) When i create a symbolic link on desktop from a
> > > terminal, say
> > >
> > > ln -s /etc etc_dir_pointer
> > >
> > > a little icon shows up. However, when I
> > right-click on
> > > the icon and select "Properties", all the icons
> > > disappear and as i don't know how to fix it, i
> > need to
> > > logout and login again to bring back any icon on
> > the
> > > desktop. Any suggestions?
> >
> > I'd be interested to see if xfdesktop is crashing.
> > You could check to
> > see if it's running in the System Monitor (Menu >
> > System > System
> > Monitor, IIRC).  If so, running it again (Alt+F2
> > will give you the Run
> > dialog) would most likely give you your icons back.
> >
> > That way, at least you may not have to log out each
> > time....
>
>
> Exactly as you suspected, xfdesktop was not running!
> And again exactly as you pointed out, Alt+F2 trick
> worked. Thank you!

Can you get a backtrace on xfdesktop using gdb?  This sounds
particularly bugworthy.  (Maybe Brian could shed some light?)

> > > 2) When I open the menu editor, it creates an
> > empty
> > > xml file in my .config directory and the whole
> > menu
> > > disappears! Even if it asks me to save changes, it
> > > saves nothing but an empty xml file. It is
> > seriously
> > > broken in my system. I can bring back my menu only
> > if
> > > I delete the menu.xml file. Also, when I try to
> > run
> > > the xfce4-menueditor from console, it segfaults. I
> > > don't know if this is a problem with xubuntu
> > > distributed version, or with XFCE 4.4 Beta1.
> >
> > Ubuntu isn't just running the beta; they have a
> > patched-up version
> > that is generally in sync (very loosely) with the
> > SVN tree.  The only
> > thing I can think to try here is to test it with a
> > new user?
>
> I don't see what difference should it make to test
> with a new user, so I skip this one :). I also like my
> current user :).

Well, you could 'mv ~/.config/xfce4 ~/.config/xfce-backup' or
something and then test.  I've had a lot of trouble with the menu
editor myself in SVN, so I don't expect it would help much, but
testing with a fresh configuration will ensure that you're not seeing
any corrupted menu files, etc.

> > > 3) When I right-click on the desktop, I don't get
> > an
> > > option to create an icon on the desktop. I get
> > this
> > > option when i right click on an already existing
> > > launcher! I really don't like the design of the
> > > context  menu that you get when right-click on the
> > > desktop.
> > <SNIP>
> >
> > This is by design, and the right-click menu is one
> > of the best things
> > about xfdesktop.
>
> To have a right_click menu is, of course, a very goo
> thing. Problem is: it's just a copy of system menu.
> This is just duplication and you have to do roundabout
> things to get the needed basic functionality. For
> example, there are no copy/cut/paste, create, etc.
> menu items on this menu. When I need these (which i do
> very often), I have to open a Thunar window (from
> system menu :)), go to the Desktop folder there, and
> right click within Thunar. It's much less fancier, but
> functionally better designed context menu. you may not
> agree, but I'm pretty sure you see my point.

I do see your point.  Xfdesktop isn't (yet?) suited well for those
kinds of actions on the desktop.  I'm not sure how I feel about the
necessity (since, as you say, you can manage your files in a file
manager :) but maybe Brian has some ideas or opinions.  No wait... he
definitely has some opinions. :P

> Now, I see people prefer different approaches. As I
> said, *I* don't like the current one (i guess it's
> just like the one in KDE, right?--I am not sure
> though), so I wanted to know if it's possible to
> modify.

Indeed, and this is what I've done since 4.2.  I like to have the menu
plugin on my panel with the full menu (i.e. what you get with Ubuntu),
and I like to make a short right-click menu with my most-used apps for
the desktop.  Let me know if such a configuration interests you and I
can post some details on how to do that.

> Thank you for your willingness to help!

Absolutely!  We all learn somewhere, and this mailing list taught me
most of the stuff I've just said. :P

Cheers,
Andrew