Icons moved on desktop after update

After the last live update all the icons on my Acer Aspire One desktop moved to an other place (the first place is empty now) I can't put them back to the original place anymore. What can I do to fix this again?

 

i have the same problem!
has someone a solution for this problem?

 

No... but me too. I suspect it was the latest "Patch for xfdesktop (190004)" which Linpus has marked as Critical so can't be removed. I am not impressed! It has also messed up my custom desktop which I now need to re-do.

 

I had this same issue, and at first, suspected that the issues were because I had made multiple software modifications to the machine. After totally wiping the hard drive using the recover CD, I logged on and selected "Live Update". After downloading the same patch as I had earlier today, the same issues appeared. I would advise not allowing this update until the issues with it can be sorted out.

 

It is adviseable to always make a backup before running updates if you have been using hacks and mods, because they do get overwritten...

Here is a working copy of the file that got modified by the xfdesktop update (it may have a custom icon or two of mine in there that i forgot to clear out)

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xfdesktop>
	<upperbutton>/usr/share/desktop-directories/upperbutton.desktop</upperbutton>
        <setting exec="">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Settings.directory</setting>
        <help exec="">/usr/share/desktop-directories/help.directory</help>
<group>
       <id>1</id>
       <sequence>0</sequence>
       
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/home-blue-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Connect.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/blue-bk.png</background_picture>
       <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-1-10">/usr/share/applications/blue-more.desktop</app>
</group>
  <group>
       <id>2</id>
       <sequence>1</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/home-orange-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Works.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/orange-bk.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-1-10">/usr/share/applications/orange-more.desktop</app>
 </group> 
  <group>
       <id>3</id>
       <sequence>2</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/home-yellow-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Fun.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-1-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-more.desktop</app>
        
</group>  

 <group>
	 <id>4</id>
	 <sequence>3</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/home-green-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Files.directory</directory_file>
	 <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/green-bk.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-1-10">/usr/share/applications/green-more.desktop</app>
 </group> 
<group>
       <id>5</id>
       <sequence>4</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/blue-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Connect.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/blue-bk-large.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/blue-back.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="5" acs="email">/usr/share/applications/AME.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="1" acs="im">/usr/share/applications/acerim.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/linpus-web.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/webmail.desktop</app>
   	 <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/googlemap.desktop</app>



	 <app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/acerrss.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/wikipedia.desktop</app>
</group>
  <group>
       <id>6</id>
       <sequence>5</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/orange-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Works.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/orange-bk-large.png</background_picture>
         
        <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/orange-back.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-writer.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-calc.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-impress.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/acercalendar.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/acercontact.desktop</app>
	 <!--app icon="burning.png" name="CD/DVD Burning" sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/gnome-gcalctool.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="4">/opt/Adobe/Reader8/Resource/Support/AdobeReader.desktop</app>-->
	 <app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/galculator.desktop</app>			 
	 			 
				     
	<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/xpad.desktop</app>			 
</group>
  <group>
       <id>7</id>
       <sequence>6</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Fun.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-large.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-back.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/pcmmvp.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/pcmphoto.desktop</app>
         
	 <dir sequence="0" dir_id="1">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Games.directory</dir>
	 <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/ucview.desktop</app>
         
         <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/kolourpaint.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop</app>
<!--         <app icon="internetradio.png" name="Internet Radio" sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/realplay.desktop</app>
         <app icon="picture.png" sequence="8">/usr/share/applications/gthumb.desktop</app>-->
</group>

 <group>
	 <id>8</id>
	 <sequence>7</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/green-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Files.directory</directory_file>
	 <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/green-bk-large.png</background_picture>
	 
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/green-back.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/Document.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/Picture.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/Music.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/Video.desktop</app>
	 <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/Download.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/Thunar.desktop</app>			 
 </group> 
 
<group>
    <id>9</id>
    <sequence>8</sequence>
    <directory_file exec="" icon="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/gray-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Settings.directory</directory_file>
    <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/gray-bk-large.png</background_picture>
    <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/settings-back.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/gsynaptics.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/system-config-date.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/linpus-printconf-gui.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/xfce-display-settings.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/sysinfo.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="8">/usr/share/applications/onlineupdate.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="9">/usr/share/applications/redhat-userpasswd.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="10">/usr/share/applications/keyboard_layout.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/networkcenter.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/audio.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/powercenter.desktop</app>
    <app sequence="11">/usr/share/applications/linpus-scim-setup.desktop</app>
  </group>
<dir id="1" parent_dir_id="0">
	<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/FunGames.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-large-games.png</background_picture>

         <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-1-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-back.desktop</app>

         <app sequence="9">/usr/share/applications/ltris.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/linpus-frozen-bubble.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/tuxpuck.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/llk_linux.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/supertux.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/bubbleshooter.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/ButterFlight.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/snooker.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/checkers.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/mahjong.desktop</app>
	<app sequence="8">/usr/share/applications/volleyballey.desktop</app>
</dir>
</xfdesktop>

edit by opening up

/home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml, then reboot.

You don't have to edit the file in /etc/ as this is the one that often gets overwritten by updates.

 

As usual, a comprehensive and fully-considered reply Annafil! Luckily the extent of my customisation on the desktop is wallpaper, search bar and tool bar files so it won't take long to fix. If/when my wife lets me back on her AA1. I want my own one! :cry:

 

stuartmitch: aw shucks

I had the problem too and what happened was that numbering was just messed up a little bit,

 

For me this was a patch of death. After installing it yesterday late night my desktop (only slightly modified) did not come up again. It left me with a black X screen and a mouse pointer. No action possible. I tried to escape from X Server, tried to boot into single user or emergency mode, but no way. Finally I reinstalled my system from recovery CD. The patch was installed again and I experienced the icon move discussed here.
My Aspire One has been working nicely until yesterday night. I am using it for everything, not just surfing the web. So, this was very inconvenient. Right now I started to reconstruct everything.

 

sounds pretty nasty, but probably the fault of a mod more than the fault of the update (since it didn't trigger the problem with other aaos). its preventable though - look in the howto section for my backup tips, theres a good program you can use to do a full system backup, and the next time you find yourself in a sticky spot you can easily recover without having to redo all your changes. it's always good to make a backup before any major system changes on any OS on any computer

 

yeah i do believe so as well anna but what mods can trigger this problem? can a mod as simple as adding the vlc icon on the acer desktop achieve this? thanks.

 

probably not, unless you accidentally typed in a letter than a newer version of the program doesn't recognize, or triggers a bug of some sort. I wish I knew what files each update changes, but they don't tell us that. it could have easily not been your fault entirely.

if you're interesting in getting to the bottom of the problem its a bit hard if you've already reinstalled, but if you think back to the modifications you've done you may get somewhere. maybe it was a recent mod that hasn't taken effect yet because you didn't reboot between doing that modification and installing the update?

 

The xfdesktop patch is unlikely to have caused my problem. I reproduced it, and I am quite sure, the problem was caused by using EZMove Utiliy on my complete home directory (which I did immediately before patch was installed). I had SD card reformatted to ext2 FS and wanted to put my complete homedir there. Previously (with FAT FS on SD card) it was not possible to run an apache httpd with httpdir symlinked to my homedir, due to limitations of Fat32 FS and posix overlay sandwich (/mnt/home). So I had to keep important user stuff on the internal SSD. This problem could be resolved by reformatting SD card as indicated (and changing some permissions on mountpoint and initial dirs on it).

Ok, so I moved my stuff to the SD card by EZMove utility. This time, I did not move several selected subdirs, but I just moved the complete home dir.
It appeared to work, and also did not move any .* files, but somehow it looks like some important files where moved to SD card, that are needed to start the desktop. I strongly suspect that another consequence of this was an inactive shutdown button (red button at lower right location on screen to shutdown system). Klicking this button did no longer show any reaction when homedir was moved completely to SD card.

I have now totally changed the layout of my homedir, making backup issues easier for me and keeping separate my working stuff from config stuff as far as possible. Right now I am up again with all Linpus patches and all my files on SD card as desired. I will now rebuild my desktop config as indicated by Annafil, inserting my individual desktop icons for some apps. Also I have installed the FWbackup and will spend some time configuring it accordingly. This tool looks useful. I did my rsync backups manually up to now, so luckywise I had my homedir backuped at least...

So, if there is any conclusion at all, be careful when using EZmove on complete homedir (uppermost checkbox). I did not find anything in this forum covering this way of using EZmove, but I may very well have dismissed it.
Thanks for all information and sorry for the mess...
Phil

 

Clicky

 

Thanks Annafil for the file, every icon is on his place back again. It was very easy to copy and past it.

 

Rob, have you gone back to the original machine state (i.e. without the update) to get your icons back? There have been other reports of this icon misplacement bug (EDIT: just found another!) in the forum (I was going to ask the mods to do some thread merging actually).

There maybe more people affected. Has anyone done this update *without* messing things up? :cry:

 

I don't imagine this will help but thought I would post anyway. I have just replaced my AAO which I bought on 31st August because it wouldn't power on for any longer than 1min and 10 seconds.

The new one, when straight out of the box obviously requires updates (MSN wouldn't let me log in - needs an update to make it work apparently). When I updated the Acer, the problems occurred.

Would love to find out if there are any resolutions to this cos I'm well miffed with the current layout - especially as I bought 2 of these netbooks originally and our Maud's is still working! Aaghhh!!

:mrgreen:

 

flatboarder: ahhhhh I remember warning people about that utility on a couple of occasions. It's not actually irreversible damage - just so you know the problem is a logical one in the app - EzMove moves dot files (.somethings) back and forth along with other files even though it's not supposed to. these .dot files are responsible for a lot of big stuff, like you being able to login and what you see in your terminal promt, some stuff gets run at login that sort of thing.

if I were a mod I'd sticky this by now.

 

IMHO this does help. It tells us that the problem isn't caused by mods but that it affects a clean install. It's over to Linpus for resolution.

Happy AA1ing.

 

I'm still not getting mine right? I tried annafil's group-app.xml but still I got gaps. What am I doing wrong?

 

In addition to my first post, I nicked the group-app.xml off our Maud's working Aspire (she's been given instructions to stay the hell away from LiveUpdate) and tried it on mine. Nothing. Nada. No change. I know less than sod all about Linux (Linpus in this case) but I don't reckon it's the group-app file that's screwed up. Especially as I compared our running files line for line and they were the same. :?