nautilus show_desktop (icons / right click) no longer function

[Matt]

Binary package hint: firefox

basicaly heres my problem i just upgraded my karmic to lucid and now i dont have any icons on my desktop or any right click i belive is a problem with nautilus because i can get the icons back and right click by using sudo nautilus & however this does not make it permanent i can not figure out how to fix this also i do have a picture on my desk top but that is it untill i run sudo nautilus & please help me fix this because i am sure others are having this same issue

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun May 2 14:53:56 2010
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
 firefox-gnome-support 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
 firefox-branding 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Switching to Nautilus since this isn't a bug in Firefox.

[Eloquent Mess (eloquentmess)]

This affects me as well. More information:

OS: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I installed 10.04 from the minimal ISO, as the computer couldn't handle the larger ISOs (wonky drives). After the root installation was complete, I rebooted into the system. Did a quick apt-get install ubuntu-desktop, then rebooted into the system after the install was complete. Logged in, everything worked normal. Added three new users to the system. Upon reboot, noticed that right-click on desktop no longer works. Apparently, the gconf setting (apps > nautilus > preferences > show_desktop) were not being recalled. The setting was set to "true," as it was supposed to be. Upon setting to "false" then back to "true," the problem was fixed. However, after logging out then back in again, the problem returned.

It seems the problem is with nautilus / gconf not reading the configuration file, or at the very least, missing the show_desktop variable.

Attempted creating a new user, problem still existed in all users.

No clue where to go from here.

[Tom Inglis (tominglis)]

I am also having this problem in Ubuntu 10.04 AMD64.

I was editing the main menu using alacarte, and when I restarted the icons, selection and right click functionality have disappeared from the desktop. If I run "nautilus" these return, but disappear again on reboot. As a workaround I've added nautilus to the startup applications.

It would be great to get this fixed without a clean install!

[Matt (supermatt1000)]

i believe i have made a break through in this i have made a new user on my computer and the desktop is 100% fine so from this i have found out that the problem is directly related to that user on my computer dont no where to go from here

[Tom Inglis (tominglis)]

PS - Mine was a clean install of the final version of Ubuntu 10.04, not an upgrade or a minimal install and then ++ ubuntu-desktop.

[Tom Inglis (tominglis)]

PPS - I can confirm Eloquent's comment. The first time I toggle the gconf show_desktop setting off then on again, this functionality returns. Subsequent repetitions of this make no difference, and only actually loading nautilus from the terminal bring the desktop back.

[Matt (supermatt1000)]

i believe this bug is related to this one because for me they accured around the same time as each other https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adobe-flashplugin/+bug/578166

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. A new version of Nautilus is available on Maverick and we are wondering if this bug is still an issue for you with that version? Could you please test and comment back? Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for nautilus (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]