[DESKTOP] Desktop Icons No Longer Work

[Neoneuro]

Hi All,

I recently ran into some strange behavior with my KDE desktop. My shortcut icons no longer work. Instead of opening the desired application, they spin for a couple of seconds and then nothing. I looked at the properties for a few of them and the Open With entry is set to my BlueFish editor (see screenshot), which doesn't make sense. The application tabs seem normal. The programs will run normally from the Launcher, just not from any shortcuts. It's a system-wide issue because it is the same for all users. I was hoping the update to 24.04 would fix it, so I ran that last night. No luck.

Before I blow the system away and do a clean install, I thought I would give the forums a try to see if someone had any idea what happened and how to fix it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[jlittle]

... I looked at the properties for a few of them and the Open With entry is set to my BlueFish editor (see screenshot), which doesn't make sense.

I think that is what is expected; the "open with" applies to the .desktop file. Mine show as "Open with: GVim"; gvim is my text editor.

If you create a new desktop icon from the menu does it work i?

Can you share the contents of one of the .desktop files for an icon that doesn't work? It would be the file specified on the general tab of the properties; for example, I have icon called "blue", and the properties says "blue (1)", location "/home/john/.local/share/plasma_icons" and the .desktop file is '/home/john/.local/share/plasma_icons/blue (1).desktop'.

[Neoneuro]

I think that is what is expected; the "open with" applies to the .desktop file. Mine show as "Open with: GVim"; gvim is my text editor.

If you create a new desktop icon from the menu does it work i?[/CONSOLE].

Thanks for the response. No, they don't work. I will get a slight flicker of sorts that hints something might happen, but then nothing. Every desktop icon does this without exception.

Can you share the contents of one of the .desktop files for an icon that doesn't work? It would be the file specified on the general tab of the properties; for example, I have icon called "blue", and the properties says "blue (1)", location "/home/john/.local/share/plasma_icons" and the .desktop file is '/home/john/.local/share/plasma_icons/blue (1).desktop'.

I included one in my original post, but here is another one. Another thing that I just noticed is that all of these icons have a link icon in the lower right corner. I assume it's a link because it looks like a couple of pieces of chain. That wasn't there before. Any help or advice you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Neoneuro]

Sorry, I just realized that I misunderstood your request. I thought I would try clicking the little arrow on the right of the "Points to:" entry to find the file, but I got this:

I tried it with a couple more and got the same error. Looking for the directory it's trying to find, I can confirm that it doesn't exist. Under ~/Desktop, th ere is no usr subdirectory. I don't remember there ever being such a directory. There is a directory called /use/share with a bunch of .desktop files. Is this where it should be pointing?

[jlittle]

When I asked for the contents, I meant the text in the text file. One of mine, blue.desktop, looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=
Comment=
Exec=term blue -geometry 576x1126+2560+200
GenericName[en_GB]=
GenericName=
Icon=/home/john/bin/blue-term-z.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=blue
Name=blue
NoDisplay=false
Path=/home/john
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=​

Now there is something that confuses me a lot... it's like there are two "desktops", the plasma desktop, which is really what X11 calls the root window, and the Desktop folder. The plasma desktop can be configured to show the Desktop folder, but does not have to be, and I don't, but it seems you do.

The Desktop folder typically has links to .desktop files somewhere else. They show in italics in dolphin. I've no idea how you got the "points to" like that; it should be /usr/share/applications/audacity.desktop. You could edit the link to point to the right place.

Generally speaking, elements of KDE (and other DEs) as distributed are in /usr/share, and if a user customizes them they are copied to ~/.local/share, so "/home/jim/.local" replaces "/usr".

[Neoneuro]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I pretty much threw my hands up with this and resigned myself to a full reinstall. In preparation for that I downloaded a fresh copy of Debian 12.5 and installed it on an old laptop choosing KDE for the desktop instead of Gnome. I did a scorched earth install. Wiped everything out.

The VERY first thing I did once the install was complete was to create a desktop icon for a program. To do this I went to the Launcher, picked a program at random, in this case it was Kaffeine, right-clicked and chose Add to Desktop. It created the icon but had the little link symbol on it just like Kubuntu. This didn't bode well but I double-clicked it and it actually ran Kaffeine. I right-clicked on the icon and the Points to: field has an error like what I am seeing in Kubuntu. It says The file or folder /home/jim/Desktop/usr/share/applications/org.kde.kaffeine.desktop does not exist.

This leads me to believe it is an upstream issue since I'm seeing the same thing in multiple distributions. The only difference between the icon properties seems to be in the Open With: field and that's just due to local configuration. The Debian install shows Kate whereas the Kubuntu install says Bluefish. Those are the default text editors for the respective systems. I'm not sure why the system would point to the editors to open the files, but that's what I'm seeing on both distributions.

Now back to your original request, here is the contents of the /usr/share/applications/audacity.desktop file.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Audacity
GenericName=Sound Editor
GenericName[ar]=محرر أصوات
GenericName[ca]=Editor d'àudio
GenericName[co]=Editore audio
GenericName[da]=Lydredigeringsprogram
GenericName[de]=Audio-Editor
GenericName[el]=Επεξεργαστής ήχου
GenericName[es]=Editor de audio
GenericName[fr]=Éditeur audio
GenericName[hi]=ध्वनि संपादक
GenericName[gu]=ધ્વનિ સંપાદક
GenericName[kn]=ಧ್ವನಿ ಸಂಪಾದಕ
GenericName[it]=editore di suoni
GenericName[ta]=ஒலி ஆசிரியர்
GenericName[la]=sonus editor
GenericName[ja]=音声編集ソフト
GenericName[ko]=오디오 편집기
GenericName[lt]=Garsų rengyklė
GenericName[nl]=Geluidseditor
GenericName[pl]=Edytor dźwięku
GenericName[pt_BR]=Editor de áudio
GenericName[pt_PT]=Editor de áudio
GenericName[ru]=Редактор звуковых файлов
GenericName[sk]=Zvukový Editor
GenericName[tr]=Ses Düzenleyici
GenericName[uk]=Редактор звукових файлів
GenericName[zh_CN]=音频编辑器
GenericName[zh_TW]=音訊編輯器

Comment=Record and edit audio files
Comment[ar]=سجل و حرر ملفات صوت
Comment[ca]=Enregistreu i editeu els fitxers d'àudio
Comment[co]=Arregistrà è mudificà schedarii audio
Comment[da]=Optag og rediger lydfiler
Comment[de]=Audio-Dateien aufnehmen und bearbeiten
Comment[el]=Ηχογράφηση και επεξεργασία αρχείων ήχου
Comment[es]=Grabar y editar archivos de audio
Comment[fr]=Enregistrer et éditer des fichiers audio
Comment[hi]=ऑडियो फ़ाइल अंकित व संपादित करता है
Comment[ja]=音声ファイルの録音と編集
Comment[ko]=오디오 파일 녹음과 편집
Comment[lt]=Įrašyti ir montuoti garso failus
Comment[nl]=Audiobestanden opnemen en bewerken
Comment[pl]=Nagrywaj i edytuj pliki dźwiękowe
Comment[pt_BR]=Gravar e editar arquivos de áudio
Comment[pt_PT]=Gravar e editar ficheiros de áudio
Comment[ru]=Запись и редактирование звуковых файлов
Comment[sk]=Nahráva a upravuje audio súbory.
Comment[tr]=Ses dosyalarını kaydetme ve düzenleme
Comment[uk]=Запис і редагування звукових файлів
Comment[zh_CN]=录音和编辑音频文件
Comment[zh_TW]=錄音和編輯音訊檔案

Icon=audacity
StartupWMClass=Audacity

Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;AudioVideoEditing;

Keywords=sound;music editing;voice channel;frequency;modulation;audio trim;clipping;noise reduction;multi track audio editor;edit;mixing;WAV;AIFF;FLAC;MP2;MP3;

Exec=env GDK_BACKEND=x11 audacity %F
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
MimeType=application/x-audacity-project;application/x-audacity-project+sqlite3;audio/basic;audio/x-aiff;audio/x-wav;audio/aac;audio/ac3;audio/mp4;audio/x-ms-wma;video/mpeg;audio/flac;audio/x-flac;audio/mpeg;application/ogg;audio/x-vorbis+ogg;

​

There are some .desktop files in ~/.local/share/applications, but there isn't one for Audacity.

I appreciate any insight you may have on this mess. I really wish I knew how this happened. One day everything worked, the next day it didn't. At this point I'm just stuck with not having functional desktop icons. I have to pin everything to the task bar or search for it in the launcher. Not very user friendly. Thanks again.

[jlittle]

I'm not sure why the system would point to the editors to open the files

Plasma makes a distinction between "opening" and "running" script files. I find it confusing, though I'm getting the hang of it.

Exec=env GDK_BACKEND=x11 audacity %F

In a konsole, if you type

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 audacity

does auacity start, and are there messages in the konsole?

I've managed to reproduce this message:

The file or folder /home/john/desktop/usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Cheese.desktop does not exist.

It's nonsense but I think in your case it's a red herring, because on my desktop folder icons work fine.

Is "Is executable" checkbox on the permissions tab checked? When I first add an icon to the desktop folder that is not checked, and there's a little red "!" on the icon. I have single-click to run and if I click on the icon I get a warning "This will start the program:", "If you do not trust this program, click Cancel."

[Neoneuro]

does auacity start, and are there messages in the konsole?

Yes. Seems to work fine that way. No messages though. It just drops back to the prompt when I close the application.

Is "Is executable" checkbox on the permissions tab checked? When I first add an icon to the desktop folder that is not checked, and there's a little red "!" on the icon. I have single-click to run and if I click on the icon I get a warning "This will start the program:", "If you do not trust this program, click Cancel."

No. There isn't anything like that on the Permissions tab. Under "Access Permissions" it says "

This file is a link and does not have any permissions.

" All of the fields under that are grayed out. It's interesting that it shows root as the owner and group when I created the icon as a user. The icons on the Debian install are identical.
When I double-click the Kubuntu icon I get a very brief little change in the mouse pointer and that's it. Nothing happens after that. They run on the Debian install.

[Snowhog]

I downloaded a fresh copy of Debian 12.5 and installed it

So, just for openness, you are running Debian, not Kubuntu? I ask because to be frank, running another Linux OS, but asking for support for it here, in a Kubuntu Linux Forum, is disingenuous. May I ask why you aren't asking your questions on Debian's support site(s)?

[jlittle]

Yes. Seems to work fine that way. No messages though. It just drops back to the prompt when I close the application.

I'm not helping, sorry. I suspect a $PATH issue, but that would only apply if audacity was installed in a non-standard place. I wonder if it's a snap or a flatpak, (At some point in the past, maybe 10 or so years ago, audacity had a a bug that had been fixed, but the version in the Ubuntu repository did not have the fix, so I used sudo apt-get source to download the source, and 400,000 compiler warnings later I had a working audacity, but I had difficulty getting the icon to work.)

No. There isn't anything like that on the Permissions tab...

That was me grasping at a straw that's not there, I think. .desktop files don't need execute permission.

[Neoneuro]

So, just for openness, you are running Debian, not Kubuntu? I ask because to be frank, running another Linux OS, but asking for support for it here, in a Kubuntu Linux Forum, is disingenuous. May I ask why you aren't asking your questions on Debian's support site(s)?

No. I thought my Kubuntu install was trashed and was considering Debian w/Plasma, so I installed it on an old laptop to test. Turns out the Debian install has the same problem.

[Neoneuro]

I'm not helping, sorry.

No worries. I appreciate the thought and effort. It's got me stumped too and I've been using KDE for somewhere around 25 years. I've never encountered anything like this. I've got a workaround, so I'm going to leave it alone for now. It'll probably stay this way until a release fixes it or I build a new system, which will probably be in the distant future. LOL. Thanks again.

[jlittle]

I can only suggest finding the apps you want in the menu, and dragging them from there to a new desktop widget.