Locking icons position

[underkz]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if we can kind of "lock icons" on the desktop so they will not change positions when I play a 800*600 game.

You know, when you have icons near the left side of your screen and after playing a game your icons are all smashed to the right side of the screen.

Any clues? Thank's

[PD808]

Oh my god. I had this too when I used XFCE. I couldn't find the answer though. I sort of "solved" it by moving all the desktop icons into a second folder called "Desktop", which is on the actual desktop. I placed it in the top left corner of the screen. That's not the best solution though if you want desktop icons on the actual desktop... Hm. Did you try filing a bug report?

[Frogs Hair]

Hello and Welcome

I don't see anything in the configuration editor or advanced settings that allows what you want . I am curious what allows the icons to move when the game is used . Neither the configuration editor nor Ubuntu Tweak include a right or left placement option for desktop icons in 11.10 . I am on Ubuntu .so that may not be case for you .

[underkz]

Hi,

thank's for your answers it's appreciated. For more precision I'll add that I run on Xubuntu 11.10

@PD808
your solution is pretty original . I didn't tried to filled a bug report because I didn't think this problem can be considered like a bug. Thank's for this suggestion, maybe it's the way to go.

@Frogs Hair
Well, the thing is when the game resize the screen in a lower resolution all icons change position to be visible for that newer resolution. And after when the desktop regain the normal resolution (when closing a game) it seems that nothing is replacing the icons at their initial position .

[LewisTM]

Here's another solution for you.
Run

sudo chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

This in effect renders your icon placement config file immutable.
When you change resolution your icons will be shuffled around and will be out of place when your get back.
However, the changes will not have been written to disk.
To reload the desktop and the right placement, simply run 'xfdesktop --reload'. This can be conveniently made into a launcher.

To unlock the config, replace +i for -i in the first command.

Cheers!

[underkz]

@LewisTM
Big thank's, that's a useful trick to know. I just need to remember to unlock the file when adding icons to the desktop .

[jamibair1]

Hi Lewis TM
I tried your command, but i got this:

chattr: Ingen sådan fil eller filkatalog while trying to stat /home/mik/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

(Sorry, that was danish = "chattr: No such file or folder..."

What went wrong ?

[LewisTM]

Hi Lewis TM
I tried your command, but i got this:

chattr: Ingen sådan fil eller filkatalog while trying to stat /home/mik/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

(Sorry, that was danish = "chattr: No such file or folder..."

What went wrong ?

Well it may be that the dir names are different in Danish?
The full filename is typically 'icons.screen0.rc'
You can try to find it with a search tool or with the locate command.

[LewisTM]

A small trick I just discovered.
The desktop has a built-in reload/refresh function, which is the F5 key, not surprisingly.
So no real need for the reload command.
If you add or rename items on a locked desktop they will still appear upon reload, except that without any known placement they will be thrown to the next available upper left spot.
The ~/Desktop dir itself is not locked.

[jamibair1]

[QUOTE=LewisTM;11672939]Well it may be that the dir names are different in Danish?
The full filename is typically 'icons.screen0.rc'
You can try to find it with a search tool or with the locate command.[/QUOTEm]

Thank you for the answer. I'll now work with this. Am new in Ubuntu, so... Yep! I got work to do.