Blank Desktop after ugrading to Ubuntu 9.10

[doublegazing]

Blank Desktop after ugrading to Ubuntu 9.10

I'm a bit of a novice and a bit lost after I upgraded to ubuntu 9.10 as my desktop is blank (no background picture and no icons - all I see are the upper and lower taskbars and their icons).

My PC is a Sony VAIO with 2GB RAM and a Radeon 9200 PCI Videocard with a 19" widescreen 1440x900 resolution monitor.

I typed the following into the terminal to get the display details and got the information below.

PLEASE would some kind soul tell me if I need to enter new code into the terminal (and what to enter) or whatever to resolve matters.

Much appreciated.

Into the terminal I typed:
sudo lshw -class display

And got:
description: VGA compatible controller
product: RV280 [Radeon 9200]
vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: agp agp-3.0 pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=64 mingnt=8
resources: memory:e0000000-efffffff(prefetchable) ioport:9800(size=256) memory:fe8f0000-fe8fffff memory:fe8c0000-fe8dffff(prefetchable)

[emanuel.b]

Hi!

To tell you the truth, you have me a little confused. Have you tried to right click on the desktop, to create a folder, or change the desktop background?

[Greg Xix]

Go to Start > Accessories > Terminal


At the prompt type: gconf-editor

user@user-desktop:~$ gconf-editor

Then expand Apps, expand Nautilus, then open Desktop


In there you should see checkboxes for your traditional icons, like Computer, Home and Trash


The Gconf-Editor is the rough equivalent of Windows Registry. So be careful when using it!!

[doublegazing]

Hi!

To tell you the truth, you have me a little confused. Have you tried to right click on the desktop, to create a folder, or change the desktop background?
Hi,

It's a bit of a mystery seemingly to do with normal desktop display only...

The folders and icons are there on the desktop alright you just can't see them! If however I open up the desktop as a separate file-browser window via the 'Places' icon on the upper taskbar I can see all the folders/icons that are meant to be showing on the desktop and can access them fine.

I've also tried rightclicking the desktop and changing background pictures. The pictures are changing ok as you see the desktop picture (but not the folders & icons present) in a very brief flash when you shut down. I've tried restarting and that doesn't help.

Here's an even bigger mystery: you can even put the mouse pointer over the blank desktop and click on where you think a folder or icon might be and, if you are lucky with this random shot in the dark, the thing will open! They are there alright you just can't see them on the normal desktop and so have to access them via > Places (menu) > Desktop (Desktop - File Browser).

Like I said, a bit of a mystery - to me at least!

Any clues will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[bplzip]

I had the same problem after installing 9.10. Changing the screen resolution to 1024x768 fixed it for me.

[doublegazing]

Go to Start > Accessories > Terminal


At the prompt type: gconf-editor

user@user-desktop:~$ gconf-editor

Then expand Apps, expand Nautilus, then open Desktop


In there you should see checkboxes for your traditional icons, like Computer, Home and Trash


The Gconf-Editor is the rough equivalent of Windows Registry. So be careful when using it!!
Thanks,

I tried this but it didn't work.

[doublegazing]

I had the same problem after installing 9.10. Changing the screen resolution to 1024x768 fixed it for me.
thanks,

this gets the desktop working/visible but it looks horrendous! At least I know know that, for some reason, my system does not want to display 1440x900 resolution. I don't know why - as it is what the label on the front of my monitor says the resolution should be and it works fine if I run XP or the previous version of Ubuntu. ...so its gotta be a problem with Ubuntu 9.10 itself not being compatible with my monitor or Radion 9200 display card right?

[emanuel.b]

thanks,

this gets the desktop working/visible but it looks horrendous! At least I know know that, for some reason, my system does not want to display 1440x900 resolution. I don't know why - as it is what the label on the front of my monitor says the resolution should be and it works fine if I run XP or the previous version of Ubuntu. ...so its gotta be a problem with Ubuntu 9.10 itself not being compatible with my monitor or Radion 9200 display card right?
Could be, but I'd wait for Ubuntu 10.04 to make sure that it's just a problem 9.10...

[beta.tester]

thanks,

this gets the desktop working/visible but it looks horrendous! At least I know know that, for some reason, my system does not want to display 1440x900 resolution. I don't know why - as it is what the label on the front of my monitor says the resolution should be and it works fine if I run XP or the previous version of Ubuntu. ...so its gotta be a problem with Ubuntu 9.10 itself not being compatible with my monitor or Radion 9200 display card right?

Hi

This sounds very similar to what a friend of mine had with his i3 processor laptop.

Justa thought! Could you not try the live cd version of 10.04 beta 2? (It has the kernel and video drivers that allowed him to use his laptop in all its glorious intended display :)

Please let me know how you get on, kind regards john