My desk is missing things [Solved]

[senador]

Good morning everybody.

Since a few days ago my desktop appears incomplete: yes, Conky and Cairo-dock are there, but now I always see the original Wildflower wallpaper as background; moreover, there is no trace of the work files and folders I have there (and which I can access without problems with Thunar).

Could it be that I'm not exactly where I think I am, maybe in another "workspace" or something...?

Thanks in advance.
(Here below I copy my Quick Report.)
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Snapshot created on:
System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-23-amd64 [5.10.179-1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-23-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: N/A wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower September 18  2022 base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac11,2 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 13 
           v: Mac-F2238AC8 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F2238AC8 serial: <filter> UEFI: Apple 
           v: IM112.88Z.005B.B00.1708080439 date: 08/08/17 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 550 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem family: 6 
           model-id: 25 (37) stepping: 5 microcode: 7 cache: L2: 4 MiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 25536 
           Speed: 1509 MHz min/max: 1197/3192 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1509 2: 1477 3: 1485 
           4: 1484 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: 
           conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Madison [Mobility Radeon HD 5730 / 6570M] vendor: Apple driver: radeon 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:68c0 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Apple Built-in iSight type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.1:3 
           chip-ID: 05ac:8502 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: 
           loaded: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: eDP res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 103 size: 475x267mm (18.7x10.5") 
           diag: 545mm (21.5") 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD REDWOOD (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.10.0-23-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3b56 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5000 Series] vendor: Apple 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa60 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-23-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 v: kernel 
           port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1684 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter 
           vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme driver: ath9k v: kernel modules: wl port: 2000 
           bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:002a class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Apple Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR HCI type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
           bus-ID: 1-1.1.1:6 chip-ID: 05ac:8215 class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter> 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: 
           hardware: no software: yes address: <filter> 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1021:5 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park 
           link-mode: slave accept 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 990.52 GiB used: 295.95 GiB (29.9%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD1001FALS-40Y6A0 
           size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 1D06 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk 
           size: 59.01 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: 8.07 scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 350.84 GiB size: 344.26 GiB (98.13%) used: 10.8 GiB (3.1%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 572.42 GiB size: 562.36 GiB (98.24%) used: 285.15 GiB (50.7%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3 
           maj-min: 8:3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1199 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2519 lib: 1281 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ bullseye main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.cica.es/mirrors/Linux/MX-Packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 259 Uptime: 25m wakeups: 1 Memory: 11.67 GiB used: 2.57 GiB (22.0%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

[dolphin_oracle]

Sounds like the desktop isn’t starting.

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xfdesktop4 &

I think will restart it.

[asher]

Well sometimes the desktop messes up. and during an update that occurred the other day I Had the same issue.
hover on a empty space on the desktop
right click->Desktop Settings**
A Desktop Application will open
Click the tab->Icons
Click the check box *Show icons on primary display

If the button is already clicked uncheck the box and check it again.
You should do this with all issues, your setting in this Desktop Application including your background pictures, etc etc.

** the true name of Desktop Settings is: xfdesktop-settings

Please let this feed know it this helped. Thanks!

[asher]

Suggestion #2:
PS If you get; what I will call "The White Screen of Death" where nothing is showing up on your desktop including right click. This can be solved by opening the program, Display (xfce4-display-settings).
Then change your Resolution to something different. Click->Apply
screen will refresh -> Click-> Keep this Configuration.
Then again change your Resolution to your desired Monitor Size again. Click->Apply
screen will refresh -> Click-> Keep this Configuration.

And now your desktop will have right click and desktop functions will work again. You got back control after the first screen resolution but I wanted to get you back to where you where before.
Please let this feed know it this helped. Thanks!

[senador]

I've tried the hints proposed but they does'nt work in my system... :-(

[dolphin_oracle]

maybe xfce4-session. looks like all that is running is the window manager. do you have a panel?

[asher]

OK this may seem extreme RESET XFCE Desktop Configuration files.

# Step 1
Open a Terminal
# Step 2 Backup your old Copy of your XFCE's config file
mv ~/.config/xfce4 ~/.config/xfce4.bak

# Step 3*** This will copy the Configuration files to your home directory.
cp -r /etc/skel/.config/xfce4 ~/.config/
# Step 4
log out and in again.

*** Step 3 is NOT required but XFCE will be in it's RAWEST form, with NO customization from the team of MX Linux. I would in my option highly suggest that you follow Step 3.

IF you are happy and want to delete the old backup configuration files. open a terminal and type

rm -fdr ~/.config/xfce4.bak

[senador]

I have followed your recommended steps, and the only change I see is that my side panel customisation has been lost.
I summarise the problem with my desktop: it does not show the background I specify (invariably it shows the default Wildflower wallpaper); the icons of files and folders stored in the Thunar "Desktop" do not appear; the right mouse button does not respond. On the other hand, Conky and Cairo-dock do work.

(Sorry for any inconvenience...).

[asher]

No inconvenience please be patient I am looking for alternatives. Umm by change do you use ChatGPT on the computer that failing?

[senador]

--"do you use ChatGPT on the computer that failing?"

--No.

By the way: could you help me to restore my customized panel?

(Thank you for your attention.)