[SOLVED] Changes made to Desktop folder in GUI not reflected in terminal (Pop!OS 18.04 LTS; Cinnamon; nemo; gnome-terminal)

jasonc3a · 06-06-2020, 12:24 PM

Using Pop!OS 18.04 (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS), and whenever I change file contents of my Desktop (it seems to only be that folder) using the GUI, when I go to that location in the terminal type

Code:

$ ls -al

it will show me file contents from many days ago. It doesn't reflect things that I've deleted, things I've renamed, or things that I've added.
Furthermore, when I try to navigate to a new folder that I've created, e.g.

Code:

$ cd ~/Desktop/test/

I get an error "No such file or directory". I can see changes immediately reflected everywhere's else but not the desktop. Any ideas why? Thanks in advance.

shruggy · 06-06-2020, 12:28 PM

What does xdg-user-dir DESKTOP show?

jasonc3a · 06-06-2020, 12:28 PM

Update: When I move things around or rename them in Nemo, changes are then reflected. The only issues occur when I make changes via the actual desktop that opens up when I log in.

jasonc3a · 06-06-2020, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

What does xdg-user-dir DESKTOP show?

The output was:
/home/username/Documents/Desktop

shruggy · 06-06-2020, 12:33 PM

You see the problem now, don't you? Your desktop folder is ~/Documents/Desktop, not ~/Desktop.

If you want to change it to ~/Desktop then

Code:

xdg-user-dirs-update --set DESKTOP ~/Desktop

jasonc3a · 06-06-2020, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

You see the problem now, don't you? Your desktop folder is ~/Documents/Desktop, not ~/Desktop.

Yes I do. Been fiddling with it since I posted the output. Thanks for your help.

jasonc3a · 06-06-2020, 01:40 PM

Issue resolved. To do so, in the terminal I typed:

Code:

xdg-user-dirs-update --set DESKTOP ~/Desktop

Thanks again for your help, shruggy!