Hi:

I recently installed FC3 and all was well until I tried to install an icon theme. The theme preferences app crashed and refused to restart. So, I logged out of Gnome and back in again. Now I have no desktop icons, no right-click desktop menus and I can't open Nautilus file browser windows. Nautilus is running, but it won't do anything. Killing it doesn't help. I've even rebooted a couple of times for good measure.

The weirdest thing is that the problem is also affecting root, even though I didn't make any changes as root.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Try rm -rf ~/.gnome* ~/.gconf* (backup first if you want), if that don't work then try reinstalling all the Gnome packages, if that don't work try compiling from source, if THAT don't work, use Fluxbox.

enlightenment, fluxbox or icewm. in that order =P

Well, I tried deleting those files (from both my home and root's), but it didn't make any difference. I'm not overly surprised, considering it affects the whole system. It's not a configuration issue, as deleting those files has proven, I guess.

I'll likely just reinstall Gnome. Given that this is a recent install (two days) the quickest, least fiddly way to do that is likely to just reformat and start over.

BTW, I have used Fluxbox and XFCE4 a fair bit and like them both, but I like Nautilus as a file manager, so switching window managers wouldn't solve the issue.

Thanks anyway.

You can use nautilus with fluxbox,works great.Just add this to your menu;
[exec] (nautilus) {nautilus --no-desktop --browser}

wish I had seen this earlier... posted this - guess I had the wrong subject to address... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=256257

lethargy:
how did all this pan out? I had the same problem, though I didn't think it was a theme that caused it. the only thing I did was update gaim about a day before and then on next startup is when it all went screwy.

I'm not sure what to tell you. The problem, which from my point of view caused itself seeing as I really did nothing out of the ordinary, also fixed itself.

After using KDE for a couple of days and getting ready to just do a reinstall, I tried one last time to start Nautilus from the terminal to see if there would be any error messages that would give me a clue. I had no expectations because when I had tried this before the terminal just sat there. There was no output at all. Nautilus apparently would start, because I would eventually end up with several instances running, but it wouldn't do anything.

This time, however, Nautilus fired right up, with desktop icons and right-click menus, and the file manager worked fine. Go figure. I have no idea why it broke in the first place, and I don't know how it fixed itself. The fact that the problem affected root when it started while I was logged in as a regular user is even more perplexing.

So, my Nautilus is currently working fine. It's been okay for a couple of days now. I can't honestly say I trust it that much, but for now I'm going to stick with it.

Sorry that I have no advice to offer. Maybe there's something to the fact that we're both using FC3. Who knows.

Anyway, good luck.