I'm a newbie to Fedora and need some help. I must have messed up some config somewhere because all my contents in my home folder is now showing up on my desktop. My guess is that somehow, I've changed my Desktop folder be my home folder. In other words, my desktop folder should be: /home/username/Desktop, but I think it is now /home/username. Is there a config file that I can view to see if my guess is correct?

Wow!

This must be overwhelming...

Okay, well, I guess (GUESS!) that you eagerly over-clicked and accidentally dragged/moved the contents of your home folder to your desktop. Did that too once...nothing to be eaaked about.

You still (must) have a /home/user/Desktop or your stuff would'nt show on the ... desktop. Just clean the folder out (cut-n-paste wise) and I guess you'll be fine.

Since you're somewhat un-seasoned (dont like the word newbe ) some tips...

- open TWO file browsers, arrange them on the screen...
- point one to the /home/user/ folder, the other one to the /home/user/desktop folder
- keeping the ctrl key pressed, click anything you want to move
- let go of everything when done, right-click on the selection
- cut-n-paste....

No sweat! Luck!

Thor

Thanks Thor for the quick reply,

But I don't think that's the answer for my problem. In Windows, there is a "desktop" folder. Anything you put into the desktop folder shows up on your desktop (similar to fedora). But how does the system know to show the contents of my desktop folder on my desktop, not some other folder. In Windows there is probably some registry that says "hey John Doe's desktop folder is located on c:\users\JohnDoe\Desktop". Then it shows the contents of that on my desktop. Similarly, in Linux system, there must be somewhere that says the contents of my desktop is located on folder /home/username/Desktop.

Another way of stating the same problem is this... If I put a file called my.file on my desktop, it will show up in the folder /home/username/my.file instead of /home/username/Desktop/my.file.

I think it's far easier that that . You have a home folder, in that folder are several special folders, Desktop is one of them. Go on, copy-n-paste something in that folder, and presto, it'll show on the desktop...

But this...is weird...have you even got a folder called Desktop?

Okay, try this:

1) open gconf-editor inthe console (just type it in)
2) browse to /apps/nautilus/preferences entry in it
3) set desktop_is_home_dir flag down, I suspect that one is checked...

Keep me/us all posted, please...

Thor

That is precisely my problem. It doesn't.

Look in the system settings from your desktop
In KDE it's
Kind regards

eh...

what does'nt? Show? Hmm, possibly your home folder is the desktop...what did the settings in the gconf-editor say?

Thor

For gnome it's
Kind regards

There doesn't seem to be "find desktop_is_home_dir" in /apps/nautilus/preferences

My mistake. I found it, but it is unchecked.

I didn't answer your question fully. I do have Desktop folder in my home/username/ folder. When I put files in this Desktop folder, it doesn't show up on my desktop. When I put a file in my home/username/ folder, it shows up on my desktop. And it turns out that I do have the option "desktop_is_home_dir" in /app/nautilus/preferences unchecked.
One other potentially useful information. Normally, when you delete the Desktop folder, it comes back. But it doesn't come back on my system. Could this be something?

Permissions?

Kind regards

repo, if you mean to ask if I have permissions to change setting. I have permission to change things. I've tried to set the config, log out, then log back in to see if anything had changed. Then check to see if setting is still set (and it is). Then change the setting back, re-login. Nothing seems to be helping.