Hi all,
I'm using Etch with Gnome and would like to keep my desk "clean" by getting rid of desktop icons, eg mycomputer, root wastepaper etc. But can not find how to get rid of these. Can anyone advise? Thanks

Right click on the icon and click on delete.

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Steve Stites

Right well first there's no delete in gnome right click I think you mean "move to wastebasket."
Second the icons I talked about have the "move to wastebasket" disabled.
Thirdly a least try to think about what people have asked rather than giving incorrect answers which you obviously couldn't even be arsed to think about.

Try going into your ~/Desktop or ~/.Desktop folder and removing them with say... rm?

Because computer wastebasket and root's home aren't shown in Desktop folder they aren't even hidden files in there so to remove them with......rm won't work.

Is the form just full of people who randomly answer questions tonight when they don't know the answer

I would like an apology for your rude remark.

When I right click on my Gnome desktop I get a menu which has both "move to wastebasket" and "delete" on it. When I click on delete the icon is deleted. I have done this many times over the years.

"move to wastebasket" is standard on this menu. "delete" is an optional field which can be included somewhere in the Gnome desktop or Nautilus setup.

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Steve Stites

I'm not sure, but maybe you don't want ANY icons on the desktop?
If so, you're gonna have to use gconf-editor, and disable few things in apps/nautilus/preferences section.

best
dve

I'll give you an apology when first you admit you made a glib remark without thinking or reading what I was saying.
I'll then give you a thank you if you point me to how to set up the delete button rather than just saying it's somewhere in gnome or nautilus. Which is a bit like me asking where is Mars? To which you reply somewhere in space.

The members of this forum are here on a volunteer basis. Acting like a brat when somebody attempts to answer your question is not going to win you any friends or make anyone likely to answer. There are literally dozens of ways to configure gnome and many people do have some of the options discussed above on there particular systems through the distributions defaults. If you ever hope to actually get help here you might want to work on your manners.

Ok,no fight here guys.I use KDE,but this should help you so we can close this thread:
To add "delete" I would go in Konqueror>settings>behavior,something similar is for nautilus or whatever you use.But that want add "delete" in icons you were talking about,so you have to delete them manualy.In Konqueror I open my home folder,than system,and then I just delete the trash,this should work for any icon,anyway the path is system:/trash or whatever you are looking for.
If this doesn't help try this: From shell run as user: gconf-editor (also try as root)
Navigate to /apps/nautilus/desktop/
Uncheck icons that you do not what to see on your desktop
If that doesnt help try this:
Go to /home/you/.gconf/apps/nautilus/desktop/%gconf.xml
and edit it so it looks something like this:-
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
<entry name="trash_icon_visible" mtime="1093328073" type="bool" value="false">
</entry>
<entry name="home_icon_visible" mtime="1093328071" type="bool" value="false">
</entry>
<entry name="computer_icon_visible" mtime="1093328070" type="bool" value="false">
</entry>
</gconf>
This last example is from one old LQ post,so you should have done some search before posting.

Thankyou sir