remove all the icons from the gnome desktop

urifrid · 11-23-2004, 09:23 AM

hi, i was wondering if anyone can help me.
as a default intallation redhat 9, enterprise and fedora put 3 icons on your gnome desktop.
under fedora you can remove them using gconf-editor but not on redhat 9 and enterprise.

any idea how to remove them?

i tried removing them manually by deleting ~/.gnome-desktop and the files there, but they come back after the next reboot.

thanks

theYinYeti · 11-23-2004, 09:47 AM

Why not simply configure Nautilus, to NOT manage the desktop. There won't be desktop icons anymore, because there won't be a desktop!

Yves.

urifrid · 11-23-2004, 02:28 PM

excuse my ignorance, i'm an old timer, command-line oriented guy, unfortunatelly i need to use x11. anyway, if there is no desktop then what's in there? void?

theYinYeti · 11-24-2004, 03:21 AM

Hello,

Nautilus' "desktop" actually is a not-decorated (no title bar...) fullscreen window (ie: a drawing area), on which it is displaying icons, setting a right-click menu, and so on.

If this desktop is disabled, then this window is not displayed, and you see what is under it: the "root window", so called because there's nothing under the root-window.
By default, if not changed by the distribution itself, the root window is displaying a horrible greyish pattern. But you can change that with a simple command. For example:

Code:

xsetroot -solid darkblue

Not having the desktop doesn't mean you don't have GUI. You still have the panels, the menu, the windows (or course); you just don't have the desktop icons anymore, and the right-click menu, unless the window manager is displaying menus by itself in case of clicks on the root-window (not uncommon).

Yves.

urifrid · 11-24-2004, 04:08 AM

thanks for the replies, but still, what i need is to get rid of the default icons, namely home, and trash, but leave those i created. so i think i need nautilus.
unless there is another was to do it.

thaks for the help

theYinYeti · 11-24-2004, 05:20 AM

Yes, there's another way: replace Nautilus' desktop with ROX' desktop. Rox provides a fast desktop, and a fast nice file browser.

Yves.

urifrid · 11-24-2004, 05:51 AM

i still don't believe that it's THAT hard to get rid of an incon and its shortcut????!!!!!??!?!
man!

ahh · 11-24-2004, 06:01 AM

Like most things, it's easy when you know how...

Open Gconf editor, navigate to apps - nautilus - desktop, and clear the checkboxes for the icons you don't want on the desktop.

Not sure, but you may have to restart the desktop to see the change.

urifrid · 11-24-2004, 07:38 AM

i tried that already, the gconf trick works OK on fedora but not on redhat 9 or enterprise 3,

under app/nautilus there is:
icon_view
list_view
preferences
sidebar_panels

no desktop

now there is a desktop option on the gconf tree but doesn't mention the icons there:

theYinYeti · 11-24-2004, 07:44 AM

I'm thinking or something. Unless I'm wrong, the icons you want to remove are those you didn't create yourself; I think those are created by scripts inside /etc/dynamic. You'll have to search by yourself, because I don't have Linux at hand right now.

Yves.

urifrid · 11-25-2004, 12:37 AM

thanks but threre is no /etc/dynamic on redhat

or any dynamic anywhere else that might look like a config file

ahh · 11-25-2004, 03:55 AM

You can always edit your gconf manually.

Go to /home/you/.gconf/apps/nautilus/desktop/%gconf.xml

and edit it so it looks something like this:-

Code:

<?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>

urifrid · 11-25-2004, 04:14 AM

i already said this twice in the thread, there is NO desktop option inside nautilus

well, aparently you can't delete the icons, so much for being able to do anything with gnome.
if anyone knows how to YES delete the icons please post, otherwise, thanks so much in advance but:

NO gconf DOES NOT have a desktop option
NO /etc/dynamic DOES NOT exist
NO I WONT delete nautilus since i DO NEED a few custom made icon (and shortcuts) on the desktop.

thanks

theYinYeti · 11-25-2004, 04:23 AM

As I said, you can have your custom icons and shortcuts with ROX. If I remember correctly, there's also iDesk, but AFAIK, the latter does not provide an excellent file-manager, like ROX filer.

Yves

ahh · 11-25-2004, 05:17 AM

Have you tried ADDING the desktop to gconf?

Try copying the one I posted - you've nothing to lose except your icons!