Removing desktop icons, and keeping them that way!

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Removing desktop icons, and keeping them that way!
started by: s_t_bris

Posted by s_t_bris on Sep. 11 2005,04:21

I'm using liveCD, version 1.4, backing up to hda1.

I can't make the removal of the base icons on the desktop persistent. Firstly when I delete them with the file manager, they still show on the desktop. Quit X and reload, or alternatively reboot - still there? I'm aware of the xfiletool.lst (or similar file name - I can't check it right now), and have removed everything from it. That doesn't help.

I have found a .sh (script?) file in /home/dsl relating to X (can't check the name right now), and if I delete that, then exit X and load again, the icons are gone (finally!!!!). However, if I backup, and reboot, that script is back again, as are all the icons?

Backup seems to be working correctly.

Any ideas anyone?

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 11 2005,04:33

You cannot backup a negative number of files. The restore system adds to and replaces existing files that are automatically set up during the init process, but in order to remove files and keep them gone you will need to remove them every time (from a startup script, for example).

The icons are loaded from /home/dsl/.xinitrc, with the "enhance" command. If this file was edited, successfully backed up and restored, it should do what you wanted. Deleting it will not work, as mentioned above.

Another way to prevent the icons is to boot with the "dsl noicons" option.

Posted by s_t_bris on Sep. 11 2005,06:17

Thanks mikshaw. What you've said makes sense. I'll give the methods you mentioned a try.

Makes me wonder if the opposite of filetool.lst could be implemented though. ie. don't load any base file/programs listed in a particular file. Probably not a lot of use for it though.

Posted by undertow on Sep. 11 2005,07:56

makes sense to me, if speed is what youre after...rather than loading things in just to take them out again..
btw, 1.4 loads all of the dockapps from enhance, but if you update to 1.5 youll need to look in .xinitrc for them

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 12 2005,16:39

If you want to delete the icons, then add a bunch of delete commands (also known as rm or "remove") to your /opt/bootlocal.sh startup script.

IE:

rm -f /home/dsl/.xtdesktop/emelfm.lnk
rm -f /home/dsl/.xtdesktop/dillo.lnk

etc...