Directories in /home cloned to /desktop

[abelvargas]

Hello,
In the rush of installing and problem solving Thinkbox's Deadline on my machine I accidentally deleted the desktop directory from the file system and then couldn't find it anymore. After restarting all the contents from my home folder are cloned on the desktop. If I open them, it's like opening from the Files browser. If I delete them, they disappear from the /home directory.
I have tried re-installing Gnome and that didn't fix it. Updating Linux to the latest kernel won't boot for an unrelated problem so back to this previous one I'm using.

Anyone ever encountered this before? I'm not a pro user (and you can see that from this type of mistake) but I got this system up and running with everything in it so I'm not horrible at this so if you have a clue that points me on the right direction I'll be on my way!

Thank you!

Abel

[TrevorH]

What happens if you recreate the Desktop directory using mkdir ~/Desktop ?

[abelvargas]

This is what I'm looking at. Note that even Documents lost the system Icon even though the path is the same.
https://ibb.co/Gvg9P7N
When I save something on the desktop, it show's in the folder but not on the Desktop itself as per the image below.
https://ibb.co/KqtGF9x

[TrevorH]

Yes... and what happens if you open a command prompt as your own user and run [/tt]mkdir ~/Desktop[/tt] then logout and back in again?

[abelvargas]

This is what I get!

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/avargas/Desktop’: File exists

[tony_down_under]

try this to see if the directory is there, possibly with different permission like owned by 'root' and not your user

Code: Select all

ls -lahp /home/avargas

It should print out the contents of that directory and also show you Desktop/ with the ownership and permission

If the Desktop directory is there but with different ownership / permission, you could try and fix it by cloning the permission from another directory, say Downloads like this:

Code: Select all

chown --reference=/home/avargas/Downloads /home/avargas/Desktop

You can also do the same with chmod

Code: Select all

chmod --reference=/home/avargas/Downloads /home/avargas/Desktop

PS - dont blindly run the above commands. I am guessing at your issue here and I may be incorrect.

[abelvargas]

Hey there,

Thanks for the reply.

Comparing the results from ls -lahp I get the following, so permissions are still the same.

drwxr-xr-x. 2 avargas avargas 122 Jan 6 19:36 Desktop/
drwxr-xr-x. 8 avargas avargas 218 Jan 6 20:56 Documents/
drwxr-xr-x. 4 avargas avargas 4.0K Dec 23 14:07 Downloads/

When I create a Test folder on the Desktop itself (by right clicking > New Folder) in it's properties it says "parent folder: /home/avargas" and if I run a ls command on /home/avargas it shows up there, not on the desktop. Any clues?

Thank you for the help!