"Error parsing gtk-icon-sizes string: ''" Desktop grey with no icons

Question

I'm not sure which update did it - but at some point recently something broke my Desktop. I now have a grey background (instead of the gradient colour I had before) and no Desktop icons. Right clicking on the Desktop doesn't produce a menu any more, either.

My theme, sounds etc all seem to have been forcibly changed as well.

Also, when I attempt to start Phpstorm, it hangs on the splashscreen, and console shows:

Error parsing gtk-icon-sizes string: ''

Anyone have a suggestion how I fix it, or even diagnose what the problem is?

Solution 1

I had similar problem with my Xfce. I restarted window manager by typing: xfwm4 --replace but it did not resolved the problem. I checked the xfce troubleshooting section in here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xfce#Troubleshooting and they are also suggest to delete the session folder by typing: rm -r ~/.cache/sessions/ and after that system has to be rebooted, and I have got my desktop back after reboot.

Solution 2

If you had a power failure or some other type of system crash, first try this

xfdesktop &

And other obvious fixes such as clearing your session cache...But if you are still unable to get your icons back, then you might try upgrading to the latest xfce version.

I ran into a very similar problem with xubuntu 13.04 this morning. It occurred immediately after an dist-upgrade and subsequent reboot, thought I'm not sure if this caused the problem. I tried all of the suggestions here and in other threads to no avail - with the exception of the last post.

Finally I decided to give upgrading my xfce version a try:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12

and because it was required per the developers:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10

Then:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Upon reboot everything was back to normal. I did not have to reinstall any packages, as was the case for others, to get my beloved desktop setting back. This took up most of my day, so I hope this helps someone avoid this particular trouble spot.

Comments

[horIzoN]

Log out of any graphical sessions, go to a text terminal (alt-ctrl-F1) then switch display managers with the following commands: sudo stop gdm then sudo start lightdm.

[hippyjim]

Thanks nerof61 - unfortunately it made no difference. gdm wasn't running, and restarting lightdm had no effect. Any other ideas?

[Admin]

You could try xfwm4 --replace and/or xfdesktop --reload and see if that helps, but your problem may need more than that to solve it. That error message usually appears if you have a broken theme installed, so there might be some errors in your gtk rc files if you are using custom themes or settings. Are there any clues in your .xsession-errors or .xsession-errors.old?

[Admin]

Are you running Xfce 4.8 (stock version with Precise)? or a later version?, as there was a recent problem with xfdesktop in Xfce 4.10, for which a fix should be available very soon.

[hippyjim]

yeah, I did similar. Forgot I'd asked this question! Thanks.

[user189860]

In my case, I had a number of issues possibly related to bugs fixed in xfce4.12.