Homepage icons are skewed across the page, background is black

Coreopsis

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Hello,
I'm not a techie at all, but even my techie son has come up empty handed.
I've attached a pic of my homepage which shows my background black and most of the folders skewed across the screen. To open one, I have to figure out where they were originally because that's where the file still is.
This has happened before, though rarely, and restarting the computer always corrected the problem. Today, however, a restart shows them in place but once I open a folder everything goes just as the attachment shows. We've restarted three times now, with the same result.
When we restart, we get the at-spi-registryd.desktop message. Is this the source of trouble?
thanks,
 

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There are a few on there that maybe should be packed away somewhere and not on the Desktop such as the files with *.deb ends they are install files for software , maybe bly if you click on them and have gdebi installed something might pop up trying to re-install them.
 
G'day Coreopsis, Welcome to Linux.org

Just to save us guessing from your screenshot.....which OS are you running? version?

Any other pertinent detail/s...pc make and model? ram? hdd?
 
G'day Coreopsis, Welcome to Linux.org

Just to save us guessing from your screenshot.....which OS are you running? version?

Any other pertinent detail/s...pc make and model? ram? hdd?
Hi,
Linux Mint 18 on an Acer 8 GB DDR4 Memory
 
There are a few on there that maybe should be packed away somewhere and not on the Desktop such as the files with *.deb ends they are install files for software , maybe bly if you click on them and have gdebi installed something might pop up trying to re-install them.
Sorry, I have no idea what you're saying.
 
Are you aware that LM18 has reached end of life and no longer receives security updates or Software Updates.
You can upgrade to LM19....or better still save all your data etc etc and do a fresh install of LM20.1


______________________________________________________________

Have you tried right clicking on the desktop , selecting customize and enabling auto arrange ?
 
Are you aware that LM18 has reached end of life and no longer receives security updates or Software Updates.
You can upgrade to LM19....or better still save all your data etc etc and do a fresh install of LM20.1


______________________________________________________________

Have you tried right clicking on the desktop , selecting customize and enabling auto arrange ?
Sorry for the delay. I have tried upgrading to LM19 but the upgrade failed, i am currently on LM18.3 The problem occurs when I open a folder on the computer, however it did not happen when accessing a program like a web browser. I am unsure what to do now to attempt to troubleshoot the problem, do you have any further advise?
 
Sorry for the delay. I have tried upgrading to LM19 but the upgrade failed, i am currently on LM18.3 The problem occurs when I open a folder on the computer, however it did not happen when accessing a program like a web browser. I am unsure what to do now to attempt to troubleshoot the problem, do you have any further advise?
As @Condobloke mentioned you have to do a fresh install of a supported version, you can't do the upgrade because in order to upgrade you have to do an update to the most recent version of LM18 before you can upgrade to 19 or 20 but that's not possible because the repositories of LM18 are offline because the version being end of life.
 
When you get yourself in the right mindset to do a fresh install....do yourself a favour and install LM20.1

LM20.1

LM20.2 is the latest but it has only just been released. 20.1 can be upgraded to 20.2 in a month or so easily. (takes approx 10 minutes)

An external hard drive is good for storing all the data/pics/music etc etc that you need to keep

Also, installing and using Timeshift will guard against problems like the one you have now.
It works like system restore.....and yes, it works
We can guide you in its use later if you install LM20.1


___________________________________________________________________

I note that you use Bleachbit. it could even be the source of your problem.
Best left off a new install.

CLEANING VIA TERMINAL.....This is more than enough to clean with.

sudo apt-get autoclean (mild) or sudo apt-get clean (strong)


clear thumbnail cache.

rm -v -f ~/.cache/thumbnails/*/*.png ~/.thumbnails/*/*.png



 
Hello,
I'm not a techie at all, but even my techie son has come up empty handed.
I've attached a pic of my homepage which shows my background black and most of the folders skewed across the screen. To open one, I have to figure out where they were originally because that's where the file still is.
This has happened before, though rarely, and restarting the computer always corrected the problem. Today, however, a restart shows them in place but once I open a folder everything goes just as the attachment shows. We've restarted three times now, with the same result.
When we restart, we get the at-spi-registryd.desktop message. Is this the source of trouble?
thanks,

I'm no expert but two things stand out to me...one...Mint 18 is long gone...you should be using 20.1 and it works great.
happy0159.gif


Two...what you see on your Desktop is the result of Bleachbit, wonderful isn't it. :eek: Bleachbit acts like a wrecking ball and the damage can't be fixed, so a clean install is needed...please don't use it.
happy0034.gif
 
When you get yourself in the right mindset to do a fresh install....do yourself a favour and install LM20.1

LM20.1

LM20.2 is the latest but it has only just been released. 20.1 can be upgraded to 20.2 in a month or so easily. (takes approx 10 minutes)

An external hard drive is good for storing all the data/pics/music etc etc that you need to keep

Also, installing and using Timeshift will guard against problems like the one you have now.
It works like system restore.....and yes, it works
We can guide you in its use later if you install LM20.1


___________________________________________________________________

I note that you use Bleachbit. it could even be the source of your problem.
Best left off a new install.

CLEANING VIA TERMINAL.....This is more than enough to clean with.

sudo apt-get autoclean (mild) or sudo apt-get clean (strong)


clear thumbnail cache.

rm -v -f ~/.cache/thumbnails/*/*.png ~/.thumbnails/*/*.png



I have attempted to do a fresh install as you advised, creating a lm20 usb to boot from, it goes through the installation process just fine and seems to work normally but once its finished and says 'please restart to commit changes' then when the computer is restarted and asks to remove drive, and the drive is removed. the computer acts as though it has no operating system at all and won't do anything other than ask for a recovery drive now.

It still works normally in trial mode as long as the USB is in to run everything. Any advice on what i've done wrong or how to fix this?
 
Have you tried rebooting again ?......leave the usb out....and just reboot...maybe a couple of times...

Is there any error message ?
 
Are you sure you're installing it to the correct drive?
 
I have attempted to do a fresh install as you advised, creating a lm20 usb to boot from, it goes through the installation process just fine and seems to work normally but once its finished and says 'please restart to commit changes' then when the computer is restarted and asks to remove drive, and the drive is removed. the computer acts as though it has no operating system at all and won't do anything other than ask for a recovery drive now.

It still works normally in trial mode as long as the USB is in to run everything. Any advice on what i've done wrong or how to fix this?

Once Linux Mint is installed on your HDD or SSD, Mint tells you ...to remove the Flash Drive and press Enter...then your computer will re-start, then enter your password...hit Enter...you're now running Linux Mint.
happy0034.gif


To help you understand more about Linux Mint, have a look at this...
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/2.html

It has many tips and advice to keep you out of trouble.
happy0002.gif
 
Hello, All,
It took some time but my son figured out how to fix the computer: 'boot repair' tool.
I now have Mint 19. Son thinks 20 is a completely new system that likely neither of us would want: him to install and me to learn. I'm thrilled it's sorted, so sure I'd be looking for a new computer.
Thanks to all for your help and patience.
cheers,
c
 
p.s.
Any recommendations for cleaning files now that Bleach Bit has been deleted?
c
 
Cleaning?....usually unnecessary in Linux, but if you feel the urge....


The differences between 19 and 20 are overall performance related. There is not much to learn.

LM 19 gets its end of life in 2023..April.....21 months from now.
 
I thought I was getting 19 but learnt after last post that my son ended up installing 20. Everything looks great. Good to hear I won't really need to worry about cleaning stuff up; usually it was to delete firefox stuff. Still can't make out if it's truly legit. I am, however, checking out Brave's own search engine, currently in beta mode. For my needs, it's working.
Thanks, again, for all your assistance, much appreciated.
cheers,
 
All good, no problem

Try duckduckgo combined with Brave Browser it works well and it is fast
 

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