Can't delete files on/with desktop - filemanager works

[AEB]

Hi,
I'm not able to delete files or folders on the desktop - as long as I'm using the desktop itself.
Deleting the same files (in /home/aeb/Desktop) via any filemanager works perfectly fine.
I'm sure I have messed up some permissions, but where and how can I fix it?

Many thanks in advance.

[zenzen]

Hi, and welcome to the community!

When you say that you can't delete files, what do you mean by that exactly? You don't see the option to delete them, is there an error message or something else?

As for your permissions, they seem off as normally you'd want to have only the minimum required. You can adjust them to something more appropriate with a few commands.

But before running them make sure that none of your files in the Desktop actually need to belong to a particular group, as this will change every file ownership to your current user (which normally is what you want, but just in case there's something special in your particular case).

And finally, remember that since there's root assigned the group you may need to prefix the first command with sudo.

chown -R $USER: $HOME/Desktop
find $HOME/Desktop -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;
find $HOME/Desktop -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;

[AEB]

Hi,
thanks for your reply and sorry for being not specific enough.
If I click on 'Move to Trash' nothing is happening.
Hitting the 'Del'-key also results in pure silence.
I can't even rename files. The dialog just won't close.
Strange enough I can create files (RMB -> New Document).

No problems with terminal and filemanager.

I tried your suggested commands. The permission are now as follows:

But the problem's not gone
Any other ideas?

[zenzen]

The fact that you can't interact with the menu makes me think it's something related to the desktop extension. Search for "Extensions" in the applications menu and look for "Zorin Desktop Icons"; toggle it off and wait a couple of seconds before turning it back on and try again.

If still there's no result, take a look at the logs by running:

tail -n50 /var/log/syslog

If there's something there it should start with "Error trashing files on the desktop:".

[AEB]

Ok, thanks.
Extensions restart wasn't expendient, but you were right:
The log revealed the clue: something with Nautilus and your prophesied "Error trashing files on the desktop"

complete log line

Nov 29 13:46:37 aeb-PC gnome-shell[4636]: DING: Gjs-Message: 13:46:18.769: JS LOG: Error connecting to Nautilus#012Gjs-Message: 13:46:18.769: JS LOG: Error connecting to Nautilus#012Gjs-Message: 13:46:18.826: JS LOG: Couldn’t parse Testfile.desktop as a desktop file, will treat it as a regular file.#012nemo 4.4.2#012#012(gjs:241864): Gjs-CRITICAL **: 13:46:21.511: JS ERROR: Error: Error trashing files on the desktop: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Nautilus exited with status 1#012doTrash/<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/desktopManager.js:1127:31#012asyncCallback@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:134:22#012@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/ding.js:89:9#012#012#012(gjs:241864): Gjs-CRITICAL **: 13:46:26.854: JS ERROR: Error: Error renaming file: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Nautilus exited with status 1#012_do_rename/<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/askRenamePopup.js:85:27#012asyncCallback@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:134:22#012@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/ding.js:89:9#012#012#012(gjs:241864): Gjs-CRITICAL **: 13:46:28.352: JS ERROR: Error: Error renaming file: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Nautilus exited with status 1#012_do_rename/<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/askRenamePopup.js:85:27#012asyncCallback@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:134:22#012@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-desktop-icons@zorinos.com/ding.js:89:9#012

This reminds of having changed the filemanager a while ago.
I switched to Nemo, because I had my difficulties with Nautilus and network shares, but that's another topic.
I digged a little deeper and found the steps to change the filemanager I used then.

1. rename nautilus to nautilus.bak
2. link /usr/bin/nemo to /usr/bin/nautilus

So I rerenamed nautilus.bak to nautilus and voilà:
I am once again the master of my desktop

Thank you very much for leading me in the right direction, @zenzen.