I just added the MATE pattern to my Leap 15.1 install, previously using Plasma, and generally I like MATE but in this case it seems to be an older version of the pattern?? But, main reason for posting this, in this new pattern on the desktop are icons for “Computer,” a “non-space’s Home” directory, a file that is named “Home.desktop,” and a “Trash” icon or directory. When I click 2x on the Computer directory a window opens and if I click on the “Desktop” directory it just shows the “Home.desktop” and the “Trash” directory, the “Computer” and user “Home” directories don’t show up.
The question is, what is the “Home.desktop” file, and why is it there in MATE, but isn’t in Plasma? I opened the file using Libre Office and it was seemingly a list of text. I looked in MATE Tweak and it only shows that “Network” is the only item I have unchecked, nothing is mentioned about this “file.” Over in Lubuntu, possibly it was in 18.04 and 19.04 we had a similar issue with an “artifact” like this file that was showing up on the desktop; I’m wondering if this is the same item as is in this bug report? It’s just visually a distraction.
I am seeing it there in Plasma. It shows up there as folder named “Home”.
The “.desktop” files are interpreted by the desktop. I’m guessing that your “Home.desktop” was put there when you were running Plasma, and MATE doesn’t give it any special significance so just treats it as a text file.
Thanks for the reply, so I’m not talking about the user “Home” directory that shows on the desktop as a “folder” icon, that is there, and the Home folder is also there in Plasma and in Plasma this separate “Home.desktop” item doesn’t show, but it does in MATE; so in MATE there is a “Home” folder, and then a “Home.desktop” file.
So, you are saying that it might be showing in Plasma, if I look for it in the “Desktop” directory, but it is invisible there, and in MATE it is just made visible?? Is this something that could be “Moved to Trash” safely? Or it is something that is necessary to the system??
In plasma, that “Home.desktop” file is what generate the icon for the home folder. My guess is that MATE just generates that internally without depending on a “Home.desktop” file, so it then interprets that file as an ordinary text file.
Yes, you could probably move that to trash. But if you ever login to plasma, then it might be recreated.
OK, thanks for the follow up. After I posted the last comment I logged into Plasma, and on the desktop are two “folders” and in the window manager it shows that the folder name is “Home.desktop” . . . but it just shows as a folder . . . basically as you have explained it, seems like MATE has a problem with that, possibly the version of MATE is slightly “retro” in the Yast patterns options??
I’ll have to see if I stick with Plasma in Leap or whether the MATE options are worth dealing with this “file” cluttering up my pristine Desktop. : - ))
I do not see any connection with “YaST patterns”. Those are in fact Patterns for installing groups of pcakages that logicaly belong together, just for ease of installation. One then does not have to find out oneself which packages should be installed to get a working suite of packages like KDE, etc. on the system. You can install them using zyper and/or YaST., but are NOT specific YaST patterns. And they do not have any significance once installed. And are certainly not “known” by a running KDE/MATE or whatever environment.
To me, what you see is simply an imcompability between KDE and MATE. Those .desktop files are part of the configuration of a desktop. There are standards (freedesktop.org?) but when a DE uses and extra .desktp file for special reasons (after all there are differences between the DEs, else there was no need to have different DEs) other DEs will not understand that special case and treat it as they would .desktop files in a fall-back mode. I assume that is what you experience.
Yes, I would agree it is likely an “incompatibility” problem between the two DEs, I haven’t done the multi-DE’s in one install thing for quite some time, for that very reason, but also because I have a multi-boot plethora of linux systems, and adding DEs just makes it all more complicated. Plasma is a DE that never quite worked well on my PPC computers, but recently Lubuntu has switched to a more KDE based system and it generally works well . . . “traditionally” I have been a MATE person, and the Leap 15.1 system has worked well enough to be a regular event. My reference to “yast issue” is that I didn’t make the choice of MATE version, Yast did, and based on the general fact that Leap is running “4.12” kernel, compared to other installs I have that are running 5.2±. I am thinking that the MATE desktop version might be not “cutting edge” and therefore isn’t picking up on the nuances??? Might be unavoidable due to the clash of DE “cultures.”