Issues with Desktop

Hi All,

There is a shortcut in my Desktop folder which is not shown on Desktop itself (see empty desktop screen attached).
Also when I try to open file explorer it displays: “Could not open location …” see the screenshot with error attached. Please help how to fix both above. Thank you.


  • Gnome itself does not support desktop icon for a long time, but it’s available from extensions. Open gnome-tweaks, and in Extension tab, you can find Desktop icons and enable it.

  • What do you mean by file explorer? How do you opened it?

Hello @doct0rHu, under “file explorer” I mean Places -> Home, or Places -> Desktop:

And I get this modal window saying “Could not open location …” (see first post)

@doct0rHu I do not habe Extension tab in gnome-tweaks. Please see the screenshot below. Please advise?

Can you install any extension in Software?

What desktop-* bundles do you have now?

Yes I can install anything.

List of bundles:

Are you in a legacy Gnome session? Because by default Gnome has a different theme.


Also your Gnome shell is not running. I will digging from this.

I do not know :slight_smile: Please advise how to properly check this if the info is required.

So first

gnome-shell --version

And it’s not likely the gnome shell is not running. It’s possible that the gnome-tweaks cannot detect it.

By legacy session I mean Gnome Flashback. How do you login? When you login in graphically, you can see a small triagle button and choose a session.