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I was just trying Ubuntu 19.10 last week, and tried something that frustrated me on Linux Mint a few months ago: dragging a link to the desktop from the browser.

Using the default installed browser (Firefox), I tried dragging a link from the icon next to the address bar, first to the desktop and then to an arbitrary folder in the file manager application, as I'm accustomed to doing in Windows. The former did nothing, and the latter failed with an error:

Drag and drop link to Documents folder failed

This for me is a basic usability feature, so I'd like to ask:

  1. Why is this so hard?
  2. Is there any way I can get this working without having to go through tedious menus and the like?
pomsky
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Gigi
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  • @Terrance thanks, but that solution doesn't seem to work (they mention that support for desktop icons was removed at some point). I noticed that even dragging files from my filesystem onto the desktop doesn't work (no effect), but dragging files into the desktop folder in the file manager application makes them show on the desktop. I'm scratching my head right now... why would they do that? – Gigi Oct 27 '19 at 07:21
  • I've also just tried this with Chromium and I get the same behaviour, so I guess it's a Gnome thing. – Gigi Oct 27 '19 at 07:40
  • It works in Kubuntu. So bye bye Gnome I guess. – Gigi Oct 27 '19 at 08:57
  • I am voting to reopen this one as https://askubuntu.com/questions/1186703/cannot-save-files-or-links-to-the-desktop-in-19-10 seems to have a solution to this problem. – Terrance Nov 06 '19 at 22:26
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    @terrance The question you linked sounds like a more elementary of problem of being unable to access desktop items after upgrading to 19.10 from 19.04. However, if the answer posted to the question you linked also solves the problem raised in the other question, it would be helpful to post the same answer to the duplicate target question too imo. – pomsky Nov 07 '19 at 06:01
  • @pomsky As it turns out, and I just tested this, you cannot drag and drop the shortcut from Firefox or possibly another browser onto the desktop or any other folder for that matter. Turns out that it just doesn't work at all and is not supported. I had high hopes that it would be with the desktop icon DING extension working in 19.10, but that only works for dragging folders and files that I can see so far. – Terrance Nov 07 '19 at 07:28
  • @Terrance Yes, as I mentioned here, it would be helpful in that case to suggest the DING extension as an answer to the target question as it partially provides drag-and-drop feature as of now. Hopefully full support would be implemented later. – pomsky Nov 07 '19 at 07:41
  • @pomsky You were right. I was just hoping that it would have solved the link creation problem during drag and drop, but I was very sad to see it did not. :( I guess that is another reason why I actually don't use GNOME. But I really do respect your knowledge and help that you give here! We need more people like you! =) – Terrance Nov 07 '19 at 17:16

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