removing desktop icons in gnome flasback(metacity)

Question

I've just upgraded from 18.04 to 20.04 and use gnome flashback(metacity) as my desktop. Before I updated I had been able to remove the 'home' and 'rubbish bin' icons from my desktop, as I like the clean look. Today I have spent most of the afternoon trying to remove these annoying and unnecessary icons from my desktop!I would be very grateful if anyone could advise me as to how to do it!

Thanks

edited to show result of comment 12/08/20 @WU_TANG I tried gsettings set org.nnemo.desktop show-desktop-icons false as can be seen below -- no result!

    (base) matt@zakk-jr:~$ gsettings list-recursively | grep icons
org.nemo.icon-view labels-beside-icons false
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop show-icons false
org.cinnamon.desktop.interface menus-have-icons true
org.cinnamon.desktop.interface buttons-have-icons false
org.cinnamon.desktop.interface toolbar-icons-size 'large'
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons icon-size '48px'
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons column-spacing uint32 10
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons show-home false
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons sort-by 'name'
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons show-trash false
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons placement 'auto-arrange-icons'
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons row-spacing uint32 2
org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop.icons extra-text-width uint32 48
org.gnome.shell.extensions.openweather use-symbolic-icons true
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-size 24
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-saturation 0.40000000000000002
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons tray-pos 'center'
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-contrast 0.0
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-spacing 12
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons tray-order 1
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-brightness 0.0
org.gnome.shell.extensions.topicons icon-opacity 220
org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
org.gnome.desktop.interface menus-have-icons false
org.gnome.desktop.interface buttons-have-icons false
org.gnome.desktop.interface toolbar-icons-size 'large'
org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons show-trash false
org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons icon-size 'standard'
org.gnome.shell.extensions.desktop-icons show-home false
org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons false
org.nemo.desktop show-orphaned-desktop-icons false
org.gnome.gnome-panel.general prefer-symbolic-icons false

Further edit to add information: I set up another user on this machine, and when I ran ' gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop show-icons false' the icons disappeared, so now i'm really confused!!

further edit to show dconf-editor settings :

output of xprop as requested:

    (base) matt@zakk-jr:~$ xprop
    WM_STATE(WM_STATE):
    window state: Normal
    icon window: 0x0
    _NET_WM_DESKTOP(CARDINAL) = 4294967295
    _NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_PAGER, 
    _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_TASKBAR, _NET_WM_STATE_STICKY
    _NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, 
    _NET_WM_ACTION_ABOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_BELOW
     WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
    Client accepts input or input focus: True
    Initial state is Normal State.
    window id # of group leader: 0x1000001
    _GTK_THEME_VARIANT(UTF8_STRING) = "dark"
    XdndAware(ATOM) = BITMAP
    _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP
    _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 16777221, 16777222
    _NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW): window id # 0x1000004
    WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x1000001
    _NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 2431
    WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_GB.UTF-8"
    WM_CLIENT_MACHINE(STRING) = "zakk-jr"
    WM_NORMAL_HINTS(WM_SIZE_HINTS):
    program specified minimum size: 3286 by 1080
    program specified base size: 0 by 0
    window gravity: NorthWest
    WM_PROTOCOLS(ATOM): protocols  WM_DELETE_WINDOW, WM_TAKE_FOCUS, 
    _NET_WM_PING, _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST
    WM_CLASS(STRING) = "gnome-flashback", "Gnome-flashback"
    WM_ICON_NAME(STRING) = "Desktop"
    _NET_WM_ICON_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "Desktop"
    WM_NAME(STRING) = "Desktop"
   _NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "Desktop"
   (base) matt@zakk-jr:~$ 

Answer 1

In a terminal remove all the icons on the desktop with:

gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-flashback.desktop show-icons false

Or with Nemo:

gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons false

Answer 2

I know the question is a bit old, but I was able to remove the desktop icons in GNOME flashback Ubuntu 20.04 with dconf-editor:

1. Open dconf-editor
2. Go to /org/gnome/gnome-flashback/desktop/show-icons and change the value