Where do the desktop icons go?

1. When right-clicking an icon on the KDE desktop the icon changes appearance - the CD drive spins for 20+ seconds then the entire set of desktop icons dissapear. The mouse pointer also then changes to an "x". Cannot reestablish the desktop set from that point on. Is this supposedly normal behavior or is something going wrong?

2. Saving the desktop configuration to a floppy. The config process works fine - however when rebooting in to Knoppix the next time - the system returns to all defaults. IS THE command to type at the boot prompt: knoppix floppyconf OR knoppix floppyconfig OR is the fact that it doesn't seem to pickup the config setting off the floppy a possible bug?

Thanks everyone, and happy holidays to all