Really weird... This seems to be a regression from Hoary days! Doing a "/etc/init.d/dbus restart" makes the icons appear once again on desktop.
This seems to be the same bug as old https://launchpad.net/bugs/13985 -- Partitions aren't available in computer:/// https://launchpad.net/bugs/32628 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs
