opening file from panel

[cmcanulty]

I am trying to have a shortcut to a file in my panel. All I can get is the directory opened with the file highlighted. here is the command I put in the panel item.

file:///home/cmcanulty/Documents/file.txt

I have tried nautilus and nemo. Thunar would actually open the file but now I can't install thunar, see below. I have tried installing the unmet dependencies but it just leads from one that won't install to another in dependency hell. I really like thunar and would like to install it. It ran fine until an update broke it. Nautilus finds no broken packages.

cmcanulty@darcytech:~$ sudo apt-get install thunar.
[sudo] password for cmcanulty: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 thunar : Depends: libexo-1-0 (>= 0.9.0) but 0.6.2-4 is to be installed
          Depends: libthunarx-2-0 (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
          Depends: libxfce4ui-1-0 (>= 4.9.0) but 4.8.1-1 is to be installed
          Depends: libxfce4util6 (>= 4.9.0) but it is not installable
          Recommends: xfce4-panel (>= 4.9.2) but it is not going to be installed
          Recommends: thunar-volman but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
cmcanulty@darcytech:~$

[ibjsb4]

It would be nice to know what desktop your running. You can't just drag the file to the panel?

[Ratscallion]

If you're just setting up a launcher for a file you probably want something like this:

gedit ~/Desktop/file.txt

Where gedit is the GNOME Text Editor (installed by default in Ubuntu) and the rest is the absolute location to the file you're looking to open.

[ajgreeny]

You can use the command

exo-open filename

to open any file, and that file will open in whatever default is set for that file type. I am not sure if that works in all DEs, or just some of them. If you happen to be using XFCE you can also use

xdg-open filename

but I believe that is just for XFCE, not the other DEs.

[Cheesemill]

If you happen to be using XFCE you can also use

xdg-open filename

but I believe that is just for XFCE, not the other DEs.

It's not just for XFCE, it works for any DE which follows the XDG specification (which is all of them AFAIK).

[cmcanulty]

Sorry I am running 12.04 classic Ubuntu. Dragging file to panel does nothing.

[ibjsb4]

Sorry I am running 12.04 classic Ubuntu. Dragging file to panel does nothing.

I running classic and can drag a file. Where are you trying to drag it from?

[ajgreeny]

In 12.04 classic desktop you need Alt+Rt Click to add panel applets, and then add a launcher with the exo-open /path/to/filename command.

[cmcanulty]

Could not open location 'exo-open /home/cmcanulty/documents/File.txt' operation not supported

I substituted the real file name in the actual command

[ajgreeny]

Could not open location 'exo-open /home/cmcanulty/documents/File.txt' operation not supported

I substituted the real file name in the actual command

That is very strange!

What happens if you try that command in terminal? It works fine in my Xubuntu 12.04, as does the "xdg-open".