How to change default file browser (thunar to nautilus, 8.10)

[Snow Keld]

i've been looking for a way but havent found much, i found a help page for changing it in gnome, which is simple enough, but its for gnome

page i found: http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonautilusplease

but you see, i like nautilus quite a bit, i have it installed but its not default and when it starts up the desktop is managed by gnome instead...

will that happen no matter what? cuz its a gnome file browser, is the desktop managed by the running file browser???


i dont understand this whole thing, and i couldn't find much already out there.



my question is, can i switch the default file browser (without lots of problems) from thunar to nautilus in xubuntu 8.10, and for anyone else finding this topic, it would be nice to explain it in a way for people to know how to change the file browser from thunar to whatever they want... if its possibly or smart to do.


well, a thanks in advance to anyone who tries, how to change the gnome one isnt difficult to do, but whoever figured it out had to have put tons of work into it with the making of the .sh scripts.

[mb_webguy]

I'm not sure that this is the best solution, but it should work.

[Snow Keld]

i thank you for that link, it is helpful.

before i go about doing that, how to i make the script thats talked about in that post, i think the rest seems simple enough without actually trying it.

only thing is, even if it opens nautilus instead will it switch my desktop manager to gnome like it is now? or will it leave the desktop under xfce?


if that continues to be the problem and there is no real way to fix it then i'll just end up using thunar for simple stuff and nautilus when i wana use dropbox...

dropbox is to keep files online, 2gigs of space for free, i like the idea, but it only wants to work with nautilus.

i like nautilus better anyway with how it recognizes devices like extra hard drives and CD drives without you having to go look for them in the filesystem.



>main point, how do i made the script mentioned here, and will it keep switching the desktop to gnome when i open my file browser (nautilus). if it will then this is a lost cause anyway as i dont want that.

[perpetualcacophany]

Ok.

Download Nautilus if you haven't already.

sudo apt-get install nautilus

Then, do the following.

gksu gedit /usr/share/applications/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop

Find the line that says: Exec=thunar %U

change it to: Exec=nautilus --no-desktop %U

I think that should work.

[mb_webguy]

only thing is, even if it opens nautilus instead will it switch my desktop manager to gnome like it is now? or will it leave the desktop under xfce?

Whether you use the method in the link in my post, or the one Snow Keld suggested, the "--no-desktop" option of nautilus will prevent it from taking over your desktop from Xfce.

[Snow Keld]

THIS POST worked perfectly.

to anyone else searching for how to change the xubuntu file manager just follow those directions.



i imagine you could slightly alter some of it to use another file manager too, havent tried, not going to, no need, worked for me, i have nautilus working great and it doesnt mess up my desktop (YAY)




problem solved, thank you both for helping me out.

[Snow Keld]

would just like to add on, when you go to 'places' and then a folder you have bookmarked on there like music or documents it doesnt take you there, it always takes you to your account directory.

this isnt a problem, just thought that it should be known.

[mttza1]

I tried the above suggestions, and found that nothing seened to change, by default Xfdesktop draws some file manager links (File System, Home, and Trash, as well as removable devices). these cant be deleted from the desktop menu, and i cant find a directory storing them. after creating myfn (as posted above), and replacing the thunar symlink, these desktop shortcuts still open in thunar. when i looked at ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.lst the file was empty. (other than an opening ling enclosed in square brackets []). also to get the nautilus browser you need to use "nautilus --no-desktop --browser", you can also place a path after --browser (eg --browser computer:///). I found running without --browser, in xfce4, resulted in a file manager without an side pane, or the option to have one, and several other features missing.

if i could remove these desktop shortcuts i could replace them, but i cannot find their location.

thanks in advance. mttza1

[H3R3T1K]

I edited nautilus-folder-handler.desktop. How can I check if I'm using Nautilus by default now?