Using nautilus to manage the desktop

**Seddy** · March 3rd, 2013

I'm currently trying to use nautilus for desktop managment, but I can't get it to work.

My OS: Xubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

What I did:
- uninstalled thunar
- installed nautilus
- mv /usr/bin/xfdesktop /usr/bin/xfdesktop-bin
- ln -s /usr/bin/nautilus /usr/bin/xfdesktop

In other tutorials, regarding this replacement of thunar with nautilus, this works perfectly, but for me I end up with a black and empty desktop.
I figure that the problem is that nautilus is behaving as if it was started with the "--no-desktop" flag, but I have no idea why it behaves like this.

Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this?

**Frogs Hair** · March 3rd, 2013

I would check preferred applications > utilities and see if nautilus is the selected as the file manager. To restart Nautilus use the following which is often in the instructions when installing a different file manager .

Code:

nautilus -q

The context menu actions may change when you remove Thunar.

**Seddy** · March 3rd, 2013

Originally Posted by Frogs Hair

[...] selected as the file manager [..]

It allready is set to nautilus.

Originally Posted by Frogs Hair

Code:

nautilus -q

This changes nothing, but this is no surprise as I did a reboot in the process of setting up what I currently have.

**Frogs Hair** · March 3rd, 2013

I found this regarding exo-utils . http://askubuntu.com/questions/74534...ger-in-xubuntu

**Seddy** · March 3rd, 2013

Originally Posted by Frogs Hair

I found this regarding exo-utils . http://askubuntu.com/questions/74534...ger-in-xubuntu

"exo-preferred-applications" is the application that you already mentioned, so this changes nothing.
The link also mentions two variable in the gnome-config, but both are already set to true on my system.

**Frogs Hair** · March 3rd, 2013

I thought as much . Because I am using a newer version of Thunar via PPA I have a different version exo-utils so couldn't verify what was installed previously. I don''t know what to suggest if the entire configuration is pointing to Nautilus.

I have the XFCE session on Ubuntu and not Xubuntu and in the Gnome Tweak Tool there is a setting to have the file manager handle the desk top and that corresponds to what ever is set as default. I have had Pantheon, Nautilus and Thunar set as default at one time or another and don't understand the difficulty.

If you want to give the latest version Thunar a try see the link.

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/insta...upport-in.html