Nautilus Opens Instead Of Thunar

[ChipButty]

I am new to Linux and have an old Macbook that I'm running Mint on. I installed Mint 13 but Cinnamon doesn't run particularly well on it so I now run Xfce most of the time. My problem is whenever I open a directory with Kupfer, which is my app launcher, it always opens with Nautilus which my processor doesn't seem to like at all and the CPU shoots up. How can I get Kupfer to open directories with Thunar? I'm sure I could uninstall Nautilus which would solve the problem but I'd like to keep it as I'm mostly experimenting with Mint before I get myself a new laptop later this year and will still use Cinnamon from time to time.

[jjaythomas]

Don't think can(?)

The online manual for It says it's a writtin in python and files require nautilus and the extendtions to be enabled.(!)

Sorry thats what found at their site, maybe a more extensive search (google) may show

J.Jay

[finjs]

ChipButty, I met the same trouble when I used Evince (PDF viewer). When you open a PDF file, you can see a folder icon at the top right corner whose goal is to open the folder the file you're viewing is in. When I clicked on this folder icon, it launched Nautilus (instead of Thunar) and spoiled my desktop with the Nautilus icons. The only way to get back to Thunar (and get rid of the Nautilus presentation) I found was to reboot.

I uninstalled Nautilus and that solved the problem. Evince opens Thunar. But Nautilus is a diehard, there still remain several Nautilus files in the system that even Bleachbit can't spot. Also the Nautilus icon is still given to the current file manager (Thunar) instead of the Thunar icon.

It's another minor trouble I've experienced. I think Xfce should not be delivered with the Nautilus file manager.

Did you meet the bugs I described in my "Three Minor Bugs on eeePC 901" post (in Board index ‹ Other Edition Support ‹ LMDE (Linux Mint Debian) ‹ Update/Upgrade Issues)?

[jjaythomas]

Must be on LMDE!

You can uninstall nautilus (use synaptic to see what else uninstalls!). Only biggie I see is brasero that you can install xfburn as a replacement without needing nautilus.

The 'New XFCE RC for Maya" doesn't install nautilus (good not to) only nautilus-data (okay for ststem I guess ).

J.Jay

P.S. the icon comes from the settings>appearance>icon tab' (file manager icon) chosen, not from 'nautilus' beiing installed

[ChipButty]

Oh well, I guess I'll just consider it a minor inconvenience for now. Once I have a new laptop I will be using Cinnamon and Nautilus full-time, it's just this Macbook is old a sluggish. Thanks anyway guys.

[Ady]

Try the following:

Look for "Preferred Default Applications" (or similar) in the main menu of Mint / LMDE. Select Nautilus for default File Manager. Close and reboot. Now select Thunar as default File Manager. Close and reboot.

Then open a terminal, write "thunar" <enter>. Test all the methods to open the default file manager (there are several different ways from the main menu and its submenus).

Some of the methods to open the default file manager may still open Nautilus, in which case Nautilus might "steal" the place of Thunar again.

Please report back, whichever the result.

[ChipButty]

As Nautilus makes my laptop scream I ended up uninstalling it. Then I began to read up the differences between Nautilus and Thunar. As I'm a Linux newbie I had no idea about different file managers and the more I read the more file managers I became aware of. Last night I installed PCManFM which thus far I prefer to both Nautilus and Thunar (using tabs instead of windows is great) and my laptop likes it too because my processor hasn't gone crazy yet!

[jjaythomas]

In XFCE you can set (almost) any File Manager as default. pcmanfm, thunar, midnight commander, rox File Manager ect.

The trouble with nautilus it's not just a file manager, it handles some stuff for the 'Window Manager'(in Gnome/metacity work great). So you have to be carefull those functions are turned off, and in upgrades messing around in system ect they might get turned on (and don't notice till you wonder what/how got borked

J.Jay

[finjs]

Ady, I remember doing what you suggest... to no avail. Nautilus sort of embeds other applications, like Evince and you can't completely get rid of it if you want to keep some of those other applications. If I correctly remember if you look at what is uninstalled when you uninstall Nautilus-lib you'll note Evince.

Because I need Evince, I uninstalled all Nautilus stuff but Nautilus-lib. If I download another PDF reader (Acrobat?), I'll unisntall the Nautilus-data and I guess there won't be any Nautilus files left... Hopefully, if I believe jjaythomas!

[zerozero]

try this

Code: Select all

dpkg --get-selections | grep nautilus

will tell you the nautilus-related pkgs in your system, then you can try to remove (one by one) but very carefully (look always at the other pkgs that are going to be removed as well)

[Ady]

Ady, I remember doing what you suggest... to no avail. Nautilus sort of embeds other applications...

Other users mentioned uninstalling nautilus or some other packages. I didn't suggest to uninstall nautilus, only to re-set the preferred default File Manager by changing the setting twice (together with some additional setting if necessary).

About the other "things" where nautilus interferes, it is all supposed to be controlled by the same "preferred (default) applications" (not just the File Manager, but also the other options there), and when that's not enough, each application should also have its own preferences. (For example, from a File Manager, you could select a different default terminal emulator for the usual "open terminal here" command, in case you already have more than one terminal emulator available.)

The reason I don't suggest eliminating nautilus is because until now, all Mint and LMDE Xfce editions are not "really" Xfce-based. For some users, thunar "is not there, in comparison to nautilus", and The Mint Team took some other edition (Gnome or GTK-based) and added some packages from Xfce, setting those additional packages as default. Until now, Mint / LMDE editions using Xfce are just other editions with some "patches", and evidently were much less tested. Hopefully, after Mint 13 (Maya) Xfce this aspect would be improved (and also somehow applied to LMDE Xfce too). To be clear, I don't know whether there is going to be some improvement in this specific area; I'm just hoping for it.

[jjaythomas]

I'm finding...
it's not nautilus per say, i'm seeing problems in the 'XFCE mint13 RC' where nautilus isn't installed.
In LMDX the problems started I believe with UPack 4 where besides introducing nautilus they started using 'MDM'
I'M testing to see if MDM is calling nautilus (maybe default icause XFDestop not reconised) or in the RC case (no nautilus) just shutting down xfwm4.

J.Jay

[finjs]

I didn't suggest to uninstall nautilus, only to re-set the preferred default File Manager by changing the setting twice (together with some additional setting if necessary).

Ady, sorry I wasn't clear. I precisely did that default File Manager re-setting, and because it didn't work I uninstalled Nautilus.

Nautilus doesn't worry me any more. Everything works pretty well with Thunar and I am happy with it. The only thing I can't understand is why the File Manager is still given the Nautilus icon instead of the Thunar icon.

[jjaythomas]

The only thing I can't understand is why the File Manager is still given the Nautilus icon instead of the Thunar icon.

The File manager icon can be reset (usually 'right click properties)
The icon itself will default to whatever is used in 'Icon set' theme setting>appearence Icon tab

J.Jay

[finjs]

zerozero, here is what I get:

mike # dpkg --get-selections | grep nautilus
libnautilus-extension1a install
nautilus deinstall
nautilus-data deinstall
mike #

That seems pretty consistent with my operations. There only remains libnautilus-extension1a because if it goes evince and totem go with it. So I can live with libnautilus-extension1a onboard.

Thanks.

[jjaythomas]

Nautilus when closes 'sleeps in background'
so must make sure fully closes (I use the 'Task manager' in straight LMDE can use 'system Monitor' and re-save session in 'setting>session and autostart.

You can (even) see this using LMDE-XFCE live mode
1. Boot live ISO
2. Alt-F2 and run nautilus
3. close nautilus
4. click file manager in menu (probally got Thunar
5. now hit home icon on desktop (if not their setting>desktop icons tab to set) you'll get nautilus no matter what default file manager is set.
6. If check in 'Task Manager or system Monitior You see it listed as 'sleeping (background) ready to pounce again (even if not visible on screen)

if you logout (saved session checked or not) then back in you'll have nautilus running (might be hidden 'running in background sleeping'
If don't catch will eventully over-write XFWM4 and/or XFDESKTOP.

Maybe only my hardware
J.Jay

Edit Must in 'System Monitor kill process in just stop process you'll end up with 2 at re-login/boot (1 sleeping 1 active)

Edit (again) this was a known issue also in some other distro (Ubuntustudio comes to mind), 'nautilus' is used for other stuff in system (removing nautilus not only effect meta-package for the desktop/distro, it also removes some key apps used in it) besides not playing nice with XFCE.