PCManFM on XFCE: Put both places and directory tree in same side panel?

[songdove]

Haven't posted for awhile. The two dinosaur laptops I'd turned into linux mint machines were eventually replaced for 2 yrs by a new gifted win10 gaming unit for my typical day job needs. However, with news my adult kids gave me of how MS has crafted their win11 upgrade invitation (something I hadn't yet seen on my win10 box), I decided it was time to dual-boot to linux mint on this thing as well. I have it 99% the way I want it, but with one tweak I'm not sure how to do.

I am using pcmanfm because I wanted the larger thumbnail view of my image folders. (wish browsers would use the new default FM, but they insist on using Thunar! Ugh! Thunar's file preview needs work! Not helpful when I want to see a bank of thumbnails rather than just file names!)

My question: I can choose either places OR the directory tree for the side panel. How do I put both into the side panel at the same time? I'm used to being able to click on a drive and have it's folder structure appear. If I want to do that right now in directory tree view, I have to first navigate to media/songdove, then find the drive I want to click on, and go from there. The places view gives me quicker access to the drives, but no directory tree under them in the side bar when I click on them.

Searches online aren't answering that question, but occasionally mention plugins, although searching for plugins isn't revealing anything either.

Help?

[Hoser Rob]

I used to use LXDE and I liked the pcmanfm FM, I think it's as good or better than Thunar. But I don't think it'll do that. Searching gets me nowhere, and you'd expect to find something here:

https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/2/2.4/ ... fm-qt.html

[I2k4]

Can't help with tweaking PCManFM, which I use for the dual pane on a Mint 20.3/W7 dual boot with different stuff on the different partitions, but a lot of the same software (e.g. LibreOffice, photo editing).

I use a very fast little search tool (drive paths are definable) to list the drive locations for folders or whatever else is wanted, and FSearch opens PCManFM in whichever way it was last set. (FSearch is faster - near instantaneous - and more compatible with my dual boot use than Catfish.)

https://www.fossmint.com/fsearch-search ... for-linux/

[rossdv8]

I am using pcmanfm because I wanted the larger thumbnail view of my image folders. (wish browsers would use the new default FM, but they insist on using Thunar! Ugh! Thunar's file preview needs work! Not helpful when I want to see a bank of thumbnails rather than just file names!)

My question: I can choose either places OR the directory tree for the side panel. How do I put both into the side panel at the same time? I'm used to being able to click on a drive and have it's folder structure appear. If I want to do that right now in directory tree view, I have to first navigate to media/songdove, then find the drive I want to click on, and go from there. The places view gives me quicker access to the drives, but no directory tree under them in the side bar when I click on them.

Searches online aren't answering that question, but occasionally mention plugins, although searching for plugins isn't revealing anything either.

Help?

I'm in Mint 20.3 Xfce and have Thunar open at the moment.

Regarding the previews:
In my main window I have scalable (Ctrl and mousewheel) previews for all my images. I have previews of LibreOffice documents (previews of any text AND images on the pages). Likewise PDF files show previews of the text AND images.
Epub books show previews of the covers.
Mobi files only show a generic icon.

At some point I was messing with the instructions in this thread and that might be why I seem to have more previews of files that you have - maybe:
viewtopic.php?p=2197314#p2197314
If you do it - you must follow ALL the instructions including setting every instance of MaxFileSize to 0
And do the tumbler.rc stuff


Re Your Question about the Side panel:

In the Menu across the top:
Click 'View'
The top 3 items should be 'Reload' - 'Location' and 'Side pane'
Hover over 'Side Pane'
You will probably see 2 options
[X] Shortcuts
[ ] Tree
Change that to {x} Tree
That should show all mounted Places / drives with a triangle next to each one.
Click the triangle to open a Tree of all Folders on that drive / device.

Every sub folder should have a triangle next to it, and so on, as you open more levels . .
Clicking any folder should open it in the main window.

With any luck that should give you what you are looking for

[songdove]

To illustrate what I see, and what I am wanting to do, I've taken a few screenshots. I prefer pcman's thumbnail view, although it isn't perfect. But thunar's is worse, only giving me previews one at a time. I have a combined screenshot image showing what I'm wishing for in the side panel too.

(I apologize for not responding sooner, I must have not checked the box to notify my of replies)

[songdove]

I used to use LXDE and I liked the pcmanfm FM, I think it's as good or better than Thunar. But I don't think it'll do that. Searching gets me nowhere, and you'd expect to find something here:

https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/2/2.4/ ... fm-qt.html

You're right, you would. But I didn't see it there either. I do prefer pcmanfm to thunar. It's a shame browsers don't use it though. I am constantly kicked to thunar when saving or opening files within my browser. Definitely prefer sites that let me drag and drop.

[songdove]

Can't help with tweaking PCManFM, which I use for the dual pane on a Mint 20.3/W7 dual boot with different stuff on the different partitions, but a lot of the same software (e.g. LibreOffice, photo editing).

I use a very fast little search tool (drive paths are definable) to list the drive locations for folders or whatever else is wanted, and FSearch opens PCManFM in whichever way it was last set. (FSearch is faster - near instantaneous - and more compatible with my dual boot use than Catfish.)

https://www.fossmint.com/fsearch-search ... for-linux/

Thanks for the search suggestion. I've been using searchmonkey for running file searches as far as that goes. Cool to see our flag as your avatar!

[michael-hi]

Hi songdove

I can't comment on your original query regarding PCManFM but I think there may be some confusion here. As I see it, Thunar does show multiple thumbnails giving previews of images; it isn't restricted to showing one at a time. Obviously, you need to make sure that Thunar is set to show thumbnails in its Preferences (it's probably the default anyway) and then you can adjust the size of the thumbnails with Zoom In or Zoom Out under the View menu. Or with Ctrl + or Ctrl - on the keyboard or (as rossdv8 pointed out) with Ctrl and mousewheel.

I don't think the Open/Save dialog used by browsers and other apps has anything to do with Thunar, which is why you see no difference when you switch file managers. The Open/Save dialog is a standard Gtk thing used by most programs and there's not much you can do about it apart from the limited options shown if you right-click within the dialog.

[songdove]

And that answer completely skips the need to both see my drives AND have use of the directory tree in the side panel, which neither thunar nor PCmanFM currently allow. As to the Gtk thing, other digging I did on that one does point to the Gtk using Thunar's code exclusively, something about programmatic issues trying to get Gtk to use anything else. I discovered that issue earlier this summer when trying to find these answers.

Thanks for encouraging more digging around the thunar interface though. Now if only I could get the side panel to display what I need.

[rossdv8]

Now I understand the question properly. Sorry about my earlier assumption.
You can sort of work around the lack of a 'Drives' area below the Tree, if you use the Bookmarks function (In the top Menu ... View Go Bookmarks Tools ...)
I have my /media/user set as 'External Drives'. Obviously I could scroll down through the tree as you can see below to:
/
/media
/meda/ross
(Drives next in the tree)

But I find it 'almost' as easy to just click the 'External Drives' in the Bookmarks Menu and I think it is a bit odd that PCManFM is not set up more traditionally.

These captures should show what I do. I'm so used to using this to get around what I used to miss (from the way the other File Managers work) I just didn't understand.

Anyway Here's 'my' PCManFM in Mint 21 Xfce. It's not perfect, but it works for me, and I just have the external drive opening in a New Tab if I want to copy files between drives.
I still don't understand the reason the folk at PCmanFM don;t have this working 'normally' though.