XFE File Manager, a solid secondary to flaky Thunar

[Cl3v3r_P0tat0]

My flavor of Linux Mint is always XFCE for both practical performance reasons and also the simple aesthetics. My only issues has been Thunar's rather frequent crashing after rather simple file operations: rename, copy, moves, etc. BUT that's not the subject of this post.

I recently decided to install a secondary standalone File Manager call XFE. While XFE's looks won't make you swoon - I am loving the solid features, speed and stability. Of course, Thunar is still there - I can't ditch it completely - and I love it when it's not quietly crashing to my desktop - but XFE is my workhorse file manage for game modding and such and it's available in your Mint Software Manager "XFE".

X File Explorer (Xfe), a MS-Explorer-like file manager for X, is an MS-Explorer. It is based upon the popular, but now discontinued, X Win Commander originally developed by Maxim Baranov. Roland Baudin, a french Linux enthusiast, developed Xfe in 2002. There are many great options already. Why should you need another file manager? Why not use a full-featured, animated, bells and whistles file manager like Rox, Nautilus, Konqueror? These file managers are all feature-rich and well-designed, but let's face the fact that they are enormous! Resource-hogging file manager are not the best choice if you're a console user, a light desktop user, and/or have an older system. Most file managers (KDE, Gnome and Xfce) are Desktop-dependent. You will need to load all types of unwanted bloat onto the system. Xfe is small and fast. It only needs the FOX library in order to function fully. It can also be launched from the command-line in a fraction to a second.

- https://slashdot.org/software/p/X-File-Explorer-Xfe/

[JerryF]

Glad you found something that you like.

As an Xfce user, I've never had an issue with Thunar. It has always done its job and I like the way it's customizable with context menus.

[ajgreeny]

Glad you found something that you like.

As an Xfce user, I've never had an issue with Thunar. It has always done its job and I like the way it's customizable with context menus.

Same here!
Thunar is as solid a file manager as I've ever used and I can't remember when it last crashed or let me down, and i have a large number of custom-action additions making it incredibly useful to me by right licking on files and carrying out many useful activities.
I wonder if your thunar crashes as a result of some configuration incompatibility or something unusual in your whole OS configuration that you havent mentioned or even thought about.

[Cl3v3r_P0tat0]

Thanks for the comments, yes - never had a problem with Thunar before either until...I did - consistently over my last 4 XFCE desktop installs. It's my favorite File Manager but this issue has been persistent and has cropped up for many users over the years. It's likely some combination of things that not every modern user shares.

XFE allows me to keep moving files and folders without the sudden and silent CTD's at various times.

My PC is an AIO "potato" from 2018 so it's likely resource related or the like: Program terminated with signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.

Looking into the problem here on this site and other places - sheds no light on the matter and everything else is working just fine.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.2.0-33-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.33
    wm: xfwm dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: EVOO Products LLC. product: EV-AIO-185-1 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: AMI model: A17C serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: HK-BI-18.5-A17CR130-CC34A-051-E date: 08/03/2018
Battery:
  ID-1: axp288_fuel_gauge charge: 64% condition: N/A volts: 3.9 min: N/A model: N/A serial: N/A
    status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Atom x5-Z8350 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Airmont rev: 4 cache:
    L1: 224 KiB L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1680 min/max: 480/1920 cores: 1: 1680 2: 1680 3: 1680 4: 1680
    bogomips: 11520
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics
    driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:22b0
  Device-2: lihappe8 USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-2.4.4:9
    chip-ID: 038f:6001
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositors: 1: xfwm v: 4.18.0 2: Compton v: 1 driver:
    X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: CH7511B res: 1366x768 dpi: 67 diag: 519mm (20.4")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (CHV) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Imaging Unit
    driver: intel_atomisp2_pm v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:22b8
  Device-2: lihappe8 USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-2.4.4:9
    chip-ID: 038f:6001
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.2.0-33-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8152 Fast Ethernet Adapter type: USB driver: r8152 bus-ID: 1-3:4
    chip-ID: 0bda:8152
  IF: enx00e04c2ffd82 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 43.39 GiB used: 31.4 GiB (72.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk2 vendor: BIWIN model: N/A size: 28.83 GiB serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB model: General USB Flash Disk size: 14.57 GiB serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 27.71 GiB used: 24.39 GiB (88.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/mmcblk2p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/mmcblk2p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 30.1 MiB (1.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 1.84 GiB used: 519 MiB (27.6%) priority: 5 dev: /dev/zram0
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 7 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Device-1: 1-1:2 info: Fuzhou Rockchip YQ10S type: Still Imaging driver: N/A rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 2207:0007
  Hub-2: 1-2:3 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0608
  Device-1: 1-2.1:5 info: USB OPTICAL MOUSE type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1
    speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 0000:0538
  Device-2: 1-2.2:7 info: China Resource Semico Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 1a2c:2124
  Hub-3: 1-2.4:8 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 05e3:0608
  Device-1: 1-2.4.4:9 info: lihappe8 USB 2.0 Camera type: Video,Audio
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 038f:6001
  Device-2: 1-3:4 info: Realtek RTL8152 Fast Ethernet Adapter type: Network driver: r8152
    rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0bda:8152
  Device-3: 1-4:6 info: General USB Flash Disk type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 9129:1583
  Hub-4: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 58.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2263 apt: 2257 flatpak: 6
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/appimagelauncher-team-stable-jammy.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/appimagelauncher-team-stable-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/appimagelauncher-team/stable/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com victoria main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //babylon.cs.uh.edu/mirror-sites/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //babylon.cs.uh.edu/mirror-sites/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //babylon.cs.uh.edu/mirror-sites/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmw-openmw-jammy.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/openmw-openmw-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openmw/openmw/ubuntu jammy main
Info:
  Processes: 258 Uptime: 3h 48m Memory: 1.84 GiB used: 1.42 GiB (77.5%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

[bin]

I must admit I also enjoy using xfe.

[Hoser Rob]

I don't run Xfce any more but I did for years until earlier this year. Thunar was crashy for me on a number of releases on more than one machine, though I don't think as much as the OP.

Even if it wasn''t crashy it's a bit rubbish. Believe it or not it used to be much worse. Even pcmanfm (the LXDE FM) was a lot better. Unfortunately it's not maintained any more.

FOr some time now, though, if I dislike the FM that comes with a desktop environment that much I'll just change DEs. The file manager is so integral to the desktop a substitute one is never really going to integrate with the DE as well. Thunar is largely why I struggle to recommend Xfce over Mate now, though I used Xfce for much longer. It's not even noticeably lighter than Mate any more.

[t42]

Edited.
There are advanced CLI-based Linux file mangers such as ranger or lf, but it seems most people prefer GUI file managers similar to ones from Windows 3.1 era. Luckily there is an exception among Linux GUI FM, it's elegant and feature reach Nemo.

[altair4]

Based on windows 3.1 metaphor as ranger or lf is nobody uses for a change such advanced linux file mangers not, hmm?

[t42]

hmm?

yes, indeed , edited.