How to set PcManFm as the default file manager?

Question

I think Nautilus is so slow, and I'd like to move to PCmanFM, but didn't find any good tips how to do this in Ubuntu 12.10.

I have PCmanFM installed already, and I even changed:

$ sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Files
Comment=Access and organize files
Exec=pcmanfm %U
Icon=system-file-manager
Terminal=false
NoDisplay=true
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;Core;
MimeType=inode/directory;application/x-gnome-saved-search;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=3.2.1
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus

Still slow Nautilus is default one.

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 30 '18 at 12:35

14

After struggling with this Nautilus' slowness for a while, I decided to change my default as well. All of the "proper" solutions I tried doing didn't work very well. For instance, choosing the default in exo-preferred-applications didn't update the dash (or much else for that matter), changing .desktop files only worked sometimes (Dropbox still used nautilus), etc.

The simple solution that works for me in all cases without mucking with changing desktop files was to do the following two commands:

sudo mv /usr/bin/nautilus /usr/bin/nautilus.bak
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/pcmanfm /usr/bin/nautilus

You can of course replace /usr/bin/pcmanfm with /usr/bin/thunar, or whatever.

Edit: If you also want to have a desktop, open /etc/xdg/autostart/nautilus-autostart.desktop and make the Exec line

Exec=nautilus --desktop

edited Sep 30 '18 at 12:35

abu_bua

10,783

answered Feb 17 '13 at 20:18

MarkovCh1

2,133

I could not find nautilus-autostart.desktop in that folder, any idea where I could find it? – stragu Feb 22 '13 at 13:18
1

You could run locate nautilus-autostart.desktop in the terminal, but it really should be there (at least in 12.04 LTS). – MarkovCh1 Feb 23 '13 at 03:16
Thanks for that tip, Syzygy. For some reason, I could not see it by navigating to the folder (even when showing the hidden files), however this command located it where you said it was (in 12.10). I could then modify it with the command sudo gedit /etc/xdg/autostart/nautilus-autostart.desktop. – stragu Feb 23 '13 at 06:48
Glad it worked out, maybe I changed the permissions of the file at some point. Forever a mystery! – MarkovCh1 Feb 23 '13 at 07:17
1

Of course, if you change the desktop handler, you need to change the way background images &c are set up, if you do that from scripts. – Carsten Agger Oct 08 '13 at 11:44
Also note that if you softlink /usr/bin/nautilus to PCManFM, this change will probably be overwritten if we get an update with a new nautilus binary.
If you only want to fix the current problem of Nautilus jumbling the desktop icons (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1063487) it's enough to edit the autostart file and change the Exec line to

Exec=pcmanfm --desktop
– Carsten Agger Oct 08 '13 at 11:47
2

I'd be cautious doing this in 14.04 -- after I setup pcmanfm to be the default I wasn't able to log in after the screen locked. – jcollum Oct 19 '14 at 20:32

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 21 '12 at 09:12

12

I think the bottom method from the community entry on Default File Manager is very easy, and I just tested it for SpaceFM (feature-richer PcManFM fork).

In terminal, execute

 exo-preferred-applications

Then move to the Utilities tab, and under File Manager, choose your weapon of choice.

answered Nov 21 '12 at 09:12

Rasmus

8,375

3

unfortunately its still the same, oh well, i will stick with nautilus then..its not that easy as i thought it will be:) – JarekJ83 Nov 21 '12 at 20:18
2

Apparently this needs exo-utils to be installed. – exic Jan 11 '13 at 12:20
tried 'edit' methods mentioned everywhere.... but it worked like charm. – Wings Apr 24 '19 at 12:34

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '12 at 19:33

There are several ways to accomplish this. I prefer to do it manually (editing /usr/share/applications/defaults.list or for a per user approach ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list) but you can use the graphical tool exo-preferred-applications. Anyway, you can find detailed instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DefaultFileManager

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 30 '14 at 20:16

I did all the procedures reccomended here and I couldn't get pcmanfm to open all my files. Somehow, using google chrome's "open folder" for a new download always popped up a new nautilus window or worse, a new nemo window (since I'm using cinnamon).

What finally solved my problem was to type

gksudo nautilus /usr/share/applications

and finding every app that was supposed to launch a file manager. I had nemo, nautilus, file-roller, files, etc. Right clicking on them and then on properties, I saw some of them launched nemo, some others launched nautilus. I just replaced pcmanfm everywhere I saw fit. Now everything launches pcmanfm.

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 03 '12 at 00:26

The file you should edit is /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop to something like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Files
Comment=Access and organize files
Exec=pcmanfm %U
Icon=system-file-manager
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;Core;
MimeType=inode/directory;application/x-gnome-saved-search;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=3.4.2
Actions=Window;
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus

[Desktop Action Window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=pcmanfm
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

Biblioclasta, didnt help, its still the same ;) – JarekJ83 Nov 08 '12 at 16:05 — JarekJ83, Nov 08 '12 at 16:05

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 03 '12 at 11:03

-2

uninstalling nautilus should do the trick

sudo apt-get remove nautilus

answered Nov 03 '12 at 11:03

Sagar_R

534

1

yep, but now i cant handle the desktop...i dont see icons that used to be on it..there is a need for more steps.. any ideas? – JarekJ83 Nov 03 '12 at 11:22
oh and right click on desktop also dont work – JarekJ83 Nov 03 '12 at 11:27
so, no more ideas? :) – JarekJ83 Nov 03 '12 at 21:29
You can run PcManFm as your desktop manager by running pcmanfm --desktop. You can then add this to command to startup applications. – Hypercube Jul 14 '13 at 03:48

How to set PcManFm as the default file manager?

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