Saturday, April 18, 2015

Enable desktop icons and right click on Elementary Freya OS.


Hello friends,

This guide will show you that how I enabled desktop icons and create shortcuts on desktop
of elementary freya os.


First install Nautilus Dconf Tools.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nautilus dconf-tools 

open dconf-tool and go to  org → gnome → nautilus→ desktop 
and tick on any option. which you want to view on desktop.

Then  go to,
org → pantheon → cerbere and add 'nautilus -n' entry as same as follow.
['wingpanel', 'plank', 'slingshot-launcher --silent', 'nautilus -n']

Open Terminal and type following command,
nautilus -n

Again open dconf-tools and go to,
org → gnome → desktop → background and tick on show-desktop-icons box

that's it.

If you face any problem then simply logout and login again.

I have personally tested it on one physical system and one VM also. It is working fine. 





24 comments:

  1. Dear a2a1a0, Have you installed nautilus dconf editor? Do you able to view right click options after right click on desktop? If yes then you have done. If no then you have to try it once again and just logout then login to see results.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your answer. dconf is there, changes are made, log out and back in, and still nothing. No icons, no right click menu.
      Strange, isn't it?

      Delete
    2. Dear a2a1a0,
      You need to also tick on show desktop icons check box.
      for that go to org → gnome → desktop → background and tick on show Show-Desktop-Icons box
      I just tried it on newly created VM and it's working fine.

      Delete
  2. i believe you but it's not working as it should.
    i reinstalled freya, did all you mention and now the icons appear as long as i keep the command nautilus -n is active. if i close the terminal, the icons disappear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you done following setting then you don't need to execute nautilus -n command and keep terminal active.
      org → pantheon → cerbere and add 'nautilus -n' entry as same as follow.
      ['wingpanel', 'plank', 'slingshot-launcher --silent', 'nautilus -n']

      kindly use proper sign if you missed something.
      Best luck dear. You are so close, just keep it up.

      Delete
  3. It works, thank you!
    Is there a way to change the font color? I've checked the dconf editor but cant seem to find the appropriate attribute.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In case anyone coming from Google or another source Here is how to change the folder text color:

      open a terminal
      type sudo nano /usr/share/themes/elementary/gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.css

      and then paste this anywhere on the css file

      .nautilus-desktop.nautilus-canvas-item {
      color: #ffffff;
      text-shadow: 1 1 alpha (@fg_color, 0.8);
      }

      and then run nautilus -q and you will see that folder font color is now white.

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the tutorial! it saved the day. http://goo.gl/iovxQx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Mukesh. That was great. Followed your tutorial and it worked perfectly well. Now my questions are:
    1. How to get the molecular structure clock widget on desktop
    2. how to get new plank themes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Tarun, You can try concky manager for widgets on desktop
      And from following links you can install plank themes,
      http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/09/13-plank-themes-elementary-os-freya/
      http://www.elementarynow.com/what-is-elementary-3/customize/

      Delete
  6. Thanks very much. It works :D
    I want to ask if i can add other command to the ddesktop right clik, like new file or shortcut.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mukesh, thank you for this. Linux newbie here, running Freya 0.3.1 on an Acer 15 Chromebook (CB5-571-C1DZ). I followed your instructions carefully & numbered them here, for clarity:

    1. First install Nautilus Dconf Tools.

    sudo apt-get update

    sudo apt-get install nautilus dconf-tools 

    2. Open dconf-tool and go to  org → gnome → nautilus→ desktop 
    and tick on any option. which you want to view on desktop.

    3. Then  go to,
    org → pantheon → cerbere and add 'nautilus -n' entry as same as follow.
    ['wingpanel', 'plank', 'slingshot-launcher --silent', 'nautilus -n']

    4. Open Terminal and type following command,
    nautilus -n

    5. Again open dconf-tools and go to,
    org → gnome → desktop → background and tick on show-desktop-icons box

    My results failed at #4. After I entered that command, Terminal said:

    "** (nautilus:10223): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-JnfnlYEpAP: Connection refused"

    Any suggestions to get past this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John, Just try to uninstall nautilus
      1)sudo killall nautilus - To kill all runings nautilus processes
      2)sudo apt-get remove --purge nautilus
      3)sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nautilus
      After reinstalling nautilus check if the issue is resolved or not.

      Delete
  8. great tip and thank you...this is a great little distro..this tweak made it that much better

    ReplyDelete
  9. I cannot seem to find any way to add the entry 'nautilus -n' to cerbere. Am I missing something here? I can highlight the other entries but can make no changes in this panel.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Worked perfectly on Elementary OS freya

    ReplyDelete
  11. As a side effect this made nautilus default file manager. How do I revert back to the default. I am using eOS Loki.

    ReplyDelete
  12. hey, i got problem here, there is no cerbere directory after pantheon, there just desktop and mall

    ReplyDelete