34

I just did a clean install of 20.04 and I noticed that no key shortcuts for files manipulation work when my focus in on Desktop (not in Nautilus).

When I have copied a file to clipboard, I cannot Ctrl+V it to Desktop, when I click on a file on Desktop, I cannot Ctrl+C it, or I cannot Delete it with keys. Only ways to do it is either navigate to the Desktop folder in Nautilus, or right-click the file on the Desktop and copy/move to trash/paste...

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, all the key shortcuts worked normally for me in 18.04.

martin hanicinec
  • 441

3 Answers3

20

Unfortunately desktop icons are completely broken, which is quite unexpected in a LTS release of Ubuntu.

You just cannot use keyboard on desktop icons (I'm not kidding).

This has been reported here.

The workaround is described here.

  1. Remove gnome-desktop-icons
  2. Install nemo
  3. Make nemo handle desktop icons
Pablo Bianchi
  • 17,371
Mee
  • 426
1

Can confirm that issue has been fixed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons/focal-updates,focal-updates,now 20.04.0-2~ubuntu20.04.1

This is available via the proposed apt channel. Here's how to enable it.

After enabling it, you install the package by doing the regular apt update && apt upgrade

dimisjim
  • 332
1

As suggested by @Mee, the best solution is to replace the Gnome Shell "desktop-icons" extension, and use the Nemo desktop instead:

# install Nemo
sudo apt install nemo

Edit settings


gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true


Disable the "desktop-icons" extension


gnome-extensions disable desktop-icons@csoriano


Set nemo-desktop to autostart on login


cp /usr/share/applications/nemo-autostart.desktop $HOME/.config/autostart/
sed -i -r 's/^(OnlyShowIn)/#\1/i' $HOME/.config/autostart/nemo-autostart.desktop

You may need to reboot after the change for it to take effect (see comment below)

(My other answer here also adds some details)

mivk
  • 5,811