22

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.

jokerdino
  • 41,732
JarekJ83
  • 291

6 Answers6

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
abu_bua
  • 11,313
MarkovCh1
  • 2,143
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.

Rasmus
  • 8,655
1

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

SuperMau
  • 1,683
1

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.

ffflabs
  • 301
0

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;
Eric Carvalho
  • 55,453
Biblioclasta
  • 527
-2

uninstalling nautilus should do the trick

sudo apt-get remove nautilus
Sagar_R
  • 534