Arch Linux

kandrews

Member

Registered: 2007-04-21

Posts: 119

How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

I would like to delete that infernal Desktop/ directory because I don't use it for anything. Everytime I delete it, it gets remade on reboot. I've tried running pacman -Qo on the Desktop/ directory, but pacman only seems to be able to find non-directory files.

I figure this has to be a common question, but my forum searching skills appear to be lacking because I haven't found anyone who has asked it. All I managed to find was one thread on linuxquestions that was not helpful. Thanks.

ozar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-02-18

Posts: 1,686

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

If you are running Firefox, check your preferences to make sure you don't have it set to save downloads to the Desktop directory.

---

oz

tam1138

Member

Registered: 2007-09-10

Posts: 238

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

e17 "graciously" recreates ~/Desktop for me every time I start it.  Maybe it's a freedesktop.org standards thingy?

kandrews

Member

Registered: 2007-04-21

Posts: 119

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

Thanks for the replies. Firefox downloads to ~/downloads so I know that it isn't saving to Desktop. I'll also check on the freedesktop.org site about it.

Statix

Member

From: Hangzhou, China

Registered: 2008-02-16

Posts: 240

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

The more we know about your programs the better. Are you using a DE?

---

Madly in love with Arch64, Openbox, DotA, and of course... penguins!
Happy to help if you're not a Help Vampire. Use your wonderful resources like ArchWiki, Google, and our wonderful search page.

Onwards

Member

From: Pakistan

Registered: 2007-04-18

Posts: 108

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

After a bit of googling, I found out that people do have problems with the Desktop folder reapperaing in Gnome (where Nautilus seems to be recreating it...). This link http://pythonide.blogspot.com/2007/11/h … sktop.html could be useful for Gnome ppl.

As far as KDE4.1 is concerned, it doesn't have any such problem i.e. Desktop folder doesn't reappear after deletion. Additionaly, one can change one's default "Desktop folder" using start-menu > System settings > About me > Paths > Desktop path.

UPDATE: If your "default download dir" is Desktop, firefox would graciously create one for you if it doesn't exist, as ozar rightly said. This applies to KDE-4.1.

Last edited by Onwards (2008-08-08 14:26:05)

kandrews

Member

Registered: 2007-04-21

Posts: 119

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

The more we know about your programs the better. Are you using a DE?

Nope. I use wmii.

BTW:

kandrews ~  $  pacman -Q nautilus
error: package "nautilus" not found

Last edited by kandrews (2008-08-08 16:08:28)

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,485

Website

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

Do you have another graphical file manager installed?  Thunar, pcmanfm?

---

PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

e17 "graciously" recreates ~/Desktop for me every time I start it.  Maybe it's a freedesktop.org standards thingy?

In E17 it's the EFM back end that's doing it. Even if you don't have the EFM module loaded, E17 will still create a link to any mounted drives.

kandrews

Member

Registered: 2007-04-21

Posts: 119

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

Do you have another graphical file manager installed?  Thunar, pcmanfm?

Not that I know of. I pacman -Q'd all those you listed and eyeballed the installed applications and I don't recognize any graphical file manager I've ever heard of. Some gtk apps I use (xournal, firefox) have a graphical dialog for saving and open files. However, they happily don't show the Desktop directory when I delete it.

Last edited by kandrews (2008-08-08 17:12:44)

ghostHack

Member

From: Bristol UK

Registered: 2008-02-29

Posts: 261

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

e17 "graciously" recreates ~/Desktop for me every time I start it.  Maybe it's a freedesktop.org standards thingy?

In E17 it's the EFM back end that's doing it. Even if you don't have the EFM module loaded, E17 will still create a link to any mounted drives.

Is there any way to stop this?

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

e17 "graciously" recreates ~/Desktop for me every time I start it.  Maybe it's a freedesktop.org standards thingy?

In E17 it's the EFM back end that's doing it. Even if you don't have the EFM module loaded, E17 will still create a link to any mounted drives.

Is there any way to stop this?

If there is, I don't know how. As long as mounted file systems don't appear on my desktop, it doesn't bother me.

safran

Member

From: Vienna, Austria

Registered: 2008-01-12

Posts: 17

Website

Re: How can I get rid of the ~/Desktop/ directory?

display of links on the desktop can now be controlled in e17 via configuration > file manager > file manager > show desktop icons. or you can remove write permissions from the Desktop folder to prevent it from creating them at all. still, there is no way to get rid of the folder itself.

I guess you could have it deleted every time with a startup script, but I agree there should be a switch for that.
also see here: http://forum.enlightenment.org/comments … 279&page=1