Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

egan · 2009-08-23 22:34:16

I don't use GNOME, and I don't want a Desktop directory. Though it seems that GTK programs keep creating one for me. Is there a way to disable this?

EDIT:
Solution: make a file called user-dirs.dirs and put it in ~/.config. Paste the following in:

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="/home/egan/"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="/home/egan/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="/home/egan/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="/home/egan/"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="/home/egan/docs"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="/home/egan/music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="/home/egan/pics"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="/home/egan/vids"

Replacing 'egan' with your user name of course, and editing the directories as needed (if you don't need gtk-fileselector to see these, just set them to your home directory).

Last edited by egan (2009-08-24 01:40:48)

N30N · 2009-08-23 23:06:49

There are already a few threads on this topic. First thing you'll need to work out is which of the GTK programs are creating the folder.

R00KIE · 2009-08-23 23:23:41

Maybe you will have to live with it (or start filling bug reports ) .... but if you keep getting garbage inside maybe you can chmod 000 and/or change the owner to root, it's a bit of an overkill but should should stop anything from getting stored inside

SamC · 2009-08-23 23:26:58

If you look through the settings for nautilus (I think) with gconf-editor, you should be able to find it.

Edit: It's under /apps/nautilus/preferences/desktop_is_home_dir .

Last edited by SamC (2009-08-23 23:29:27)

egan · 2009-08-23 23:33:27

I have no Nautilus and no gconf editor. The programs I suspect of doing this (the only GTK programs I have) are Firefox, GIMP, and OpenOffice. Shouldn't there be a way to get rid of this!?

Last edited by egan (2009-08-23 23:34:54)

SamC · 2009-08-23 23:51:25

Have you tried installing gconf-editor and seeing if that key is set?

skottish · 2009-08-24 00:48:29

Firefox does it for sure. GIMP doesn't for sure. I don't have OpenOffice installed, so I don't know there.

I think Firefox may do it after every update. I can delete the folder and it goes away for a while. Then it magically reappears after some time.

Xyne · 2009-08-24 00:52:18

I suggest figuring out which applications do this and then filing bugs reports in person using this:

thisoldman · 2009-08-24 01:08:11

Change your Firefox preferences for Downloads to "Always ask". And if you ever again toggle the "Save files to" radio button, the Desktop directory will be recreated.

skottish · 2009-08-24 01:13:31

Found it. Delete the folder, go to Firefox's Preferences menu, click some of the tabs, and the folder appears. Now that's stupid.

thisoldman · 2009-08-24 01:35:45

I changed the "Save files to" to ~/downloads, then enabled "Always ask" and finally deleted the Desktop directory. Now I can go in and out of Preferences tabs without the Desktop directory being again created.

[Edit].. I spoke too soon. This zombie directory is back!

Last edited by thisoldman (2009-08-24 02:00:12)

egan · 2009-08-24 01:37:53

skottish wrote:

Found it. Delete the folder, go to Firefox's Preferences menu, click some of the tabs, and the folder appears. Now that's stupid.

Really? That is really annoying. Maybe I should file a bug report...

Anyway I think I got this one solved. I switched from Ubuntu yesterday, and there I had to edit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs to get the "Desktop" directory to be called "desktop" (I use the shell a lot and don't like non-unixy filenames). Placing this file (tweaked of course) in the appropriate directory seems to fixed this nuisance. Its impositions like these that caused me to switch to Arch in the first place but I guess I can never escape the GNOME.

DonVla · 2009-08-24 06:44:24

try this:
http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-23 22:34:16

Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#2 2009-08-23 23:06:49

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#3 2009-08-23 23:23:41

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#4 2009-08-23 23:26:58

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#5 2009-08-23 23:33:27

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#6 2009-08-23 23:51:25

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#7 2009-08-24 00:48:29

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#8 2009-08-24 00:52:18

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#9 2009-08-24 01:08:11

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#10 2009-08-24 01:13:31

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#11 2009-08-24 01:35:45

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#12 2009-08-24 01:37:53

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

#13 2009-08-24 06:44:24

Re: Stop GTK Programs from making Desktop Directory [SOLVED]

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