[SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

halgi · 2017-10-16 01:37:41

I just installed pcmanfm and would like to use it as my default file manager in firefox (I.e. when I download/upload files).

It is set as my default file manager but Firefox still uses its default one.

xdg-mime query default application/pdf
okularApplication_pdf.desktop

The solution outlined here doesn't seem applicable anymore because that option does not exist anymore.

Any ideas ?

Last edited by halgi (2017-10-16 11:55:05)

Slithery · 2017-10-16 09:38:10

No.

Firefox uses the standard GTK file-chooser. I don't believe that this can't be changed.

progandy · 2017-10-16 09:41:35

You cannot change the file dialogs. You might be able to set the default file manager with these mime types, but this will only help with the "Open Target Directory" command for already saved downloads.

inode/directory
inode/mount-point

Last edited by progandy (2017-10-16 09:43:28)

halgi · 2017-10-16 11:54:46

I included the wrong mime in the post:

xdg-mime query default inode/directory
pcmanfm.desktop

Since apparently this is not possible I guess I'll mark it as solved.

eschwartz · 2017-10-16 21:06:21

Well, you could always set

ui.allow_platform_file_picker = false

in about:config which uses the internal file chooser.

The regular file chooser is just part of Gtk3 itself, and therefore sucks -- there's nothing to do about that other than building Firefox against gtk2 instead of gkt3 which is impossible since Mozilla deleted the old code which maintained gtk2 build compatibility.

Although it might be nice if Firefox was ported over to Qt5 instead of gtk, since Qt5 allows your platformtheme to provide its own file chooser (I use the gtk2 theme for Qt5 ).

phw · 2017-10-17 13:56:17

Eschwartz wrote:

The regular file chooser is just part of Gtk3 itself, and therefore sucks -- there's nothing to do about that other than building Firefox against gtk2 instead of gkt3 which is impossible since Mozilla deleted the old code which maintained gtk2 build compatibility.

I have read several times that people prefer the GTK2 file chooser, but I don't get why. I just compared them both: They pretty much look the same. The main differences are that GTK2 doesn't look as nice (older theme) and places the buttons at the bottom, while GTK3 provides a more compact header, a few extra features in the context menu (e.g. open folder in file manager) and a search function. So honest question: What does the old GTK2 file chooser better?

eschwartz · 2017-10-17 14:29:37

Since you asked, because:

1) Some people feel the gtk3 theme is by definition incredibly ugly, no matter what, no matter when. Especially when they remove traditional menubars and replace them with smartphone hamburger menus that only contain a small fraction of the previous menu options. Subjective preferences are subjective, I'm not going to force mine on you and in return you aren't going to tell me that "in fact GTK2 doesn't look as nice", deal?

2) It is dramatically slower to open. I don't know why, although I guess it isn't entirely fair to this comparison to say "because it is buggy".

3) You cannot type the name of a file into the nonexistent location bar.

4) The link to "/" which was the "File System" label in gtk2 was removed, and replaced with "Other Locations", which opens a view that allows you to click your one location, that being "Computer". Two clicks and a mouse move, to replace one click. As for other locations e.g. mounted disks, those used to be additional labels. The bookmarks panel is not so starved for space that we need to hide from one to three labels under an awkward sublabel.

5) Considering how obsessed gtk3 is with saving minuscule amounts of space for the benefit of people using gtk3 apps on a smartphone, it is unsurprising that they would hide the "add a bookmark" option in the right-click menu. But I still don't like it and I didn't realize it was there until I looked at that menu as a result of your remark. So thanks (I really do mean that), and also I doubt I am the only one who didn't think to look and thinks gtk3 actually removed this altogether.

6) gtk3 has, in fact, removed the search function, not added it.

7) gtk3 has also removed the "Recently Used" filter.

8) The combination of #3 and #4 makes it really annoying to select files outside of your $HOME.

And in return, I "gain" the ability to open the file browser from the file chooser, which is something I have never once in my life felt the need for and now that I realized it is there I am finding it really hard to think of a theoretical use for.

progandy · 2017-10-17 16:24:35

3) You cannot type the name of a file into the nonexistent location bar.

You can get a text field with Ctrl-l (small L) in the file open dialog. In file save, you can use the field for the filename, but you have to delete or cut the proposed filename.

4) The link to "/" which was the "File System" label in gtk2 was removed

Typing "/" + Enter should bring you right to the root, "~" to your home.

5) Considering how obsessed gtk3 is with saving minuscule amounts of space for the benefit of people using gtk3 apps on a smartphone, it is unsurprising that they would hide the "add a bookmark" option in the right-click menu. But I still don't like it and I didn't realize it was there until I looked at that menu as a result of your remark. So thanks (I really do mean that), and also I doubt I am the only one who didn't think to look and thinks gtk3 actually removed this altogether.

Instead we get a "touch friendly" drag'n'drop to add bookmarks. I'd rather have a keyboard friendly option...

6) gtk3 has, in fact, removed the search function, not added it.

It added a "real" recursive search instead of the good old search in the current directory. That is really ugly if you try to choose files with the keyboard.
I considered patching gtk, but I don't want to spend at least an hour recompiling it on each update...

7) gtk3 has also removed the "Recently Used" filter.

I still have it, but only in file open, not file save.

phw · 2017-10-18 08:03:28

Eschwartz wrote:

1) Some people feel the gtk3 theme is by definition incredibly ugly, no matter what, no matter when. Especially when they remove traditional menubars and replace them with smartphone hamburger menus that only contain a small fraction of the previous menu options. Subjective preferences are subjective, I'm not going to force mine on you and in return you aren't going to tell me that "in fact GTK2 doesn't look as nice", deal?

Yeah, deal, especially since I never told you that to begin with and I won't do in the future And we are still talking about the file chooser here. My comment aimed mainly at the fact that the main differences I could see where either cosmetic (if I would put any effort to have GTK2 / GTK3 themes that looked very much the same I would maybe even have to look twice to see which version's file chooser I use) or very minor features I found in the GTK3 version without much value. So I really wanted to understand what's different in GTK2's file chooser.

So thanks for the input, makes things clearer now. I took a look at both versions again, so the differences here on my system come mainly down to search and location bar and some minor differences in the sidebar to me:

1. Search: Actually I was wrong, both GTK3 and GTK2 offer the recursive search function for me, just that GTK2 shows the search above the "recently used" entry in the left sidebar and GTK3 has a search button in the title bar. It behaves basically the same otherwise. But in addition GTK2 has something like a prefix search. It's hidden, but if you just start typing it will focus the first entry that starts with what you've typed. GTK3 just starts the recursive search when you start typing, which is slower and probably shows you some deeply nested results you don't care about.

2. Location bar behavior is very different: GTK2 shows a breadcrumb navigation for the folder hierarchy and a separate path input field. The path input field is shown by default, but you can toggle it either with a button or with Ctrl+L. GTK2 also has both the folder breadcrumbs and the path input field (and the behavior of both elements is the same), but it only shows either one or another and the path input field is not shown by default. There is also no button to show it, you have to know the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+L to get it.

3. The sidebar is a little bit different: GTK2 has the search there, both have a "recently used"entry, both show me my external drives, both show me bookmarks and the typical home folders (Pictures, Video, Desktop etc.) and bookmarks, although GTK2 shows them somewhat unordered and mixed up whereas GTK3 structures them into separate blocks. Difference is, that GTK2 shows an entry for "/" and other internal partitions, which GTK3 hides in "Other locations entry".

Now interesting thing is, that you report some of the above as missing (search, recently used). So maybe somethings are platform dependent? I have the full Gnome stack installed here, but it's not unlikely that without some components I have installed features of the dialogs will go missing.

Eschwartz wrote:

2) It is dramatically slower to open. I don't know why, although I guess it isn't entirely fair to this comparison to say "because it is buggy".

Both open instantly for me, so can't really measure.

Eschwartz wrote:

Considering how obsessed gtk3 is with saving minuscule amounts of space for the benefit of people using gtk3 apps on a smartphone [...]

Sorry, I am not aware of any Smartphone app written in GTK3, but to my knowledge at least upstream GTK doesn't support any Smartphone platforms, so not sure what app you have seen here. But anyway that's unrelated to the GTK3 file chooser and we are getting way off-topic here...

halgi · 2017-10-19 00:43:13

Eschwartz wrote:

1) Some people feel the gtk3 theme is by definition incredibly ugly, no matter what, no matter when. Especially when they remove traditional menubars and replace them with smartphone hamburger menus that only contain a small fraction of the previous menu options. Subjective preferences are subjective, I'm not going to force mine on you and in return you aren't going to tell me that "in fact GTK2 doesn't look as nice", deal?

Yeah, I agree with this point, I prefer the old school file manager look, similar to dolphin and pcmanfm.

Eschwartz wrote:

3) You cannot type the name of a file into the nonexistent location bar.

If you start typing doesnt it act as a search bar? I dislike how it defaults to typing into the search bar instead of renaming the file.

On a side note does anyone know how to change the behaviour of the GTK3 fm or am I just stuck with it ?

To be specific I would like the fm to go to the first directory with the character I just typed. I.e. if I type 'h' it will move my focus to the first directory with 'h' as the first letter.

progandy · 2017-10-19 07:02:53

halgi wrote:

On a side note does anyone know how to change the behaviour of the GTK3 fm or am I just stuck with it ?
To be specific I would like the fm to go to the first directory with the character I just typed. I.e. if I type 'h' it will move my focus to the first directory with 'h' as the first letter.

There are patched versions available in the AUR, e.g. gtk3-typeahead or gtk3-mushrooms

frostschutz · 2017-10-19 09:25:31

don't you get a location bar anymore with ctrl+L or something?

eschwartz · 2017-10-24 17:04:29

Huh, I never realized the location bar was magically hidden rather than missing altogether. Perhaps gtk3 should stop hiding everything.

phw · 2017-10-26 09:55:08

Eschwartz wrote:

Huh, I never realized the location bar was magically hidden rather than missing altogether. Perhaps gtk3 should stop hiding everything.

Obviously you are not supposed to discover this feature, it's an "easteregg for those who know about this functionality" See https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/issues/85 . Welcome to the exclusive club of people who know.

eschwartz · 2017-10-26 14:17:19

Oh fun. So once again, every gtk3 application must suffer because of the design decisions of the Nautilus file browser which are baked into gtk3 itself.

"Worth noting that the Ctrl+L shortcut (as well as ~ and / ) are exposed in the Keyboards Shortcuts window."

What Keyboard Shortcuts window?

frostschutz · 2017-10-26 14:43:29

There's a way to get that window but I forgot the keyboard shortcut for that one

eschwartz · 2017-10-26 15:18:02

Oh okay then, so long as there is a keyboard shortcut to get you to the thing which tells you the keyboard shortcuts.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-16 01:37:41

[SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#2 2017-10-16 09:38:10

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#3 2017-10-16 09:41:35

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#4 2017-10-16 11:54:46

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#5 2017-10-16 21:06:21

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#6 2017-10-17 13:56:17

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#7 2017-10-17 14:29:37

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#8 2017-10-17 16:24:35

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#9 2017-10-18 08:03:28

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#10 2017-10-19 00:43:13

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#11 2017-10-19 07:02:53

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#12 2017-10-19 09:25:31

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#13 2017-10-24 17:04:29

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#14 2017-10-26 09:55:08

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#15 2017-10-26 14:17:19

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#16 2017-10-26 14:43:29

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

#17 2017-10-26 15:18:02

Re: [SOLVED] Changing Firefox File Manager

Board footer