Xfce Forum

grom

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 5

moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello!

This is my first post, so I hope I am posting in right place, if not, sorry admin...
I am also not a native english speaker...

I am new to Gentoo, well, almost 3 months, kheh, and I choosed Xfce Desktop.

This is also new to me...

I have several questions about xfce apps and usage of xfce, but let me kick off with beauty...

On Desktop, I choose some picture for background.

The thing is, that I can not 'choose' files that are on desktop.
I mean, I can double-click them to open, but
if I want to select several files with mouse I can not.
The rectangle that is supposed to follow the mouse is not following it...
If I click and hold the mouse button, and than move the mouse,
I should get some kind of 'rectangle' that is including all files inside it...
So, this is not happening....

Also, I can not move files that are on Desktop.
If file is in top left corner of Desktop,
and I want to put it in bottom right,
I can not move it...

Thank you, grom

grom

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 5

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello, I am bumping my first thread, hopping to get some attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcqDdjl5MM

I am really sorry for this but is there any solution for this problem?

GS

Member

From: place once called Transylvania

Registered: 2010-06-23

Posts: 41

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

I have two suggestions to help you get started.

First, please tell us what version of Xfce you are running, and whether or not you have made any changes to its settings for the desktop.

Second, you might want to ask about this in the Gentoo discussion forums. I don't know whether or not that distribution makes any changes to Xfce that might affect the way you have to go about fixing the problem.

I'm running Xfce 4.6.2 on Debian GNU/Linux testing, and all of the functions you mentioned are working fine.

grom

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 5

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello there!

I am using Xfce 4 Desktop Environment version 4.6.2 (Xfce 4.6)

As I asked on gentoo forum couple of days ago,
I was not so welcomed, so I closed that thread:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-844345.html

I am quite a newbie to all Linux thing,
I am like following the recepie for a cake - and what do you know, it works!

I did not made any changes to xfce, I followed the Gentoo HandBook.

I can provide all the data you require.

Thank you

GS

Member

From: place once called Transylvania

Registered: 2010-06-23

Posts: 41

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello there!

Howdy!

I am using Xfce 4 Desktop Environment version 4.6.2 (Xfce 4.6)

Good. That's the one of the first things we need to know.

As I asked on gentoo forum couple of days ago,
I was not so welcomed, so I closed that thread:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-844345.html

I am quite a newbie to all Linux thing,
I am like following the recepie for a cake - and what do you know, it works!

Everybody has to start small when walking into a new neighborhood. I've been using computers on a daily basis since the 1960s. (Yes, I'm kind of old.) I still run into situations all the time in which I don't know my butt from my elbow. Of course, it could be that this is a sign more of my IQ than the complexity of computing systems. But you get my point, I think. There is absolutely no reason to feel shy, or to be apologetic about not knowing everything.

In the GNU/Linux communities around the Web you will often be treated fairly badly if you are not doing your homework. We should all do a little searching and reading before posting questions. But the answer to your question is not so obvious -- at least not to me. It will probably require a bit of troubleshooting to sort out.

I am probably not the best person for you to work with, but I'll try to help, and we'll hope that someone with more familiarity will come along to help us.

The reason I say I'm not the best person for you to work with is that I never use icons on my desktops (in any OS), and I'm relatively new to Linux and Xfce, too.

I did not made any changes to xfce, I followed the Gentoo HandBook.

I can provide all the data you require.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the Gentoo Handbook. I'll look it up if it seems as though it might be helpful for us in this discussion. I use Debian.

That is possibly (though not necessarily) an important distinction. Sometimes, various distributions will "customize" packages (including desktop environments) in ways that are particular to themselves. I have no idea whether or not Gentoo does this, but that is exactly why I suggested that you should consider asking the question in the Gentoo forum.

Frankly, the responses you received in the thread over there on the other forum were mostly nice, but not too helpful. It looks as though you got about the same level of help at both places -- here and there. That means that you are in trouble.

;D

But maybe, if you and I try to sort it out, someone more knowledgeable than I will come along and take pity on us. There are some extremely accomplished people on this board, but the traffic level here can be pretty slow. If we have no luck here, we might try posting to the Xfce newsgroup list.

First of all, let me clarify what I think is normal for the behavior of the Xfce desktop.

1. I am unable to choose multiple icons on the desktop -- either by dragging the mouse with left-click or by holding down the <Ctrl> key and left clicking on multiple icons -- UNLESS those icons represent actual files in /home/username/Desktop. If I try to to select the "Home" and "File System" objects at the same time, for instance, that's not going to work. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe that this is standard behavior for this desktop environment. I do not (yet) know whether or not the behavior can be changed with a change in settings. I suspect that, if there is such a setting, it is not available via a GUI tool. We may have to manually edit a text file which controls this function -- if the function can be altered at all in this version of Xfce. But -- let me emphasize this -- I absolutely can select multiple files (if they are actually files) on the desktop. However, what I can do with them at that point is limited. I cannot drag multiple files across the desktop. But I can cut and paste them to another location in the file system, and I can delete them. As I said, I think that this is standard behavior for Xfce.

2. I am able to grab a single icon and move it anywhere I wish on the desktop. I imagine that we may find a setting that will help you to solve this issue on your system. Again, I suspect that the setting -- if it exists -- may not be available to us in a GUI tool.

3. I noticed in your thread on the other forum that you you were concerned about not being able to move files from your file manager to your desktop, and vice versa. This, too, is normal in my experience with Xfce. I have taken it for granted that this is the correct behavior. After all, it is a simple matter to move files to or from the desktop by actually using the file manager (Thunar) to access the ~/Desktop folder. So, for instance, if I were to want to place a given file on my desktop, I'd just copy (or move) it to /home/username/Desktop.

I wonder if, perhaps, you are used to another desktop environment like Gnome or KDE which may behave a bit differently from Xfce. Xfce is a simpler (and, to my mind, a more elegant) desktop environment. It doesn't have a lot of "bells and whistles", and some of its default behaviors may be a bit more "basic" than you are expecting -- that is, if you came from using a different environment.

I am probably not going to be able to respond to this thread until tomorrow, but you have been an extraordinarily patient person, judging from how long you've waited for responses. Given some time, we may be able to find a way for you to achieve what you wish with Xfce.

grom

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 5

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello GS,

wait!!!

Since 1960?!?!

Wow...
Well, Mister, hello there!

Your post gave me burst of energy. Thank you!

Here are the Gentoo handbooks I used:
First I had to install X:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml
and than xfce:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xfce-config.xml

I have Hp laptop compaq 6820's, dual core, 2.2 ghz, 2gb ram.

I yust wanted the lightest desktop, since I use Netbeans, gimp, and a lot of other apps,
so I want my processor not to be bothered with heavy duty desktops.
I came from Ubuntu (gnome), but I found that Gentoo is like fastest and so...

I CAME TO BREAKTHROUGH!!!!

I found out, that if I hold CTRL button (key) and than select desktop icon,
I can move it around!
YEAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
(I think I will go another circle: HUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)

Here is the video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atUye4J8Nas

So I guess, with a little more of playing around I will find the right
combination to move or copy files into folders on my desktop.

Since I almost reached all of xfce desktop performance that I can feel comftable with,
I will move on and post my second topic regarding xfce desktop.

GS, thank for support.

GS

Member

From: place once called Transylvania

Registered: 2010-06-23

Posts: 41

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

wait!!!

Since 1960?!?!

About 1963. Yeah, I was already kind of "old" by then. I was a physicist. I have mostly used computers for systems simulation purposes. Back then, the systems we simulated were very simple. Computers have been my most-used tool for decades, but they weren't my main focus.

Thank you for the links to the Gentoo information. Gentoo looks very interesting. My wife will probably smack me if I start fiddling around with another distribution, but I'm tempted.

Also, thank you for the link to the video you made. It is certain that your Xfce desktop behaves slightly differently from mine. I don't know the reason. In looking through the GUI tools for configuring Xfce I didn't see any settings that would appear to account for those differences between our systems. This leads me to believe that there might be differences in the ways that the Gentoo distribution and Debian distribution folks chose to implement Xfce.

But it's also possible that I'm just missing something in the GUI configuration tools. An example would be that, in the Window Manager Tweaks applet, the "Raise windows when any mouse button is pressed" choice (on the Accessibility tab) controls whether or not the SCROLL wheel will bring a background window to the foreground when I'm trying to scroll a background window (and leave it in the background). That was a huge annoyance for me until I figured it out. Obviously, when you press a mouse button on a background window it always (?) brings that window to the foreground. So I'm not quite sure why this selection is labeled as it is. But I'm glad I learned how the setting works, because I often want to scroll a background window without bringing it to the foreground. (Was that explanation as obtuse as I fear it may have been? Blame the wonderful dinner and the vodka my wife gave me!)

So I guess, with a little more of playing around I will find the right
combination to move or copy files into folders on my desktop.

Since I almost reached all of xfce desktop performance that I can feel comftable with,
I will move on and post my second topic regarding xfce desktop.

GS, thank for support.

Well, I suppose that a little more experimentation on your part may get you where you want to be.

I don't know that I was really very helpful, but I'm pleased if you're a little happier with your desktop environment.

As you may imagine I've seen a huge change in the interfaces that we humans use in communicating with computers. In the beginning most of my work was done via the "front panel" -- which has nothing whatsoever to do with what the word "panel" would bring to the minds of most computer users these days. My experience with the antiquities may make my approach seem a little odd at times. I have found Xfce on Debian GNU/Linux to be the most satisfying general computing experience I've ever had.

Be happy!

Gilbert

grom

Member

Registered: 2010-04-24

Posts: 5

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hello

I was suprised to find the solution, well kind of...

When I installed gentoo several months ago, I also searched for some themes.
I loaded like 10 of them.

Yesterday I got fed up with one I had and I changed theme.

What do you know, now I can click, drad, move inot or copy into folders, and move icons on desktop.

So that was it.

Thanks again Mister Gilbert.

GS

Member

From: place once called Transylvania

Registered: 2010-06-23

Posts: 41

Re: moving files and their selection on Desktop

Hey, thanks for posting this resolution!

So, it was a bad theme, eh? It's interesting that it would (apparently) work in all other ways but just interfere in the specific ways you described.

I'm glad you got it sorted!

Regards,
Gilbert