Icons for removable devices?

Blake · 2014-05-10 19:42:08

XFCE 4.10
Slackware 14.1 64 bit
My Hello Message is over there somewhere....I hope

I need to do some homework. My goal is a very uncluttered DE, with icons for the cdrom and the USB stick (and maybe other sources) that I can tickle with the cursor to see whether they are mounted. Otherwise, not much.

Do I need to install some enabling software? dbus, Mount, hal?

So far, I have blundered around and made a mess that I could not fix. At one point I did a complete distro reinstall just to get XFCE back to default. I am NOT at home in the GUI. I prefer to work in the CLI as much as possible -- my uses for a computer are primarily gathering information and writing. So any tip or instructions regarding a DE should be written for the average sixth grader, or I'll be totally lost. (As an example, the first draft of this post is...well, I don't know where, or what happened to it....!)

TIA, and KISP (keep it simple, please).

Jerry3904 · 2014-05-10 23:01:16

Right click the desktop > Desktop Settings > Icons tab, check "Removable devices"

Is that what you mean?

Blake · 2014-05-11 03:38:01

Yes, it sure is. Unfortunately I can't wrap my head around what's going on.

Background: I have the possibility to install up to five different OSs in my box, none of them dual-boot. (Not Apple, but MS, BSD, Linux will work. At present I have only three hard drives, and two of those are SSDs with Slack 14.1 freshly installed.) My two installs of Slack 14.1 do not behave the same, though I installed them hours apart, and both were made from the same source (the DVD Pat Volkerding sells. Both installs were made as upgrades from Slack 14.0.). On one install, XFCE gives me the icons I want on my desktop -- I get the cdrom icon as soon as I put a disc in, and the USB stick icon is always present. I can tell whether either of those drives is/are mounted, and I can mount and umount with my mouse. Good. But on the other install, I can't get Xfce to play nicely. No icons for the cdrom or the USB stick.. And so far I have not been able to determine just how, exactly, the settings for the two installs of Xfce differ. They appear to be identical, but I'm not reluctant to start from scratch and try to get things exactly the same for both installs. Whatever it takes.

How do I set up Xfce so it will give me the information I want? As things stand, performance seems all a matter of pure chance.

Of course I understand that I did something to make the difference between the two installs, but I can't pin it down so I can understand what to do and what not to do. I'm not whining about bad software. I want to know how to control the good software I have.

Questions? I'll do my best to provide necessary information. I do appreciate help....

Jerry3904 · 2014-05-11 10:09:33

I can get you started, perhaps, but beyond this you will need other help..On the one that does not work, navigate to

~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

Open xfce4-desktop.xml in your text editor, and check that line 20 reads like this:

<property name="show-removable" type="bool" value="true"/>

Last edited by Jerry3904 (2014-05-11 10:10:14)

Blake · 2014-05-11 14:23:45

Thanks! I'll give it a go.

BTW, I wonder whether The Powers That Be would consider giving XFCE a button that allows the user to restore default settings, and then return XFCE to its previous status?? -- I'm just askin', OK?

Last edited by Blake (2014-05-11 14:32:32)

MountainDewManiac · 2014-05-11 15:20:00

Off-topic, but I couldn't resist (please forgive):

Blake wrote:

my uses for a computer are primarily gathering information and writing.

Blake wrote:

the first draft of this post is...well, I don't know where, or what happened to it....!

It must be challenging to be an author, when your first drafts disappear on you. wink

BtW, did I read correctly that the Slackware DVD is almost 50USD? I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that when one charges a fee for copying a "free and open source linux distribution" onto optical media, that one is allowed to charge a small fee for the materials/time. Last time I checked, a 100-pack of Taiyo Yuden DVDs cost well under 50USD - with lesser brands being somewhat cheaper. I'd like to think my time is precious and worth a lot, but I never charged anyone more than twelve bucks (shipped) to furnish a (live/)installation DVD and that was when I had the means to do them up in a plastic case, with artwork on the case and DVD. Just seems kind of high to me. (Note: If you live in a country where your Internet access is metered, such that it'd cost you >35USD to download the thing, and that country is also located such that it'd cost >35USD to ship a DVD to you, it might be more fair than it appears to me.)

Regards and good luck with your computer issue AND your writing,
MDM

Blake · 2014-05-11 20:05:57

MDM:

Yeah, when a text goes walkabout, the floor here can get littered with bloody patches of scalp....it can happen any time, of course, but In my opinion, both an author and his work are in the best possible hands as long as the work is done in the CLI. Sure, display the text in the GUI if it's in HTML. That's a good way to proofread something (the change in format makes errors more obvious), but when creating and archiving texts, for both sanity and safety, do avoid ToonTown. Of course we all appreciate the internet for the Fails videos and so on. Word processors? More Wretched Excess than useful tools, they have limited applications. Just my view. YMMV, and that's a Good Thing.

Yes, Slackware can cost fifty US dollars. That's the "price" IF you want to contribute to the project. I am sure one can get the code for free, but those of us who appreciate Pat's work and want to see his principles survive donate to the effort. I'll leave it to other Slackers to expound on what I mean by Pat's principles of computing.

Blake · 2014-05-11 20:30:30

More on my question about the misbehavior of my desktop:

I compared the code as kindly suggested by Jerry3904, and yes, there was a difference or three. The install that worked (I call it Number 2) has wallpaper, and the display of icons for Trash, Home, and Filesystems was nixed. There was no selection mandating the display of removable devices. To recapitulate, Nr. 2 DOES display removable device icons, and no other icons. Odd, eh? It seems to know what I want, and give it to me, no matter what!

Install Nr. 1 -- the bad one -- had no wallpaper, and the command to display removable device icons WAS ENABLED. Yet it displays no icons at all (I nixed just the trash, home, and filesystem icons -- and did NOT nix the display of removable devices).

So, to make Nr. 1 a lot more like Nr. 2, I put wallpaper in install Nr. 1, tested that, and then tested it a second time after telling it NOT to display an icon for removable devices. Nothing made any difference in the display on the desktop. And yes, after each change, a reboot was done.

So I have no idea what is wrong. My next step will be to do a complete reinstall of Slackware on the Number One drive, and see whether it performs the same as the install on the Number Two drive. It should.

All of this took longer than it should have because an old enemy, CUPS, decided to give me What For. Yet again.

Blake · 2014-05-11 23:25:57

Progress report: a reinstall is complete, and so far, Xfce4 is minding its manners.

Two points, if I may:

First, experience tells me the claim that computers can't make mistakes is silly.

Second, it would have been nice to have had a "Restore Default Settings" button for Xfce4.

Jerry3904 · 2014-05-11 23:48:41

Agreed. We created a small app with one b/c we felt it was important for regular users to have it available when things are really screwed up.

Luke M · 2014-05-16 00:31:37

I have a question on the topic of removable device icons. On Ubuntu I see 3 sub-options in Settings->Desktop->Icons->Removable Devices :
- Network Shares
- Disks and Drives
- Other Devices

But on Fedora I don't see any sub-options, only the main Removable Devices option. Any idea why? Some optional package I'm missing?

Last edited by Luke M (2014-05-16 00:32:30)

ToZ · 2014-05-16 00:47:38

Luke M wrote:

I have a question on the topic of removable device icons. On Ubuntu I see 3 sub-options in Settings->Desktop->Icons->Removable Devices :
- Network Shares
- Disks and Drives
- Other Devices
But on Fedora I don't see any sub-options, only the main Removable Devices option. Any idea why? Some optional package I'm missing?

Ubuntu probably has an more updated version of xfwm4. From Xubuntu 14.04:

$ xfwm4 -V
	This is xfwm4 version 4.11.1 (revision 2b800f4) for Xfce 4.10
	Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
	Compiled against GTK+-2.24.23, using GTK+-2.24.23.

	Build configuration and supported features:
	- Startup notification support:                 Yes
	- XSync support:                                Yes
	- Render support:                               Yes
	- Xrandr support:                               Yes
	- Embedded compositor:                          Yes
	- KDE systray proxy (deprecated):               No

Luke M · 2014-05-16 01:01:03

I think you mean xfdesktop, not xfwm4. Yes, different version: 4.11.6 for ubuntu; 4.10.2 for Fedora.

I get desktop icons for MTP devices on ubuntu, but not Fedora.

ToZ · 2014-05-16 01:08:54

Luke M wrote:

I think you mean xfdesktop, not xfwm4. Yes, different version: 4.11.6 for ubuntu; 4.10.2 for Fedora.

Oops, yes. Sorry, my bad.
(X)ubuntu 14.04 ships with a slightly newer version of Xfce with a number of bug fixes and enhancements included.

Luke M · 2014-05-16 01:20:15

Ok, thanks. It confused me because I thought that MTP wasn't working...it was actually working fine, just no icon on the desktop (in Fedora).

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#1 2014-05-10 19:42:08

Icons for removable devices?

#2 2014-05-10 23:01:16

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#3 2014-05-11 03:38:01

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#4 2014-05-11 10:09:33

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#5 2014-05-11 14:23:45

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#6 2014-05-11 15:20:00

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#7 2014-05-11 20:05:57

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#8 2014-05-11 20:30:30

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#9 2014-05-11 23:25:57

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#10 2014-05-11 23:48:41

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#11 2014-05-16 00:31:37

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#12 2014-05-16 00:47:38

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#13 2014-05-16 01:01:03

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#14 2014-05-16 01:08:54

Re: Icons for removable devices?

#15 2014-05-16 01:20:15

Re: Icons for removable devices?

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