Gnome and Nautilus problems

[Aonghus]

Hi,

Apologies if this has come up before; I've looked around and can't seem to find a solution.

 

I've switched to using gnome (and GDM) and have had a few problems.

 

Firstly, when I log in, I have to explicitly select gnome in the 'session' menu every time (choosing 'last' just brings up KDE, even if Gnome was the last one I used, and KDE seems to be the 'default' option too). How can I first change the default, and furthermore, get GDM to recognise that the 'last' used desktop was gnome?

 

Secondly, the Nautilus help file says that I should be able to get a sidebar with the folder tree etc. by choosng View -> view sidebar, but I don't have any such option. When I had Fedora (for all of a week - couldn't get the sound going), I remember this option being there. Is this specific to the package distributed with Mandrake? Is the sidebar disabled or am I missing something terribly obvious (this is very possible, I am rather a novice :) )? Furthermore, if there is a way to stop Nautilus opening a new window every time I select a new folder, that would also be very helpful.

 

Thanks for any comments or suggestions anyone might have, and apologies if I'm going over old ground again.

 

regards,

Aonghus

 

Edit:

 

P.S. I am using Gnome 2.6 (the packages that came with 10.1 Community) if this is relevant. Also, would people recommend updating Gnome? The thac rpms in my Urpmi seem to have a 2.9 version. Anyone who has done this - have you noticed a significant difference, or would it be an unnecessary cosmetic change? Thanks again, Aonghus

Edited April 19, 2005 by Aonghus

[adamw]

What you're using is spatial nautilus. (Try it for a bit, you might get to like it, I did...)

 

From version 2.8 onwards there's a preference in the GUI to disable it being used by default. In 2.6, you can set a gconf key. Run gconf-editor . Go to apps/nautilus/preferences . Enable the 'always_use_browser' option. Now whenever you use nautilus it will use 'browser mode' instead of 'spatial mode', which is what you want.

[Aonghus]

Thanks Adamw,

That's solved it. I don't quite get the advantage of the spatial mode setting, so I shall stick to what I know :). Just out of curiosity, surely, with spatial mode, one would at least want to avoid having half a dozen windows open just to get to the required folder?

 

Anyway, I shall stick to the browser mode for now, I think. Thanks again,

 

Aonghus

[tyme]

with spacial nautilus, a double middle click will open the directory in a new window and close the current window that's displaying the current directory.

 

here's a good explanation of spatial nautilus: http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/spatial-nautilus.html

[Guest requiem]

nautilus>Edit>Preferences>Behavior>Always open in browser windows

[adamw]

requiem: that preference doesn't exist in 2.6, IIRC.

[domtar]

sure it does

always has for me

[Aonghus]

Thanks for the responses.

 

The perferences->behaviour->always open in browser windows option doesn't seem to exist in my version, anyway. Is there any advantage to updating Nautilus, or would I need to update gnome in its entirety?

I'm happy enough with it now - although the browser mode does make it open much more slowly.

 

Also, does anyone know how to solve the default desktpo in GDM problem I mentioned above?

 

Thanks again for all your help,

regards,

Aonghus

[adamw]

setting the gconf key gives the same result, the GUI preference was just added to make it easier. So as far as this specific issue goes, no, no difference if you update. There are all the other changes made in nautilus between releases, of course, but to be honest there's nothing world-beating been changed, so if 2.6 is working for you, stick with it and be happy.

 

Can't help with the GDM problem, sorry. I autologin. :)

[domtar]

requiem: that preference doesn't exist in 2.6, IIRC.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

sure it does

always has for me

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

sorry about that, I was thinking gtk2-2.6 :woops: