GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 680504
Add graphical file manager and file editor to LiveCD
Last modified: 2012-07-30 00:14:23 UTC
Currently the Live utility uses Fluxbox as an window manager, but this is suboptimal. Fluxbox is excellent for hackers, but not for average Joes and Janes. For example, no file manager is included. If the user wants to check the output saved from GParted, she is condemned to use the terminal to do so. The idea is that the current utility is mostly geared towards expert users, while such users would usually fire up a terminal to solve their problems. Regular users, who are the main market segment of GParted, need a more palatable GUI experience. For this I would suggest core packages of either Xfce or LXDE. Both DEs are sufficiently lightweight to keep the size of the Live utility down (at least not to make it enormously larger). At the same time the user experience will go significantly up. For example, there will be a file manager capable of easily mounting the USB if the user chose to load the OS to RAM.
I agree that a graphical file manager might be useful. However, we do not need to change desktop environments just to get a file manager. Is there a particular file manager that you would recommend? When choosing any package for the GParted Live image, small size is an important consideration.
(In reply to comment #1) > I agree that a graphical file manager might be useful. However, we do not need > to change desktop environments just to get a file manager. That is indeed so. Having gotten so used to Xfce (for the past 5 years or so), I'm at pains with less featureful environments. But that's likely a personal preference. > Is there a particular file manager that you would recommend? > First that comes to mind is Thunar (& thunar-volman). They provide excellent detection of attached volumes and allow for easy mounting. Then there is PCManFM. I have very little experience with it, but as far as I know it resembles Thunar and, respectively, Nautilus greatly. As GParted already comes with several utilities from LXDE, this is likely the optimal choice for a FM in GParted. (On a side note rant, in my experience Xfce utilities---Thunar, Terminal, etc.---are better designed than LXDE alternatives---PCManFM, LXterminal, etc. End of rant.) Then there is emelFM2. It also has mounting capabilities, although much better hidden. It is dual-pane, contrary to the two above. It is very small, thanks to persistent efforts from the main developer. It is very good at what it does and comes with an integrated text viewer/editor, which can prove handy. Debian lacks a package/maintainer for this, but a PPA for Ubuntu is available. [1] https://launchpad.net/~landronimirc/+archive/emelfm2 Additionally I would suggest Leafpad and/or Geany. GParted provides several editors, but none are for the average user. Both editors are very intuitive and small, so would fit GParted nicely. Please let me know what you think of this.
Please check GParted live 0.13.0-3. Man packages, pcmanfm, and leafpad were added. Steven.
Rename title from: use Xfce/LXDE for the LiveCD/LiveUSB to: Add graphical file manager and file editor to LiveCD
Thanks Steven for the additions to the Live image. Both pcmanfm and leafpad look like good choices. To make it easier for users to access these programs, is there a way to add a start menu in the fluxbox task bar at the bottom of the screen? Another alternative would be to place icons for pcmanfm and leafpad on the desktop.
Curtis, In the fluxbox menu, pcmanfm is shown as "File manager" and leafpad in in the "Editors". Do you think they are so common use for GParted live users so that we have to put them on the screen? Steven.
(In reply to comment #6) > In the fluxbox menu, pcmanfm is shown as "File manager" and leafpad in in the > "Editors". Do you think they are so common use for GParted live users so that > we have to put them on the screen? Good point Steven. I do not thing that these are so common that they need to be placed on the main screen. Since many of our users come from a Windows background, I suspect that they are not familiar with "right-clicking on the desktop" to get to the menu. Of course now they can also use the "menu" key beside the right hand control key to bring up the menu. If there is not a way to have a "start menu" in the fluxbox task bar, then perhaps we can leave this as is for now. Liviu, What are your thoughts on the recently added pcmanfm and leafpad?
(In reply to comment #7) > What are your thoughts on the recently added pcmanfm and leafpad? I think this is great. To my knowledge, pcmanfm is as intuitive and simple to use as Thunar/Nautilus. And GParted Live already comes with several LXDE utilities. As for Leafpad, it allows easy and intuitive display and editing of files. All in all, great.
Hmm, it might, just might, make sense to also include emelFM2. The added size should be very small, but this FM has added value compared to pcmanfm/Thunar. It has an integrated command line interpreter, two panes, file viewer/editor, and a couple of useful internal plugins. But since Debian doesn't maintain this package, it would likely prove too much overhead to add it.
(In reply to comment #9) > Hmm, it might, just might, make sense to also include emelFM2. The added size > should be very small, but this FM has added value compared to pcmanfm/Thunar. > It has an integrated command line interpreter, two panes, file viewer/editor, > and a couple of useful internal plugins. > > But since Debian doesn't maintain this package, it would likely prove too much > overhead to add it. Let us proceed with PCManFM for the time being. The core focus is to enable users to partition their drives with GParted Live. I think that with the added file manager and editor, that the extra tasks a user might need to do are now that much easier. I think that we can now close this bug report.
Curtis, Thanks for confirming pcmanfm is working in GParted live 0.13.0-3. Closing this bug. Steven.