Folder on desktop

Hardware Librem 5
1

I want to create a folder on desktop similar to one on iOS. This folder should open up and then show the desktop files within.

I tried creating folder in the /usr/share/applications folder as well as the .local/share/applications folders but it does not show up on the desktop. I also create a folder on the /home/purism/Desktop folder. That too, does not show up on the Librem 5 screen.

How can this be done on Librem 5?

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Gnome has a lot of download-able widget-like tools and add-ons that add capabilities to the user interface after you install the right tools. I forget what they are called. Once the suite has been installed, there is a huge library of checkbox accessible tools that can be selected from in the tools part of the graphical operating system. One such tool is a check box in the list that allows icons on the desktop. I would start there. I have Ubuntu 18.04 on my PC, looking like and running a lot like Windows 7 using these tools to alter how the Desktop works via configuration changes in text files that are not visible as text commands unless you examine the changes to the text files after doing configuration changes via the GUIs. I would start working with those tools in convergence mode on a PC screen to see if you can get desktop icons in Gnome at all first, and to see how your changes via those graphical tools affect the desktop configuration text files. If that works, then try to find the file that calls out control of the phone’s desktop (a path to a configuration file for the phone’s desktop). Somewhere in that process, you’ll probably find ways to configure the phone’s desktop by altering a text file like the similar changes that you made on the regular large-screen desktop configuration file. I don’t know if the large screen desktop shares a configuration file with the phone desktop or if they are separate files. But if not, the format of those desktop configuration files are probably very similar to the phone desktop configuration file. What works on the large screen desktop should work on the phone desktop. And even though Some Linux distributions do not allow desktop icons, it’s always possible to get desktop icons working eventually on most distros if you hack on the desktop configurations hard enough and long enough.

This is probably the longest path to achieving what you’re trying to do. But it will probably work if no one else knows a better way. This method will probably leave you being a relative expert on desktop configurations also.

Also, there probably isn’t going to be a ‘right-click, create folder’ choice anywhere in the GUI. But it is easy to create directories or symbolic links in the desktop directory from a bash prompt. It is even possible that your folder or symbolic link might be visible on the desktop automatically if you just create it in the desktop directory from a bash prompt (mkdir or ln command).

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Did you try something like this?

If you replace the content of the “Exec:” line with, for example, “nautilus Documents” (or “nemo Documents”), or a further subfolder within the Documents folder (“nautilus Documents/Subfolder”, that will get you there:

Create MyFolder.desktop and MyIcon.png as described in the link. The contents of the .desktop file should be (for example):

[Desktop Entry]
Name=MyFolder
Exec=nautilus Documents/Subfolder
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utilities;
Icon=/home/purism/.local/share/icons/MyIcon.png

It gets added to your app grid. It’s not possible to use the “Desktop” directory on the L5, as far as I know. (Or rather, you can put files or directories there from within the file browser, but they don’t display on a “desktop” screen. The “desktop” in the file structure is not the app grid/home screen; it’s the blank space/background that appears when you first launch an app.)

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@amarok, Thanks for the details. I wanted to create a folder with grouping of similar apps (or webapps) to make it easier for searching / opening etc. So, it should open up a small window (just like iOS) showing grouped apps and then I can open it.
I will try your approach as well.

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I noticed the need to sort and manage app icons better too. For a while it was ok to set the screen ration down to 150% but that didn’t help long - and it’s only going to get worse (which is kinda positive problem). If you don’t mind me asking, how many you got on your screen? I’ve got 8 lines of mobile and web apps and 19 lines of others (lines may be better measure than numbers - it is a visual sorting with downwards scrolling after all).

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My count is 11 and is growing fast as I keep adding WebApps. :slight_smile:

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