[Feature request] Make it possible to show volumes on the desktop

[probonopd]

Expected Behavior

There should be a way to show volumes/partitions on the --desktop view, like they already show up under "Devices" in the side panel of the the file manager.

Most desktops allow this. E.g., Xfce:

Current Behavior

Volumes/partitions cannot be shown in the --desktop view.

System Information

• Distribution & Version: FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE-p8
• Kernel: FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE-p8
• pcmanfm-qt Version: 0.15.0

[probonopd]

There could be an option to enable this alongside the existing options:

[probonopd]

Unlike the existing options, what I am suggesting would not just create some .desktop file on-the-fly. Instead, it would add icons on the desktop as volumes/partitions come and go, without creating .desktop files for those. Those icons would have context menu items that could e.g., unmount/eject them, like it is already possible today under "Devices" in the side panel of the the file manager.

[probonopd]

Looks like in desktopwindowmodel.c one would need to use modelFromPath(fm_path_new_for_uri("computer://")) somehow in addition to what is already there, so that the "normal" icons and the ones for computer:// would get shown. What would be the best way to achieve this?

[tsujan]

Sorry for the late reply -- I was so busy.

First, this is a valid feature request.

Second, it seems that you were talking about a very old version of pcmanfm-qt or, perhaps, about the abandoned GTK version. We don't have desktopwindowmodel.c.

Third, the side-pane is completely different from Fm::FolderView. In the former, we deal with items; in the latter, with files and only files. That's the reason why Home, Trash, Computer,... are desktop entries.

Generalizing Fm::FolderModelItem to include non-files was my first thought before adding those items as desktop entries but it proved to be so complex and, especially, so dirty that I abandoned it.

If you can do it by writing a clean and concise code, your PR will be welcome.

[probonopd]

you were talking about a very old version of pcmanfm-qt

Indeed, I am currently experiementing with my fork of 0.10.0 but I think the general gist of the ticket should still apply to the latest one.

What I was trying to say is that if I change the model that is used for the desktop, then the current code already does everything that is needed. The only thing is missing is some glue code that can combine 2 models into 1. Do you know a way to achieve this?

[tsujan]

if I change the model that is used for the desktop,

If you take a glance at the latest code (or the code from last year or 2 years ago), you'll see that we don't use a different model for desktop. The original author simplified the code and it should remain that way.

Anyhow, in this case too (like in #1193), let's forget about words. A clean and relatively short code will be acceptable for this.

[coldReactive]

Also would like to see this possible with udiskie and udisks2 support maybe, to get away completely from gnome dependencies with lxqt.

[tsujan]

... to get away completely from gnome dependencies with lxqt.

LXQt has no GNOME dependency. GNOME even doesn't have a desktop, in the true sense of the word "desktop".

[coldReactive]

... to get away completely from gnome dependencies with lxqt.

LXQt has no GNOME dependency. GNOME even doesn't have a desktop, in the true sense of the word "desktop".

gvfs will, however, get some gnome dependencies, such as gsettings-desktop-schemas

[probonopd]

Things like libfm, gvfs are arguably deep in "Gnome land".

[tsujan]

Using a fundamental library developed by the GNOME team doesn't mean having a GNOME dependency. GNOME is a DE based on GTK, while pcmanfm-qt and libfm-qt are Qt programs that use GLib for file management because GLib has proven to be superior to its Qt/KDE counterpart(s). GVFS extends GLib's functionalities a lot.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with this feature request.