Ubuntu – How to add a separator to the Place sidebar in nautilus

nautilusplaces

I'd like to drag a few more folders to the places sidebar in nautilus, but want to group these new ones separately to the default folders (like Dropbox, Downloads and Documents). Is there a way to add a new separator to the list?

Best Answer

This is not ideal but as far as I can see the only option you have short of filing a bug and chasing it through or writing and applying a patch.

Open Nautilus
Browse to a directory that you don't want to bookmark, for example /bin
From the Bookmarks menu click on "Add Bookmark"
Then Right click on the bookmark for /bin and choose "Rename..."
Rename the bookmark to "----------"
Close Nautilus and open it again
you now have something that looks vaguely but not very much like a separator.

EDIT: Looks like there is already a bug filed for this. Add your own point of view here.

NOTE: In this example I'm running ubuntu 13.04 with nautilus (files) 3.6.3.
You can test this in a virtual machine to see if everything is OK.

1) Make sure you have enable the Source code repository

Open the Ubuntu Software Center
In the Menu Bar choose Edit -> Software Sources. Click to enable "Source code repository". Just in case I use the "Main Server" to Download.

enter image description here

Open a Terminal Window to update the repositories.

sudo apt-get update

2) In the Terminal type the following to install the necessary packages.

sudo apt-get install build-essential quilt

3) Install build dependencies.

sudo apt-get build-dep nautilus

4) Create a folder to download the source code.

mkdir ~/Downloads/src
cd ~/Downloads/src

5) Download the source code & Export variables.

apt-get source nautilus
export QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
export EDITOR=gedit

6) Create the patch and edit the source code.

cd nautilus-3.6.3/
quilt new my_custom_places.patch
quilt edit src/nautilus-places-sidebar.c

Custom Trash: To change the name of the Trash.You can change the strings in the lines 567 and 569.

eg: "Trash" to "Custom Trash" & "Open the trash" to "Open the Custom Trash"

enter image description here

Add Folder: In this example I will add the "Test" folder in my home directory /home/virtual/Test. (change the folder according to your needs)

After the line number 562 add the following:

/* add Test directory */
mount_uri = "file:///home/virtual/Test";
icon = g_themed_icon_new (NAUTILUS_ICON_FOLDER);
add_place (sidebar, PLACES_BUILT_IN,
       SECTION_COMPUTER,
       _("Test"), icon, mount_uri,
       NULL, NULL, NULL, 0,
       _("Open Test folder"));
g_object_unref (icon);

enter image description here

Remove Recent Files: To remove the Recent Files from the places... delete the lines from 525 to 534.

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Save the changes.

7) Build the deb packages.

quilt refresh
fakeroot dpkg-buildpackage

8) Install the deb packages.

cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *deb

9) For system-wide..edit the nautilus.desktop file to add the folder eg:(/home/virtual/Test) in the quick list.

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop

Change:

Actions=Window;

To:

Actions=Test;Window;

Add:

[Desktop Action Test]
Name=Test             
Exec=nautilus --new-window /home/virtual/Test
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

Before:

enter image description here

After:

enter image description here

10) Finally you can logout and Login to see the changes.

RESULT:

enter image description here

Hope this helps.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to organize the nautilus bookmarks in the “Places” panel applet

Ubuntu – How to edit Nautilus Places sidebar and Unity QuickList

NOTE: In this example I'm running ubuntu 13.04 with nautilus (files) 3.6.3. You can test this in a virtual machine to see if everything is OK.

Related Question

NOTE: In this example I'm running ubuntu 13.04 with nautilus (files) 3.6.3.
You can test this in a virtual machine to see if everything is OK.