Ubuntu – Messed up desktop and other folders

14.04guiiconsnautilusunity

Recently i made an attempt to rename Desktop to desktop..and messed up some things.When i try to remove these folders from here..they get deleted from home directory.

Following is screenshot of home directory

I want only the folder sridhar in the opening screen.When i click the folder icon..(top left) desktop option should be there inside that..in those icons in left(below home and above documents)

Any help would be much appreciated!

EDIT: After running the command on andrew's answer

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

After changing

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

Best Answer

Your ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file has some incorrect settings, in particular you have lost the correct setting for 'DESKTOP'. Possibly others have been changed as well and may need some editing, (the contents of your ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file will reveal this).

My own ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file is as follows:

andrew@ithaca:~$ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
andrew@ithaca:~$

You can certainly edit the file directly as is suggested above but another way to correct the missing entries in your own file is to run the following commands one after the other from a Terminal window:

xdg-user-dirs-update --set DESKTOP "$HOME/Desktop"
xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOWNLOAD "$HOME/Downloads"
xdg-user-dirs-update --set TEMPLATES "$HOME/Templates"
xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOCUMENTS "$HOME/Documents"
xdg-user-dirs-update --set PICTURES "$HOME/Pictures"
xdg-user-dirs-update --set VIDEOS "$HOME/Videos"

Then logout and subsequently login or simply reboot, and all should be well. For reference here are all of the values that can be manipulated in this way:

DESKTOP
DOWNLOAD
TEMPLATES
PUBLICSHARE
DOCUMENTS
MUSIC
PICTURES
VIDEOS

The commands I have given you should return you to the defaults, and to remove the $HOME icon from the Desktop:

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop home-icon-visible false

References:

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.

enter image description here

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 – Folders in Home appear all over desktop

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.