1
Here are some detailed IMPORTANT notes and FAQs for users and packagers.
3
Please read this carefully before you make package for PCManFM.
4
** Suggestions to the packagers:
6
1. Add these two commands in your post-inst scripts, or some things won't work:
7
update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
8
update-desktop-database
10
2. Never turn on --enable-inotify configure option. It's currently broken.
12
3. Use gamin instead of fam, whenever possible.
14
4. Use hal >= 0.5, or volume management won't work properly.
15
If there is no hal on your system, turn this off with --disable-hal option.
17
5. Check /usr/share/pcmanfm/mount.rules to see if any modification
18
is required on your distro.
20
** Detailed explanation for every issues related to PCManFM:
24
1. Running update-mime-database /usr/share/mime as root after installation
25
is needed because PCManFM adds some new mime-type definitions
26
to the system to speed up the recognition of some well-known Windows files.
27
(This also improve other programs using the same shared mime database)
28
So, regenerating the the cache of the database is required since it's changed.
30
* To packagers: Don't forget to do this in your post-inst scripts.
32
2. Default application is specified in ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
33
If default application is not found in this file, system-wide settings will
34
be used. The system-wised settings are in /usr/share/applications/defaults
35
and /usr/local/share/applications.
37
NOTE: There is currently no standard for this. To maximize compatibility, and
38
decrease the users' problems, we use the same mechanism with Gnome and XFCE.
39
Our own mechanism, which I think is better, is dropped in PCManFM 0.3.5 and later.
41
* Besides, running update-desktop-database as root is required after
42
installation since all applications for all mime-types are cached on
43
the system according to the freedesktop.org specs to improve performance.
44
Without this cache, PCManFM won't work properly.
46
* To packagers: Don't forget to do this in your post-inst scripts.
49
Volume Management (Mounting devices):
51
Mounting and unmounting the disks are supported through HAL.
52
If you compile PCManFM with --disable-hal, volume management won't be available.
53
Besides, please use the latest version of HAL available on your systems because
54
incompatibilities exist among different versions of HAL. The older versions
55
lack something important, and their configuration are different, too.
56
Generally HAL >= 0.5 might be OK. Our development environment uses version 0.5.9.
58
If a device is defined in /etc/fstab, PCManFM will call mount/umount directly.
59
Otherwise, HAL will be called to mount the devices. This is usually the case of
60
removable devices such as usb disks or SD cards which are not described in fstab.
61
Default options to mount various file systems on these devices can be changed
62
via editing /usr/share/pcmanfm/mount.rules. The file format is easy to understand.
63
Newer versions of HAL force applications to handle these options themselves.
64
(http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/general/hal.html)
66
* To packagers: If these default options shipped with PCManFM are not suitable for
67
your distro, please patch them before packaging, or things won't work on your distro.
68
For example, Debian doesn't support 'usefree' option for vfat while Ubuntu uses this.
69
Don't forget to adjust these options, if things don't work on your distro.
72
Switch To Root Problems:
74
In "Tool" menu of PCManFM there is an option for you to switch to super user.
75
By default PCManFM calls 'gksudo', and if it doesn't exists, it calls 'gksu'.
76
If both of them don't exist, PCManFM will call 'kdesu'.
77
In some distros, 'gksudo' is disabled by default. Instead, you can assign your
78
preferable program during configuration, and the option is
79
"--with-preferable-sudo=PROG"
81
* To packagers: For the sake of consistency, you might use proper argument passed
82
to option "--with-preferable-sudo" before packaging,
85
File Alteration Monitor (fam or gamin?):
87
File alteration monitor is an important part of file managers.
88
Without this, file managers won't reflect changes of files done by other
89
applications or under consoles.
90
Historically FAM is used for this, but it has some performance and security
91
problems. So it's gradually replaced by gamin in modern distros.
92
FAM and gamin are compatible in most of the cases.
94
* To packagers: Using gamin with PCManFM is more recommended.
98
* To packagers: Please leave this configure option off as its default and
99
don't try to turn it on. It's currently broken.
101
We use gamin instead of using inotify directly since inotify can only monitor
102
part of the file systems, and requires much additional complicated processing by
103
applications themselves. So, let gamin do these dirty works for us.
106
Warnings while running PCManFM as root?
108
Running applications as root is really dangerous and discouraged on UNIX-like
109
systems. To protect users from accidentally break the system, we show a warning
110
bar on the window if they run PCManFM as root. This cannot be turned off because
111
we have the responsibility to let the user know they are at risk.
113
However, under some circumstances, you'll need to run PCManFM as root all the time.
114
This is a common case in live CDs. So, if you are the author of a live CD, and you
115
really need to turn this off, configure with the option "--disable-superuser-checks".
118
Icons of Files are missing?:
120
You might get error message when you start PCManFM telling you that your
121
icon theme is not properly set. Normally gtk+ gets icon theme settings via
122
XSETTINGS daemons. Under Gnome and XFCE, they run their setting daemons
123
so you have no problem. However, under other desktop environments, gtk+
124
reads settings from "~/.gtkrc-2.0". The format of this file is poorly
125
documented by gtk+ team. The only available doc is here:
126
http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk-tutorial/stable/x2138.html
127
Few people know exactly how to edit this file. Neither do I, but I know
128
you can set icon theme by adding this:
129
gtk-icon-theme-name="THE NAME OF THE FOLDER CONTAINING ICONS"
130
This name can be found by looking in /usr/share/icons, /usr/local/share/icons,
131
and ~/.local/share/icons.
132
I know this is inconvinient, but that's not my fault, that's the design of gtk+.
134
Also, don't use an icon theme designed for KDE, or you'll get no icons.
135
The naming of icons are totally different in Gnome and KDE.
136
Because there is, again, no standard for this. So we use gnome-compatible themes.
137
Personally I recommend using this:
138
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/nuoveXT+2?content=56625
140
If you want to change the ugly look of gtk+ programs, you can add this:
141
gtk-theme-name="THE NAME OF THE GTK+ THEME YOU WANT TO USE"
142
"ClearLooks" is a good gtk+ theme, if you have it installed.
145
Desktop Icon Support:
147
PCManFM provides very basic support for desktop icons.
148
Before version 0.3.6.2, using this is strongly discouraged since there are some
149
performance problems in this part. In 0.3.6.2 this is partially fixed.
150
Since version 0.3.9, the desktop icon support is completely re-designed and
151
re-written. The performance problem was solved, and the functionality is already
152
acceptable. Drag and drop support for desktop icons is finally added in 0.4.3.
153
So, upgrading to 0.4 series is strongly encoraged. Don't use the deprecated 0.2.x and
154
0.3.x series unless you have really good reasons.
156
If you only need to set the desktop wallpaper and don't need the icons,
157
the small program 'hsetroot' is for you.
159
The feature could be removed during build time via configuration option
160
"--disable-desktop-integration".
163
Where is the "Trash Can"?
165
Currently we haven't support this yet. Having a correctly working tash can is
166
not as easy as you think. It's actually much more complicated than simply moving
167
the files to ~/.Trash. To implement a standard-compliant, correct, and safe
168
trash can is not an easy task. To see is to believe, read the spec yourself:
169
This is the current proposed Freedesktop.org "Trash Spec"
170
http://www.ramendik.ru/docs/trashspec.html
171
If you think this is easy, please send me a patch and I'll get it applied happily.
172
Why those Freedesktop.org guys always make things more and more complicated?
added
removed
README
