Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
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This board is for technical/general usage questions and troubleshooting for the Pale Moon browser only.
Technical issues and questions not related to the Pale Moon browser should be posted in other boards!
Please keep off-topic and general discussion out of this board, thank you!
Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Problem: PM (on Archlinux) creates a ~/Desktop directory/folder every time that it is started.
More info:
1. It also used to create a ~/Downloads folder, but that was fixed by changing somethings in 'about:config'.
2. I don't see anything in 'Preferences' nor in 'about:config' that could fix it.
3. I am not using the portable version.
4. I tried with all addons disabled.
More info:
1. It also used to create a ~/Downloads folder, but that was fixed by changing somethings in 'about:config'.
2. I don't see anything in 'Preferences' nor in 'about:config' that could fix it.
3. I am not using the portable version.
4. I tried with all addons disabled.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Not in my Arch Linux it doesn't!
Perhaps you can tell us how you installed PM, manually from tar.bz2, pminstaller.sh or palemoon or palemoon-bin from the AUR?
Perhaps you can tell us how you installed PM, manually from tar.bz2, pminstaller.sh or palemoon or palemoon-bin from the AUR?
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Maybe Pale Moon thinks ~/Desktop is the download directory. Search about:config for "Desktop" to find any references and reset/modify the preferences to your liking.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
1. I installed PM from the AUR (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/palemoon-bin/). [PS: Correction: It was 'https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/palemoon/'.]
2. Neither 'browser.download.dir' nor 'browser.download.lastDir' point to '~/Desktop' and I couldn't find anything else in 'about:config' that did. (Also checked the 'Preferences' for the default download folder and even searched for 'Desktop' in the 'prefs.js' file in the profile folder with no results.)
2. Neither 'browser.download.dir' nor 'browser.download.lastDir' point to '~/Desktop' and I couldn't find anything else in 'about:config' that did. (Also checked the 'Preferences' for the default download folder and even searched for 'Desktop' in the 'prefs.js' file in the profile folder with no results.)
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Strange, I don't have browser.download.dir in my about:config which was installed with pminstaller.sh together with a new profile when PM27 was released!brwno wrote:....
2. Neither 'browser.download.dir' nor 'browser.download.lastDir' point to '~/Desktop' and I couldn't find anything else in 'about:config' that did. (Also checked the 'Preferences' for the default download folder....
Perhaps time to backup your existing profile and try a new profile for test purposes.
- trava90
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Let me remind everyone that most of the builds from the AUR do not use recommended configurations, will differ from our official builds (including potential stability issues, bugs, etc.), and are not recommended for use.
I'm unable to reproduce on Manjaro or Mint using the official builds.
I'm unable to reproduce on Manjaro or Mint using the official builds.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
1. Created a new profile, but it also generates a ~/Desktop directory.
(Indeed, the new profile does not have the 'browser.download.dir' and 'browser.download.lastDir' preferences, which I presume were created by an addon. However, in the old profile, the value of such preferences was not '~/Desktop'.)
2. Reinstalled PM: didn't work.
3. Will try other things.
(Indeed, the new profile does not have the 'browser.download.dir' and 'browser.download.lastDir' preferences, which I presume were created by an addon. However, in the old profile, the value of such preferences was not '~/Desktop'.)
2. Reinstalled PM: didn't work.
3. Will try other things.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
How? By using the official build as suggested by trava90?brwno wrote:
2. Reinstalled PM: didn't work
- distantpluto
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
I've been building from the AUR (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/palemoon/) for a while and never suffered any problem. I don't have any directories created under home apart from the profile directory and where I've specifically pointed downloads to.
I'm genuinely curious in which way they differ and what stability issues and bugs they suffer from?trava90 wrote:Let me remind everyone that most of the builds from the AUR do not use recommended configurations, will differ from our official builds (including potential stability issues, bugs, etc.), and are not recommended for use.
Pale Moon and Epyrus on Arch Linux.
- trava90
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
In short the majority of the AUR maintainers have been let's say, "less than enthusiastic" (and in some cases even hateful) about using sane mozconfig/build environment settings per my suggestions. These differences range from unsupported/untested build options, using compilers known to cause crashes, experimental/potentially unsafe compiler flags and optimizations, etc. As such, we cannot recommend or really provide support for AUR builds.distantpluto wrote:I'm genuinely curious in which way they differ and what stability issues and bugs they suffer from?
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
I wasn't aware of any of this as I have only used the one AUR package I mentioned previously and the maintainer (WorMzy) appears to be have implemented all requests from upstream, from what I can tell. WorMzy also maintains 'palemoon-bin', which my wife uses, so I can't imagine any problems there either, it's a very simple package. Personally, I've had zero problems related to using Pale Moon from either.trava90 wrote:In short the majority of the AUR maintainers have been let's say, "less than enthusiastic" (and in some cases even hateful) about using sane mozconfig/build environment settings per my suggestions. These differences range from unsupported/untested build options, using compilers known to cause crashes, experimental/potentially unsafe compiler flags and optimizations, etc. As such, we cannot recommend or really provide support for AUR builds.
Anyway, there is no way I would expect you to recommend or support any AUR builds anyway, Arch users accept the risks of using such packages!
Many thanks for all your hard work (everyone involved), I'd be lost without this browser And apologies for the off-topic.
Pale Moon and Epyrus on Arch Linux.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
(Took me long to reply; sorry.)
Yes, I did use an official build. I just now:
1. Uninstalled the AUR Palemoon ('sudo pacman -Rs palemoon');
2. Donwloaded the tarball at <http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/> (x64);
3. Extracted it with 'tar xjz palemoon-27.4.2.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2';
4. Ran it with '$ ./palemoon --safe-mode --no-remote -P'; and, finally,
5. Created a new profile.
And it still creates the ~/Desktop directory.
So:
1. Perhaps I am at fault, since I am a noob Linux user (just a few months); or
2. Some feature of my specific Linux configuration leads Palemoon to create the folder. (In this regard, I have no desktop environment or any such thing installed; only i3, started from '.xinitrc'. Could this "plebeian" configuration have triggered the strange behavior of Palemoon?)
(Incidentally, for what it is worth, I would say, with distantpluto, that I too never experienced problems with the AUR Palemoon.)
Yes, I did use an official build. I just now:
1. Uninstalled the AUR Palemoon ('sudo pacman -Rs palemoon');
2. Donwloaded the tarball at <http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/> (x64);
3. Extracted it with 'tar xjz palemoon-27.4.2.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2';
4. Ran it with '$ ./palemoon --safe-mode --no-remote -P'; and, finally,
5. Created a new profile.
And it still creates the ~/Desktop directory.
So:
1. Perhaps I am at fault, since I am a noob Linux user (just a few months); or
2. Some feature of my specific Linux configuration leads Palemoon to create the folder. (In this regard, I have no desktop environment or any such thing installed; only i3, started from '.xinitrc'. Could this "plebeian" configuration have triggered the strange behavior of Palemoon?)
(Incidentally, for what it is worth, I would say, with distantpluto, that I too never experienced problems with the AUR Palemoon.)
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
I saw the same thing happening in Mandriva and forks (Rosa, PCLinuxOS...).
I solved it by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and removing all the silly Windows-like directory names there, to read:
I solved it by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and removing all the silly Windows-like directory names there, to read:
Code: Select all
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Hmm... XDG refers to the organization formerly known as X Desktop Group, now called Freedesktop.org. It has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows; it's about X Windows. It's using Unix (& GNU/Linux) naming conventions for variables. It is situating all these directories in your home directory. ($HOME).dinosaur wrote:I solved it by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and removing all the silly Windows-like directory names there
So since this involves XDG I think that yes, there is a relation between the lack of a desktop environment and the creation of these directories, since Freedesktop.org develops or facilitates development of software for desktop environments.brwno wrote:2. Some feature of my specific Linux configuration leads Palemoon to create the folder. (In this regard, I have no desktop environment or any such thing installed; only i3, started from '.xinitrc'. Could this "plebeian" configuration have triggered the strange behavior of Palemoon?)
The file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update. Rather than delete those directories, however, I think you should just change them:
Code: Select all
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"
Or, okay, so you don't want any kind of ~/Downloads or ~/Pictures or whatever? If you really want to, you can disable this altogether. But don't delete the directory entries! Try this instead:
Code: Select all
echo "enabled=False" | tee -a ~/.config/user-dirs.conf
20 July 1969 🌗 Apollo 11 🌓 "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." 🚀
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
I wrote Windows-like (I never said it was Windows, but it was certainly done to look like it). I've been using Linux (and before that, Xenix) for decades, so please, don't take me for a noob...gracious1 wrote:Hmm... XDG refers to the organization formerly known as X Desktop Group, now called Freedesktop.org. It has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows; it's about X Windows. It's using Unix (& GNU/Linux) naming conventions for variables. It is situating all these directories in your home directory. ($HOME).dinosaur wrote:I solved it by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and removing all the silly Windows-like directory names there
Yes, this is a Windows-like way to try and impose a directory structure and sub-directory names in a user directory. I hate this, and just like the initiator of this thread did (please re-read their message), I deleted all those silly directories and do not want them to come back ever !
NO !!! If you change them back to what you advise, the directories will be re-created ! Instead, doing l like I wrote, those directories will never, ever be re-created by XDG (since all the environment variables point to the user directory instead, which does exist).So since this involves XDG I think that yes, there is a relation between the lack of a desktop environment and the creation of these directories, since Freedesktop.org develops or facilitates development of software for desktop environments.
The file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update. Rather than delete those directories, however, I think you should just change them:
.../...
In my experience (with Gnome 2 and Mate v1.14, at least) , this setting is insufficient to prevent the re-creation of the directories (also, it seems specific to some distros, since it controls the behaviour of a 'xdg-user-dirs-update' command, which I don't have in the distros I am using).Or, okay, so you don't want any kind of ~/Downloads or ~/Pictures or whatever? If you really want to, you can disable this altogether. But don't delete the directory entries! Try this instead:Code: Select all
echo "enabled=False" | tee -a ~/.config/user-dirs.conf
- distantpluto
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
I'm totally with you on that one. I edited my ~/.config/users-dirs.dirs to this a long time ago...dinosaur wrote:I solved it by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and removing all the silly Windows-like directory names there...[snip][/code]
Code: Select all
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/temp/xdg_dirs_dump"
Pale Moon and Epyrus on Arch Linux.
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
If xdg-user-dirs is causing such angst, why not just uninstall it?
- distantpluto
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Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Fair point but where will crud be put if these directories don't exist? I couldn't find an answer to that one.0strodamus wrote:If xdg-user-dirs is causing such angst, why not just uninstall it?
I've found stuff in my "dump" directory before now and I'd rather it be in there contained than loose in $HOME.
Pale Moon and Epyrus on Arch Linux.
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Because it would break dependencies for other packages and some software depend on it...0strodamus wrote:If xdg-user-dirs is causing such angst, why not just uninstall it?
Re: Palemoon creates a ~/Desktop directory when started
Problem solved. Had to install 'xdg-user-dirs', then did '$ xdg-user-dirs-update --set DESKTOP ~/not/homedir/Desktop'. Thanks.