Although adding this feature isn’t exactly automatic (or, some would argue, user-friendly), it’s all just a matter of knowing what to look for. So here I am to explain to you how to add this feature and then how to share out those folders.

Bodhi Linux comes with a stripped down version of the Nautilus file manager. I have it on authority that Bodhi might be switching to PCManFM (I am hoping the sharing functionality will be either built in or available at that point, but at this point it is not a feature that is available.)

Installation

The easiest way to install everything you need for this feature is to follow these steps:

1. Open up Synaptic.
2. Search for “nautilus” (no quotes).
3. Mark nautilus-share for installation.
4. OK the dependencies necessary.
5. Search for “samba” (no quotes).
6. Mark samba for installation.
7. OK the dependencies necessary.
8. Click Apply.
9. Click Apply in the new window.
10. Allow the installation to complete.

Once the installation is complete, you will have to log out and log back in so the changes will take effect. If this were the full version of Nautilus, you could issue the command nautilus -q and the changes would automatically take effect. That command will only produce an error in this stripped-down version of Nautilus. So go through the process of logging out and logging back in.

Enable Sharing

Figure 1

At this point, everything should be exactly as you would expect. Fire up Nautilus (left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu and click Places > Home) to start the process of sharing folders.

Once Nautilus is open, right-click the folder you want to share and then select Sharing Options (see Figure 1). In the new window check off the Share Folder option. You can now configure any options you may want to add to the folder (such as Share Name, Comment, Allow others to create/delete, and Guest access). After you OK this you will be prompted to have the proper permissions assigned automatically – allow this to happen (otherwise you are going to have a hard time assigning permissions to that shared folder).

Figure 2

When the folder is shared out, it will be indicated with a different icon. As you can see, in Figure 2, the Music folder has been shared out and is denoted with the addition of a hand in the icon.

You should now be able to hit that shared out folder from any machine on your network that is able to hit shared folders.

Final thoughts

I am thrilled to see that Bodhi Linux is following in at least some of the footsteps of Ubuntu and making features like folder sharing available (and easily set up.) I do hope that when Bodhi makes the move to a new file manager, that the sharing of folders is included in the feature list.

But hold on a moment…that feature is not built into your favorite file manager (at least not yet). You have to build it in. But don’t worry, the process isn’t difficult – if you know what you’re doing. Let me hip you to the process of adding this functionality to Nautilus now.

What you need

Obviously you need a working installation of Linux (I am using Ubuntu 10.10) and a GNOME desktop. You will also need a Facebook account. Outside of that, the only thing you need is the file that can be downloaded from the bottom of this page. Once you have that file, you are ready to begin.

The installation

Here are the steps for the installation:

1. Unpack the Facebook_XXX.targ.gz file (where XXX is the release number) by right-clicking it in Nautilus and selecting “Extract Here”.
2. Move into the newly created folder.
3. Double click on the install.sh file and, when prompted, select “Run in Terminal”.
4. When prompted (inside of the newly opened terminal) enter your sudo password.
5. Let the installation complete.

That’s it for the installation. Now it’s time for the authentication.

First upload

Figure 1

To upload a photo to your Facebook account you simply have to right-click a photo and select Scripts > Upload to Facebook. When you go to upload your first photo to Facebook from Nautilus you will have to authenticate to your Facebook account. This is done by a window opening requiring you to paste a URL into a text area. The URL you need to paste will be opened in your default web browser AFTER you click the Allow button in the Facebook authentication page. Once you have that URL paste into the window you see shown in Figure 1 and click OK.

Once you’ve done that click the Refresh button and you will be prompted for your Facebook username. NOTE: This is NOT your email addresss. Once you have done that all of your photo albums will be listed and you are ready to start uploading photos.

From this manager you can also add new photo albums as well as go directly to that album.

Uploading

When you have completed the setup, you can start uploading photos. The process is quite simple:

1. Open up Nautilus to the directory containing the photo you want to upload.
2. Right click the photo and select Scripts > Upload to Facebook.
3. When the FUploader opens click the Refresh button.
4. Select the specific album you want upload the photo to.
5. Click the Upload button.
6. Close the manager.

You can select multiple photos (holding down the Ctrl button as you click them) and do the same process listed above.

In this instance I am going to show you how to use the Nautilus Actions tool to directly add music to your Rhythmbox Play Queue. Although the action will not initiate the playing of the music, it’s a very easy way to fill up your play queue.

A few notes

First and foremost, in order for this to work (outside of making sure you have everything installed) the music you will add from Nautilus must already be in your Rhythmbox library. This action takes advantage of the Rhythmbox command line tool rhythmbox-client which can not actually add music to the library. We can, however, create an action that will both enqueue the music AND begin playing the music. That is exactly what we are going to do.

A piece to install

In case you don’t already have Nautilus Actions installed, you will need to do so. This is very simple to do if you follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software Utility.
2. Search for “nautilus” (no quotes).
3. Mark Nautilus Actions for installation.
4. Okay any dependencies that might be necessary.
5. Click Apply to install.

Once the installation is complete, you can then close the Add/Remove Software Tool and get ready to work.

Creating the action

Figure 1

The first step is to start up the Nautilus Actions Configuration Tool. To do this click System > Preferences > Nautilus Actions Which will open up the tool in question. When you first open up this tool it will be empty of actions. To create an action click File > New Action. This will open the New Action tabs (see Figure 1) where you will begin to create what you need.

Now, let’s take a look at what you need to configure in order to enable an action to both add to and play from your Rhythmbox play list. We’ll look at this tab by tab.

Action

Under the action tab, you need to do the following:

• Check “Display item in selection context menu”
• Check “Display item in location context menu”
• Enter “Add and Play” (no quotes) in the Context label section.
• Check “Display item in the toolbar”
• Enter “Enqueue and Play Music” in the Tooltip section.
• Select an icon to be displayed from the drop down.
• Check “Enabled” under Action properties.

Command

Under the Command section of the command tab, you need to do the following:

• Enter /usr/bin/rhythmbox-client in the Path section.
• Enter --enqueue %M --play in the Parameters section.

Conditions

Under the Conditions tab, you need to do the following:

• Enter *.mp3; *.flacc; *.acc; *.ogg in the Filenames section. NOTE: You can add as many file types as you need here.
• Enter audio/* in the Mimetypes section.
• Check “Both”.
• Check “Appears if selection has multiple files or folders”

Figure 2

That’s it. Now you have to save the action by clicking the Save button (or clicking File > Save). The final step is to restart nautilus with the command nautilus -q. After you restart Nautilus open up Nautilus to your ~/Music folder (or where ever you house your collection) and notice the new icons (see Figure 2) in the upper right corner of the Nautilus window. In my sample I have created two actions: One that only adds music and the other that adds and then plays music. Select the folder you want to add and then press the icon for your action and the music will be added to the queue and Rhytmbox will start playing.

Final thoughts

It’s amazing how flexible Nautilus is. Even just a file manager can be so much more than that in the world of Linux. And what’s best…you can create so many different actions with Nautilus to perfectly suit your needs.

So in this Thunar-themed entry I am going to  show you two different features for Thunar that will bring it up to par with the competition. One of these features is built into Thunar, and the other is an add on. After you’ve included the use of these two items in your general Thunar usage, you might find yourself using Nautilus or Dolphin less and less.

Send to

Included with the Thunar file manager is the ability to send a file to a location. By default Thunar includes Send To entries for:

• Desktop (create a desktop link – icon – for the item.
• Any externally mounted volume.
• Blutooth recipient.
• Email recipient.

You can, of course, extend this Send to menu quite easily. Let’s say you want to add a Flickr entry to the Send to menu. For this you would first want to install the application postr (sudo apt-get install postr will do the trick in Ubuntu). Once you have that installed create the file /usr/share/Thunar/sendto/flickr.desktop and put in it the following contents:
# postr.desktop - Integrate postr into
# the "Send To" menu.
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
TryExec=postr
Exec=postr %F
Icon=postr
Name=Flickr
MimeType=image/jpeg;image/jpg;image/png

You can find plenty of samples for the Sendto menu from the Thunar Xfce Wiki page.

Media tags

One thing that is missing from the basic Thunar installation is the ability to edit media tags. I don’t know how many times I’ve been listening to a song on one device or another, only to have the media tag be wrong. To be able to edit these tags from within Thunar you need to install the thunar-media-tags-plugin. You can do that from either your Add/Remove Software tool (search for “thunar” – no quotes – and you will find it), or you can install it from command line like so:

sudo apt-get install thunar-media-tags-plugin

No matter which way you start it, restart Thunar once it is installed.

Now when you navigate to a media file, right-click the file, and select Properties you will find a new tab called Audio or Video, depending upon the type of media file you are viewing.

Figure 1

When you click on the Audio (or Video) tab you will see the all too familiar  media tags associated with that file (see Figure 1). At this point you can edit the tags to your hearts’ desire. Just make sure, once you are finished editing, that you click the Save button to complete the process.

You can also get a bit more information (un-editable information) about the media file by clicking Properties. This button will show you the file size, bitrate, samplerate, channels, and length of the media file.

Final thoughts

Thunar is one of the more customizable file managers available. Add to that the speed at which it runs, and the availability it offers to nearly all Linux desktops and you should see why it has become my favorite file manager.

What we now have is an incredibly fast, easy to use, light weight file manager that will please just about any level of user. And best of all, it can be added to nearly any distribution. So if you are unhappy with your desktop’s bulky file manager, I’ll show you how to install and use PCMan File Manager to lighten up your desktops’ load.

Features

For a light weight file manager, PCMan File Manager has a nice list of features:

• Very fast and lightweight
• Near one-second start up time
• Tabbed browsing
• Volume management (mount/umount/eject)
• File searching utility (GUI frontend for find + grep commands)
• Drag & Drop
• Files can be dragged across tabs
• Fast loading of large directories
• File association support (Default application)
• Thumbnails
• Bookmarks
• Non-UTF-8 encoded filename support
• Icon, compact, and detailed list views
• Standards compliant
• Clean and user-friendly interface

Installation

Installation is simple if you follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “pcmanfm” (no quotes).
3. Mark pcmanfm for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

Or, if you’d rather install from the command line:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install pcmanfm (in Ubuntu) or yum install pcmanfm (in Fedora). NOTE: If using Fedora you will have to su to the root user before you issue the command to install.
3. When finished, close your terminal window.

That’s it. PCMan File Manager should now be installed. Let’s see what it looks like and how it’s used.

Usage

Figure 1

To start up PCMan File Manager click Applications > System Tools > PCMan File Manager. When you do you will see a fairly standard looking file manager pop up in next to no time.

The GUI is about as straight-forward as you can get. In fact, the GUI almost resembles that of Nautilus from the GNOME desktop.

If you’re not fond of the Location view in the left navigation pane, you can switch that to Tree view by clicking the folder icon in the lower left corner.

Once very nice feature of PCMan File Manager is that you can very quickly open up your terminal of choice by either clicking F4 (when PCMan File Manager is open and has focus) or by clicking Tool > File Manager. Of course, before this will work you have to configure the file manager you want to use. To do this click Edit > Preferences and then click on the Advanced tab. From this tab click on the Terminal drop-down menu to select which terminal program you want to use.

Outside of that, PCMan File Manager works just as any file manager would. You can drag and drop between different file managers if you like and, as stated above, drag and drop files between tabs (to create a new tab click CTRL-TAB).

Final thoughts

If you’re looking for an incredibly fast, easy to use file manager you shouldn’t have to look any further than PCMan File Manager. It doesn’t have all of the features it’s older siblings have, but it works incredibly fast and will fit well on your light and snappy window manager.

I’ve already touched on this subject in my article “Handy GNOME keyboard shortcuts” and I’ve demonstrated how to create custom shortcuts in my article “Create custom desktop shortcuts in Ubuntu“. Both of those articles strive for the same goal – the most efficient computer desktop experience possible. Add to that growing documentation this article on even more (handy) GNOME keyboard shortcuts, and you’re getting close to realizing your dream of never leaving your keyboard.

Menus

We all have to work with menus. Be it the main window (Applications) or Application menus, having a keyboard shortcut for these menus goes a long way toward efficiency. Let’s take a look at some:

Alt F1: This will open up the Applications menu on the GNOME desktop. Once open you can use your arrow keys on your number pad.

Alt F: This opens up the file menu in your current working window. Once open you can use your arrow keys on your number pad.

Alt E: This open up the Edit menu in your current working window. Once open you can use your arrow keys on your number pad.

Alt Space: This brings up the Window Menu (where you can select a window to be “Always on Top” and more. Once open you can use your arrow keys on your number pad.

Windows

These particular shortcuts always pertain to the current working window.

Alt F7: Initiates window movement. Once you press this combination you can use your arrow keys to move the window where you want it.

Alt F8: Resizes a window. Once pressed, use your arrow keys to resize the window. Hit Enter when finished.

Alt F10: Maximizes a window.

Alt F5: Returns a window to previous or normal size.

Alt F4: Closes the window.

Nautilus

Nautilus is the default GNOME file manager. You will use it frequently.

Ctrl W: Close the current working Nautilus window.

Ctrl R: Reload the Nautilus window.

Alt Up Arrow: Open parent folder.

Alt Left Arrow: Move back one folder.

Alt Right Arrow: Move forward one folder.

Alt Home: Return to your home directory (~/).

Ctrl L: Show/hide the location bar.

F9: Show/hide the side pane.

Ctrl H: Show/hide hidden files.

Ctrl +: Zoom in.

Ctrl -: Zoom out.

Ctrl 0: Normal size.

Final thoughts

Between the original keyboard shortcuts article and this article, you should now have plenty of shortcuts to keep your fingers from dancing between your keyboard and your mouse. Of course neither of these article touch upon Compiz, which has its own set of keyboard shortcuts. We’ll discuss those in another article.  As well, we will do the same feature for the KDE desktop. You can expect that article very soon.

Your quest for desktop efficiency will soon come to a close!

In this article I will show you how to deal with such issues as handling media, handling the deletion of files, browsing Nautilus as the root user, and maybe more. Read on Macduff!

Handling media

Figure 1

If you open up Nautilus to any of your folders that contain media and double click on any of those files, most likely Nautilus will ask you what to do with that file (unless you’ve already set a default application for that file type). Did you know, however, that you can instruct Nautilus what to do with just about any media type you can think of? Sure! Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open up Nautilus.
2. Click on the Media tab (see Figure 1).
3. From the media type you are wanting to change select the action you want from the drop down.
4. From the Other Media section you can set up less common media formats, and how you want Nautilus to handle them.

That’s it. You will notice, from the drop downs, there are already applications pre-configured to handle certain media types. If you don’t see the application you want to use just select Open with other application and then (in the new window) navigate to the executable for the application you want to use (usually in /usr/bin).

Now when you double click on of those media types the action you have configured will occur.

Deleting files

Have you noticed, if you right-click a file within Nautilus, your only option for deleting a file is to send it to the Trashcan? What if you KNOW you want that file gone (and not saved for later un-deletion)? Well, that is not a problem. You can easily add a Delete option to your right-click action menu. To do this click Edit > Preferences and then, from the Behavior tab, check the box for Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash. After you have done that, click Close on the Preferences window and now, when you right-click a file, you will see a Delete entry.

Open a root user Nautilus window

There are times you just need the power of root – even in your file manager. By default the only way to do this is to open up a terminal window and issue the nautilus command with either sudo or after you have su’ing to the root user. That is not the case. Here’s what you do:

1. Open up a terminal window.

2. Issue the command sudo nano /usr/share/applications/Nautilus-root.desktop

3. Add the following to that file:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=File Browser (Root)
Comment=Browse the filesystem with the file manager
Exec=gksudo "nautilus --browser %U"
Icon=file-manager
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;System;

Save that file and then click Applications > System Tools > File Browser (Root) and (after entering the root user password) you will have a Nautilus browser open as the root user! Handy.

Final thoughts

The configurations you can undertake with the Nautilus file manager seem limitless. In this article you have seen three such configurations, but you know there are plenty more where that came from. I hope these three tips have made your Linux file browsing much easier.

If you do want to get rid of that pesky (but crucial to best-practice security) keyring manager, then read on brother, read on. NOTE: This will also delete any stored passwords that you have (outside of browser passwords), so if you do want to do this, make sure you know all of those passwords – otherwise you will be kicking yourself that you did this in the first place.

First steps

As I mentioned earlier, the first thing you will want to do is collect any password that might be stored in the keyrings. Outside of that, there is nothing more to prepare.

Find the files

What you are going to be doing is deleting the keyring files held within the ~/.gnome2/keyrings directory. I will show you two ways to do this – from the Nautilus file manage and from the command line. Both methods are simple. Which method you choose will depend upon which method you are most comfortable with. I will start with the GUI, since most people are more comfortable with that method.

Using Nautilus

Open up your Home directory in Nautilus. You can do this by clicking Places > Home. Now click the <Ctrl>h key combination to show hidden files. In the ~/ directory you will now see the ~/.gnome2 directory. Double click on that and then into the keyrings directory. In this directory you will see a number of files listed. Delete all of these files and then close out Nautilus. Once Nautilis is closed, close out all of your other applications and then reboot your machine. Once you reboot your machine attempt to connect to wireless or make a network connection that would normally ask for your keyring. When you do you will be asked to set a password. Instead of entering a password, just hit OK. When you do this another window will open warning you of the dangers of storing unencrypted. If you are sure you are okay with this OK that window and continue on.

Command line

This method is actually much more simple. Follow these steps:

1. Open up a termina.
2. Issue the command rm ~/.gnome2/keyrings/*
3. Now reboot your machine.

That’s it.

The “gotcha”

The downfall of this setup?  If anyone pokes around your machine, and knows to look in the ~/.gnome2/keyrings folder they will be able to read those files by simply opening them in a text editor. Those files will contain passwords for wireless and other password-enabled systems. You need to ask yourself if you trust your machine to unencrypted files of this nature. Myself? I don’t trust this so I go ahead and deal with the keyring manager every time it decides to pop up. Is it a nuisance? Sure. But it is a necessity if you want to keep your passwords for these applications and systems encrypted.

It’s your call. But remember, you’ve been warned about unencrypted password files. ;-)

In this article I am going to show you how to install this modification on a Ubuntu 10.04 distribution and how this mod affects your currently running Nautilus.

Installation

The installation actually isn’t all that tricky. You will only need run a few commands to get this working. You will, obviously, need an internet connection running. Here are the commands:

1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get upgrade
4. <Alt>F2
5. pkill nautilus
6. <Alt>F2
7. nautilus

Here is what each of the commands does:

1. Adds the necessary repository so the mod can be installed.
2. Updates apt with the new information.
3. Upgrades your system with the Nautilus mod.
4. Opens the run dialog.
5. Kills the currently running Nautilus.
6. Opens the run dialog again.
7. Start Nautilus

Now you are ready to see what this mod will do for you.

Changes

Although the changes to Nautilus will not make you a better user, it will make Nautilus easier to use. If you click on Edit > Preferences you will immediately notice a new tab in Nautilus. That tab is Tweaks. In that tab you will find the following options:

Enable RGBA: If you are using Compiz, you will be able to have true transparency in Nautilus.

Toolbar: Do you want your toolbar vertical or horizontal?

Pathbar: You can set your pathbar to look like breadcrumbs (will require a modified theme) and do you want your pathbar inset in your toolbar (instead of having its own toolbar).

Sidebar: You can configure Nautilus to show the places button in the sidebar.

Statusbar: In this section you can enable the Zoom sliders and show the Zoom slider icons. This makes zooming in and out very simple.

View Switcher Widget: If you use a horizontal toolbar you can change the way your view switcher widget looks. You can turn it off, set it as a mini widget, or a full widget.

What does it look like?

Figure 1

The results are somewhat subtle, but if you compare your nautilus to the one shown in Figure 1 you will see how much easier to use Nautilus can be. The theme shown is not a mod theme, so the pathbar does not show up as breadcrumbs. This is the one feature I have yet to get to work as the modded themes I have found don’t have this patch included.

But you should see the differences. You can even make this more sleek by hiding the toolbar by pressing F8. If you want to open the side pane you can hit F9. To open an extra pane hit F3. The extra pane allows you to move files around without having a second Nautilus window open.

Final thoughts

The Linux community is keen on mods and Nautilus is not exempt from these mods. Although these modifications aren’t show stopping, they can make your day to day computing life in GNOME a bit easier and a bit more compact.

In this article I am going to show you how to install and use this handy application made specifically (and only) for the GNOME desktop.

What is “pastebin”?

Before I get into the installation, a little definition of what a “pastebin service” is. If you’ve ever done any writing online (whether it be for a site like Ghacks, or even in a forum) and you’ve ever needed to add code to a post, you know it can be a hassle.  There are two issues that are all too obvious: line numbering and code layout. When you post online, generally speaking, your code layout is all fubard. None of your indentions hold which makes code look sloppy. Also, if you add line numbers (for reference purposes) those numbers will be automatically copied should someone need to copy/paste your code. Two very good reasons why an alternative solution is necessary. That’s where pastebin comes in  handy. With pastbin you upload your code and, in return, you are given a simple link to post. So instead of posting up a huge chunk of code, you just add a link for which users can then visit and see your code.

Typically, pastebin services come in the way of a website like Pastebin. You don’t have to login or even become a member. You just enter your code and you are given a url. Let’s make that even easier shall we?

Installation

Installing nautilus-pastebin is simple:

1. Open up Synaptic (or whatever package management system you use).
2. Search for “nautilus-pastebin” (no quotes).
3. Mark nautilus-pastebin for installation.
4. Click Apply.

That’s it. Upon completion of installation, you will be required to restart GNOME, so log out and log back in. You are now ready to start using nautilus-pastebin.

Where’s the app?

You will quickly notice that there is no application in any of your menus. Why? Nautilus-pastebin is an action installed for the Nautilus file manager. To access the action do the following:

1. Open up Nautilus.
2. Right click a text file (this can be a .odt, .doc, .rtf, .txt, etc).
3. From the menu select the Pastebin entry.
4. Wait for the url to pop up.

Figure 1

When the warning pops up (see Figure 1) you don’t get much time to see the link. At first you might think there’s no way you can copy that down, and you certainly can’t use your mouse to copy the link. So what do you do? Well, the developer thought of that. When you post a file to pastebin using Nautilus-pastebin, the url is automatically copied to your clipboard. So you can immediately go to the site (or whatever you want to post the url to) and click <Ctrl>v to paste the link. Simple!

You will also note (take a look at Figure 1) that you are pasting to paste.ubuntu.com. You can configure Nautilus-pastebin to use any pastebin service you choose. If you run the command nautilus-pastebin-configurator a small window will open up that will allow you to set the following:

• Open a browser
• Show notification
• Ask to confirm
• Which pastbin service to use

Make your selections and then click the Close button.

Final thoughts

Posting to pastebin has never been so easy. If you frequently use a pastebin service, and your desktop of choice is GNOME, do yourself a favor and install nautilus-pastebin.

In this article you will learn the tools you need to install and how to share out folders, via Samba, in the GNOME desktop.

Sharing out Public

Figure 1

In modern GNOME installations you should notice a folder called ~/Public. To make things simple, we’re going to share out that folder (It makes the most sense anyway).  If you haven’t already installed Samba you will now get your chance.

Open up Nautilus (GNOME file manager) to your Home directory. Right click the Public folder and select the Sharing Options entry. When this new window opens (see Figure 1) you will instantly see a simple check box to tick.

When you tick that checkbox a window will appear informing you that the “Sharing service is not installed”. Click Install Service in that new window. After you enter your password Samba and libpam-smbpass will be installed. When the installation is complete a new window will appearing instructing you to restart your session.

Figure 2

Once installed and restarted, the sharing options will be available to you (see Figure 2). Configure this folder as per your needs. Understand that if you check “Guest Access” that means anyone that can see your network will have access to this folder – so choose wisely.

Figure 3

After you make all of your configurations, click Create Share which will then open up a new window. This new window will really surprise you. Check out Figure 3. GNOME has become so intelligent and user-friendly that it will make all of the permission changes necessary for you! Just click the Add the permissions automatically and you’re done.

Figure 4

You will know a folder is shared in GNOME because the folder icon will have changed (see Figure 4)

Now go over to a different machine on your network and see if the new share is available. If, on a Windows machine, you can’t see it yet you can always open up Explorer and enter:

\\IP_ADDRESS_OF_SHARE

Where IP_ADDRESS_OF_SHARE is the ip address of the machine with the new share. If you opened that folder up to guests you won’t even need to enter a username or password.  And you will automatically have read/write access to that folder. How simple is that? Of course, if you should change your mind about the permissions of the shared folder you can always right click that folder select Properties, go to the Permissions tab, and change the permissions as needed.

Final thoughts

It always seems that the GNOME desktop is one step ahead of the competition. When there is a feature available for a desktop, GNOME always takes that feature and either makes it better or easier. If you’re looking to share out folders on a GNOME desktop, it couldn’t be any easier.

In this article I am going to de-mystify Linux file compression and archiving for you. By the end of the article you’ll be compressing and decompressing files in your sleep. And, as a bonus, you’ll know how to do this both via command line and GUI.

Compression versus archiving

The difference between compression and archiving is simple: Compression makes a file (or directory) smaller and Archiving takes many seperate files (such as a directory containing sub-directories and/or files) and turns it into a single file. You can have a compressed archive (such as .tar.gz or .tgz) and you can even have an archive of compressed files (such as a directory that contains a bunch of compressed files). But how do you know what are compressed files verses archived files? Here’s a list of file extensions and what they are.

.tar – This is an uncompressed Tar archive file. This type of archive is unpacked with the command tar xvf file.tar.

.tgz – This is a compressed Tar archive file. This type of archive is decompressed and unpacked with the command tar xvzf file.tgz.

.gz – This is a file compressed with the gzip program. This type of file is decompressed with the command gunzip file.gz.

.zip – This is a compressed file. This type of file is decompressed with the command unzip file.zip

.bz2 – This is a compressed file. This type of file is decompressed with the command bunzip2 file.bz2.

Which compression to use?

Of the three compression utilities (bzip2, zip, and gzip) the tool that will result in the most compression (the smallest file) is bzip2. The only disadvantage to bzip2 is that the algorithm uses more processor to complete than does the other utilities.

If you are sharing your compressed files with Windows users your best bet is to use zip for compression. Although there are tools (such as Stuffit Deluxe for Windows) that can handle bz2 files, the default supported is .zip.

Using the GUI

If you are a fan of the GUI (and who isn’t these days?) you will be glad to know that most all Linux file managers can handle compressed and archived files. In both Nautilus (GNOME) and Dolphin (KDE) you can simply right click a compressed, archived, or compressed archive file and select Extract. Both file managers also offer compression and archiving options when you right click a file or directory.

Final thoughts

Working with compression and archiving is very simple with the Linux operating system. You have plenty of options in both the command line and the GUI worlds.

In this article I will introduce you to Linux file permissions and how to manipulate them. I will show you how to manipulate permissions from both the command line as well as the GNOME gui Nautilus.

Breaking down the permissions

When you do a long list (ls -l ) in a directory you will see listings like:

drwxr-xr-x  jlwallen  jlwallen  12288  2009-12-22  16:26  Documents

What we want to concentrate on right now is the first bit, drwxr-xr-x. This string of characters lists the full permissions of the file or directory. It is also important to know the next two strings (in this case both are jlwallen) are the user and group associated with the file.

Let’s go back to the permissions string. The first character, d, means the listing is a directory. Now, instead of looking at the next portion of the string as a single group, think of it as three groups:

• rwx
• r-x
• r-x

The first set of three characters in a permissions listing always marks the permissions of the owner of the file (in this case, jlwallen). The letter o is associated with owner. The next set of three marks the permissions of all users that belong to the group associated with the file (in this case, again, it’s jlwallen). The letter g is associated with group. The final set of three characters marks the permissions of everyone else. The letter u is associated with others.

Now let’s break down the components of the permission string:

• r – read permission
• w – write permission
• x – executable permission

Changing permissions

Let’s say you have a file, test, that is a script that needs to be executed. The default ownership of this file is:

-rw-rw—-

Now let’s say you want both the owner (in this case jlwallen) and anyone belonging to the group (in this case jlwallen) to be able to execute this script. Remember, execute is x and you want to give x permission to o and g. To do this you use the chmod command like so:

chmod og+x test

The above command would add executable permission to owner and group. The new listing would look like:

-rwxrwx—

Now both the owner and anyone belonging to the group jlwallen can execute this script.

The GUI way

Figure 1

You can change permissions of a file with the help of the Nautilus file manager. Open up the file manager and navigate to where you have the test file saved. Right click the icon of that file (or listing if you are not in icon view mode) and select Permissions. From within this new window click on the Permissions tab (see Figure 1).

As you can see, changing permissions for this file is just a matter of selecting the necessary entry from the Access drop-down associated with either Owner, Group, or Others. However, you will notice that these drop-downs only have two entries: Read or Read and Write. In the case of our test file we would want to check the “Allow executing file as program” checkbox to make this file executable. The only drawback to this method is you can not specify who has execute permissions. If you mark a file executable it will be so for all.

Figure 2

With the KDE file manager, Dolphin, you can get a bit more fine grain with your permissions. When you right click a file in Dolphin select Properties and then click on the Permissions tab. In this tab is an Advanced Permissions button. Click that and a smaller window will open (see Figure 2) where you can select precisely what each class (owner, group, other) has what permissions. Make your choices and click OK.

Final thoughts

Although the GUI tools are helpful for the new users, having real control over file permissions should be handled through the command line. But for those who absolutely do not want to use the command line, there are options for you. You will certainly want to get familiar with permissions. Knowing how to navigate file permissions will save you a lot of time and hassle when using the Linux operating system.

In this tutorial I am going to introduce you to Nautilus actions by way of the shred command. When this action is used a file is deleted beyond recovery (thanks to the shred command). Once you see how this shred action is created, you can then take that and build upon it to the limits of your imagination.

Shred

Before we begin with the action, let me explain a bit about the shred command. Shred does one thing – it overwrites a file to hide its contents and then (optionally) deletes the file. (Of course, for our action, we will be using shred to delete the file.) But why not just delete the file? Simple. A file that has been deleted using the standard means can, with enough work, be recovered. If there is a file you do not want to be able to be recovered, using shred is your best bet.

The basic usage of shred is:

shred [OPTION] file

Now for this action we will be employing a few options:

• f: Change permissions to allow writing (if needed).
• u: Remove the file after overwriting.
• z: Add a final overwrite of zeros to hide shredding.

There will also be one Nautilus Action parameter used:

M: This option sends a space-separated list of the selected file(s) and/or folder(s) to the command used.

Nautilus Action Editor

Figure 1

To open the tool go to the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu and select Nautilus Actions Configuration. When this new window opens (see Figure 1) . From this window click the Add button to create a new action.

The new window that opens will be (for the most part) self explanatory (for our shred example). But this is the information you will fill in:

• Label: Shred
• Tooltip: Shred a file
• Icon: gtk-delete
• Path: /usr/bin/shred
• Parameters: -f -u -z %M

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the completed window ready to be OK’d. Once you have completed that information, and clicked OK, you will be back at the Nautilus Actions Configuration window. The only difference will be your new action will be listed in the left pane. You can now close out that window.

Using your new action

All actions are listed in the file manager context menu. In other words, when you right click a file or folder within a Nautilus window, your actions will show up in that menu (see Figure 3).

If I were to now right click on a file (or folder) and select the Shred entry that file would then be shredded. Recovering that shredded file would be quite difficult (if not impossible).

These actions will also show up in the Nautilus Edit menu as well. And remember, you can select multiple files/folders (use the <Ctrl> key when selecting multiple files/folders) and shred them all simultaneously.

Final thoughts

These Nautilus Actions can extend your GNOME file manager as far as you can imagine. Give this feature a try and see if you can come up with a cool action to share with your fellow Ghacks readers.

In this Linux Tips article I will show you how to view hidden files with ls, Thunar, Nautilus, and Dolphin.

LS

If you need to see hidden files using the ls command you need to add the -a switch. But if you just add the -a switch most likely your files will fly by you and you will miss what you are looking for. To avoid this pipe the command through the less command like so:

ls -a | less

The above command will allow you to page through the contents so you can actually see what is there. You can scroll either up or down using the arrow keys or you can scroll down one page at a time with the space bar.

Thunar

Figure 1

If you don’t know, Thunar is the file manager for the Enlightenment desktop. In order to see hidden files in Thunar click the View menu and check the Show Hidden Files box (as shown in Figure 1.) Or you can hit the key combination Ctrl-H.

If you use the key combination you must make sure you are focused on the Thunar window. When you set Thunar to view hidden files it will always do so until you unset this option.

Nautlius

Figure 2

Nautilus is the file manager for the GNOME desktop. With the Nautilus file manager viewing hidden files is done in the same way. From the View menu select the Show Hidden Files option (see Figure 2) or hit the key combination Ctrl-H. Like Thunar, if you use the key combination you must be focused on the Nautilus window.

And like Thunar, the hidden file option will stick until it is unset.

Dolphin

Figure 3

Dolphin is the KDE file manager that replaced Konqueror. In order to view hidden files in this file manager you select the View Hidden Files option from the View menu. You can also enable this action by hitting the Ctrl-. key combination. And like both Thunar and Nautilus, in order to use the key combination Dolphin must be in focus or the combination will not work.

Again, like the other graphical file managers, this option will remain until unset.

Final Thoughts

Hidden files are an important part of the Linux operating system. Although you can go your entire Linux lifetime without ever having to view a single hidden file, on that one occasion that you will need to do so, it’s good to know how.

One of the reasons you should take a moment to get to know this tool is that it is quite different from Explorer. Although fundamentally you tackle the same tasks with both tools there are enough differences to confuse the new user. To this end, let’s examine the ins and outs of the Nautilus file manager.

Layout

Nautilus Main Window

Unlike Explorer (and many other File Managers), Nautilus is a single-pane file manager. You can not change the view to split-pane mode or dual-pane mode. You get what you get…a single window showing you files and directories.

As you can see (in the image to the right) the Nautilus interface is very clean and simple. But your first thought might be, “How do I drag and drop a file into another directory?” We’ll get to that in a moment.

Each time you double click on a directory a new window will open to that directory. You will then have two windows open. This makes dragging and dropping simple. Careful though, the default drag and drop action is not to copy but to move. So if you plan on copying a file from one window to the next you will have to right click the file (or directory) and select “Copy”. To paste the file (or directory) you will go to the target directory and either click Edit and then click Paste or right click within the directory and select “Paste”.

Nautilus List View

You can also switch from Icon or List view. In the image above you can see Nautilus in Icon mode. The image to the left shows Nautilus in List View mode. As you can see each directory can be expanded to reveal its contents.

But what about navigating directories? Normally, in Linux, you would scroll to the top of a directory and see an entry that was either “..” or “./” and you knew you could click (or double click) on this to navigate up one directory. In Nautilus you won’t see this. Instead you will notice, in the bottom left corner, an dropdown that shows your current working directory. If you click that dropdown it will reveal all directories above the current working directory.The Image below and to the right shows this dropdown in action.

Directory Dropdown

As you can see the gHacks directory is found in the /home/jlwallen/Pictures directory. You can open a new Nautilus window in any one of these directories by selecting the target from the dropdown.

Another way of quick navigation is the Places menu. If you click on that menu you will see a number of various directories. You can also add bookmarks to this menu by selecting the Add Bookmark entry from within the current working directory.

The Bookmarks Menu

The nice thing about adding bookmarks is that they are then added to the Bookmark submenu in the Places menu on the GNOME Panel.

You can also edit your bookmarks by selecting Edit Bookmarks from within the “Places” Nautilus menu.

Configurations

And of course there are plenty of configurations to undertake with Nautilus.

If you click the Edit menu you will see the Preferences entry. Click that to open the Preferences window where you will see six tabs: View, Behavior, Display, List Columns, Preview, and Media. One of the more important tabs is the Media tab. This is where you configure which applications will open different types of files.

Final Thoughts

The Nautilus file manager is an outstanding tool to manage your files and directories. Once you get used to the differences between this tool and your previous file manager, you will come to find Nautilus to be one outstanding utility.

The good news is that burning CDs in Linux is very simple and doesn’t require the addition of third-party software. Let’s take a look at how to handle this job in a default GNOME 2.24.2 installation.

Where is the application?

Menu Entry

In the latest GNOME there is an application for burning CDs but you don’t really need to know where it is or what it is called. Why? If you click on the Places menu you will see an entry titled CD/DVD Creator.

Once you click on this entry a special Nautilus window will open that allows you to drag and drop files into the window for burning.

The Burn Window

Once this new Nautilus window is open you can drag and drop files from other Nautilus windows. Once you have added the files and/or directories you want to burn onto CD you just have to insert a blank disk into your drive and then click the Write To Disk button in the burn window.

Options

When you click Write To Disk you will then need select your device (if you have more than one), give the disk a name, select the write speed, and click Write.

A progress window will open during the writing of the disk. When the disk is complete the CD will eject and you’re finished.

Simple!

Final Thoughts

One of the only downfalls to this system is you can not burn ISO images. For that you will want something like K3B (check out my gHacks article “Burn CD and DVD Images with K3B“). Other than that, the GNOME CD/DVD burn process is as simple as it gets.