ROX-Filer hints

Access FTP sites using the filer

Can I access FTP sites using the filer?

Yes, if you can make them appear as part of the filesystem. Some projects
that allow this include:

Note that AVFS is turned on on a per-process basis. So make sure you turn it on in the script that runs ROX-Filer (eg, ROX-Session/RunROX), not something that starts later (like your .zshrc file, which will only affect things started from the shell).

Can I stop my window manager from covering the panel?

The filer asks the WM to not cover a few pixels at the edge of the screen. When you move the pointer over the edge of the screen, the panel
comes to the front. If this doesn't work, try a different window manager (works fine with XFWM4).
XFWM4 also lets you configure the desktop margins, which you can use to stop windows going too near the edge of the screen.
Some window managers, such as sawfish, also allow you to mark certain windows with the avoid flag to stop them from being covered at all.

Gnome Compatibility

Here is a quick tip (from Guillaume Millet) to synchronize the ROX and Gnome file associations automatically. Just create the following script and save it in ~/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-types/ as "application", "video", "audio" and "image".

These are the fallback handlers for each of the basic MIME-types. If a more specific handler is defined it will override these, so you can maintain some differences if it is so desired.

#!/bin/sh
app=$(gnomevfs-info -s "$1" | grep "Default app" | sed 's/.*\: //')
if [ -e ~/.local/share/applications/$app ] ; then
	exec $(grep "^Exec" ~/.local/share/applications/$app | sed 's/Exec=//;s/%[a-zA-Z]//') "$@"
fi
if [ -e /usr/share/applications/$app ] ; then
	exec $(grep "^Exec" /usr/share/applications/$app | sed 's/Exec=//;s/%[a-zA-Z]//') "$@"
fi

Don't forget to make the script executable (chmod +x filename).

How do I move icons around on the panels?

Drag them with the middle mouse button.

How do I open a directory in a new window?

Click with the middle mouse button (both buttons at once on two-button mice).

How to browse "Windows Network"

Get following applications...

Make following rox-app.

/usr/apps/Windows Network/AppInfo.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<AppInfo>
  <Summary xml:lang="en">Samba Network Filesystem.</Summary>
  <About xml:lang="en">
    <Purpose>Open Windows Network Folder</Purpose>
    <Version>0.1</Version>
    <Author>Yasuhiro Matsumoto [mattn_jp@hotmail.com]</Author>
    <License>GNU General Public License</License>
    <Homepage>http://www.ac.cyberhome.ne.jp/~mattn/</Homepage>
  </About>
  <AppMenu>
    <Item option="[umount]">
      <Label>Unmount</Label>
    </Item>
  </AppMenu>
</AppInfo>

/usr/apps/Windows Network/AppRun

#!/bin/sh
 
SMBDIR=/smb
 
if [ "$1" == "[umount]" ]; then
  fusermount -u $SMBDIR
  exit
fi
 
exec 1>&2
echo -n "Launching Samba Network Filesystem... "
if ps -C smbnetfs -o user | grep -q $USER
then
  echo "Already running."
else
  echo "OK"
  if ! smbnetfs $SMBDIR; then
    exit
  fi
  sleep 5
fi
rox $SMBDIR

Modify "~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf" if you needed.

This rox-app mount windows network to "/smb" directory. and start rox file manager.

If you want to unmount this "Windows Network", right click this app icon and select "Unmount".

Make clicking on an RPM or Deb install it as root

Can I set it up so that clicking on an RPM or Debian package will install it as root (after entering the password)?

Yes. Open the menu over an RPM and choose 'Set Run Action...'. Set the command to:

gnomesu -u root -e -c "rpm -i \"$1\""

You'll need the latest version of httpgnomesu installed.

Opening every file in a selection as if I clicked on them one by one

Drag the selection onto ROX-Filer (that is, open the directory containing 'ROX-Filer' itself and drag to it). You can add ROX-Filer to the Send To menu so that clicking Shift+Menu over the selection will let you do this easily.

Thumbnails of videos and other file types

Thumbnail Helpers

One of the features of ROX-Filer is the ability to provide thumbnail images for of certain files. These are small images based on the content of the file and used to replace the default type icon for that file in ROX-Filer windows. You can see this effect by viewing a directory containing JPEG files and turning on thumbnail mode (Display => Show Thumbnails, normally bound to ctrl-T). ROX-Filer shows "thumbs" in the titlebar when thumbnail mode is on.

By itself ROX-Filer can generate thumbnails for the most common image file types

* JPEG
* PNG
* GIF
* SVG (normally)
* and a few others

However it does not support all image types, nor does it generate thumbnails for other types of file such as video or font files. To do so would increase the size of the program and slow it down. Also the file types that the user would want thumbnailing would vary from user to user.

The solution is to allow ROX-Filer to call external programs which are capable of generating thumbnails for certain types. The user can then enable or disable whichever types they wish to thumbnail.

Available thumbnail helpers include:

* VideoThumbnail: many types of video files
* MagickThumbnail: image types not handled internally

The helper applications are normally implemented as Library Directories.

Known problems

I installed VideoThumbnail/MagickThumbnail but it doesn't work
Did you remember to let it install handlers for its types?
I have a helper for a type but it is never called
If the helper is a Library Directory check that it and the AppRun file inside are owned by the same user.
When I click on "Install handlers" it gives me this error: OSError: [Errno 17]
This is a bug in some recent versions of ROX-Lib, fixed in version 2.0.2.
I upgraded to ROX-Lib version 2.0.2 but I still get the error
You need to clean up the files left behind by previous installation attempts, such as ~/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-thumb/application_ogg and ~/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/MIME-thumb/application_ogg.tmp (replace ~/.config with your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if it is different).