XDG, default apps, mess...

I am having way too much trouble doing something very simple. I have two machines with XUbuntu but dwm'ed. I want to be able to look at files. I started with PCManFM (from inertia), and using xdg-mime configured text/plain to open vim.desktop (5Kb of yuck!). On one box it works, on the other it opens vim in a 80x24 space, after which status text gets printed at the bottom, arrows scroll past the editable 80x24 region, and the whole thing is a mess, although in a much larger-than-normal font.

As a sidenote, a search for 'vim.desktop' found 6 different ones.

So I gave myself 20 lashes for using a stupid file manager and installed mc (I've used it before). Now it opened everything in nano! Digging further it seems to have a built-in 'select-editor' command which gives you a choice of vim.tiny or vim.basic, but selecting one does nothing at all.

Then, I saw 'update-alternatives' - yet another layer of crap, which did seem to allow vim (but ominously has the other editors 'weighted' higher, whatever that means).

I am getting really fed up, as for the last few years I've largely been not doing anything useful because I my environment really annoys me, and I spend way too much time dicking around with layers of Linux crap, and then my computer breaks, and I start all over.

I kind of miss the days when you stuck a floppy disk in, and booted into your application, and hit the power switch when done.

P.S. vifm seems to be a better fit for me as I am all over vim lately...

Posted in: s/Linux

🚀 stack

2023-08-29 · 9 months ago · 🔥 1

3 Comments ↓

👻 naf · 2023-08-29 at 18:46:

If you just want to look at files why don't you just use ssh?

😺 gemalaya · 2023-08-29 at 18:52:

@stack Have you ever tried the "ranger" terminal file manager ? Quoting the git README:

"ranger is a console file manager with VI key bindings. It provides a minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the directory hierarchy. It ships with rifle, a file launcher that is good at automatically finding out which program to use for what file type."

🚀 stack [OP] · 2023-08-29 at 19:57:

I do like ranger, thanks @gemalya - I forgot about it... But LOL: I had to dig a bit to find that it uses the shell's $EDITOR variable!

Hell's bells!