I'm testing pantheon-files in my Zorin 17 VM. I installed it to see how it is to work with Miller columns. I haven´t ever used it but in Enlightenment desktop there was a similar function to search for files/folders by right-clicking on the desktop.
Some functions as "open as administrator" and "open terminal here" are missing in context menu.
You can launch pantheon-files as administrator by entering "admin://" in the path field of the topbar or by right-clicking on the launcher icon in start menu or taskbar (if you have added there) and then selecting "open new window as administrator". That's a really nice function. I´d wish other file managers as Nautilus und Thunar would have that option in Zorin by default.
Or you can add "open as administrator" to the context-menu in pantheon-files this way:
Create a file
/usr/share/contractor/openasroot.contract
and add this content:
[Contractor Entry]
Name=Open as Administrator
Icon=system-file-manager
Description=Edit folder via root user privilege
MimeType=inode/directory;
Exec=pkexec io.elementary.files %U
Gettext-Domain=io.elementary.files
To add "open terminal here" to context menu, you can create the following file (for launching gnome-terminal)
/usr/share/contractor/openinterminal.contract
with this content:
[Contractor Entry]
Name=Open in terminal
Icon=terminal
Description=Open in terminal
MimeType=inode;application/x-sh;application/x-executable;
Exec=gnome-terminal --working-directory %U
Gettext-Domain=gnome-terminal
Then logout and login again.
I hope I'll get no problems with the package manager because of installing pantheon-files. I removed the elementary os repository from the software sources right after installation.
Unfortunately, you can't change file permissions if you're not the owner - not even if you run Pantheon as an administrator. I noticed that even Thunar often makes problems with changing file permissions recursively (and I have to use the terminal to change ownership and permissions recursively) and Nautilus is better in this regard.
Overall, however, Pantheon offers very few features. It’s not really worth it compared to Thunar or Nemo. The search function is not good.
Are tbat screenshots from Thunar or Nautilus?
I have problems when I want to copy a theme from /usr/share/themes into my home directory to edit it. I open Thunar as root in themes folder and click on the permissions and change the permissions for others to read and write. I'm asked if I want to do this recursively and I say yes. There is shown now read and write for others. Then I copy the theme folder into my home directory.
But when I open thunar afterwards as normal user and take a look at the permissions they are set to read only. So something seems to be wrong.
I opened now Nautilus as root and take a look at the permissions of the original folder in /usr. There is shown that the recursive files/folders are still set to read only for others. You don't see that in the GUI of Thunar. I changed it in Nautilus to read and write.
But there are still problems in sub folders/files. I tried to edit a gtk.css file in this theme and it has a lock icon and is read-only.
So it seems something doesn't work. I always have to use the terminal, take the ownership of the theme recursively or set the permissions to read and write for others recursively.
I'd like to show the "open as root" in context menu of Pantheon also for files, not only for folders. How can I do this?
In Thunar there is a GUI where you can define the file association, here I must change something in my new created .contract file.
Shall I change the line MimeType and add text-files there? In Thunar it is a xml file for custom actions, so I'm not sure what are the right terms here for text-files, other-files, image-files, audio-files...
Edit:
I tried with text-files, but didn't work.
Now I added text/plain to MimeType, and the context menu shows "open as administrator" for text files. Pantheon is more difficult to setup than Thunar and Nemo. Many guides are very old, and there are only few informations.
How can I list all MimeType options?
Are there placeholders possible as in Thunar where there are text files, image files and audio files not specified with their subtype, e.g. text/* or image/* or audio/*?
