Is there a way to change the desktop manager to something other than caja?

[1337ingDisorder]

I have a recurring issue where caja just locks up and stops accepting input until I force-quit caja and it reinitializes itself.

I've started using a different file manager app and that one doesn't lock up when caja does, so that takes care of my file manager needs.

But in Mint 20.3 MATE, caja also acts as the desktop manager. And of course that means when caja locks up, the desktop also stops accepting input.

I have no specific love for caja and would be fine swapping it out for a different desktop manager. But I've had a look through the various system settings and can't find where to set the desktop manager, I can only find the option to switch window managers.

So 2 questions:

1) Where do I look to set the desktop manager app?

2) Any recommendations for good alternative desktop mgrs compatible with Mint MATE x64?

[motoryzen]

Caja is not a desktop manager ( aka perhaps you meant Desktop Environment?? )

Caja is a file manager.
Mate is the Desktop Environment

I'm unsure why you think Caja acts as both..sincerely. Beyond that I'll definitely yield politely to others far more verse in Mate and Caja and take notes.

[1337ingDisorder]

Caja is not a desktop manager ( aka perhaps you meant Desktop Environment?? )

Caja is a file manager.
Mate is the Desktop Environment

I'm unsure why you think Caja acts as both..sincerely. Beyond that I'll definitely yield politely to others far more verse in Mate and Caja and take notes.

I guess I'm just assuming caja is the desktop manager app, because any time I force-quit a caja file manager window the desktop also gets force-closed.

But digging deeper it does seem as though my assumption is correct — if I have no caja file manager windows open and I enter `ps aux | grep caja` into a terminal window it shows that a caja process is running. Then if I force-quit the desktop, after the desktop reinitializes itself if I do another `ps aux | grep caja` the previous caja process is no longer running and a new caja process with a new PID is running in its place.

[Schultz]

Caja is a file manager. The phrase "desktop manager" is a misnomer, AFAIK.

If you go to Mate's system monitor, does it show caja running? If I have no folders open, mine shows caja "sleeping."

[spamegg]

You can use Thunar.

Code: Select all

apt install thunar

It comes with no dependencies. I even have it on Cinnamon!

[1337ingDisorder]

If you go to Mate's system monitor, does it show caja running? If I have no folders open, mine shows caja "sleeping."

If I open the system monitor caja shows either as "sleeping" or "running" depending whether or not I'm actively interacting with the desktop.

If I'm not doing anything with the desktop it shows as "sleeping"

But if I select some icons on the desktop or move an icon around, the caja process changes to "running" for a few seconds, then changes back to "sleeping"

I'm willing to accept that "desktop manager" may not be the correct official term, but it definitely seems that caja is the app that manages the desktop.

[1337ingDisorder]

You can use Thunar.

Thanks for the suggestion! That's what I've been using as an alternative file manager.

But Thunar doesn't handle the desktop, or desktop icons. Those appear to be handled by caja, even when I'm using Thunar as the file manager.

[Hoser Rob]

The default tile manager that comes with any desktop environment will be heavily integrated with the DE and, yes, the desktop. Other file managers may be useful for some things but they'll never integrate as well as the default FM.

You were a little vague about under what conditions caja caused issues but I think you should try to solve that first. It's not unusual in Linux for the desktop to slow to a crawl during intensive file actions, esp. copying a lot of small files. This isn't a Mate or Caja problem as such.

[1337ingDisorder]

You were a little vague about under what conditions caja caused issues but I think you should try to solve that first. It's not unusual in Linux for the desktop to slow to a crawl during intensive file actions, esp. copying a lot of small files. This isn't a Mate or Caja problem as such.

There aren't any specific conditions under which the freezes occur. It's never happened during a file operation (thank goodness), but in general it's pretty random and usually happens when I'm not even using the computer, or not using the file manager.

It does seem to be a caja problem insofar as the problem doesn't happen when I use other programs as a file manager.

But even if I use a different file manager app, caja still seems to be the app that handles the desktop. So I'm trying to just use a different app to handle the desktop.

[billyswong]

For most "traditional" Desktop Environment, the desktop is the desktop folder opened in fullscreen plus some extra customization. Obviously the DE is running the bundled file manager in displaying the desktop and it is not going to be changed unless one switch to another DE or create a custom fork in code level to compile your own personal DE...

It has been the norm since at early as Windows 95.

[AndyMH]

caja does manage the desktop as nemo does in cinnamon. I don't think thunar provides this capability - this from messing around in the past, so could be wrong.

Another file manager that can manage the desktop is pcmanfm, I use it in foxclone with openbox as the window manager.

[billyswong]

caja does manage the desktop as nemo does in cinnamon. I don't think thunar provides this capability - this from messing around in the past, so could be wrong.

Oh yeah
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/start

Xfdesktop is a desktop manager for the Xfce Desktop Environment. It handles the following tasks:

• background image / color

• root menu, window list

• minimized app icons

• file icons on the desktop (using Thunar libs)

So they created a program with another name, but "using Thunar libs".

And that "minimized app icons" on desktop was how software windows got minimized in Windows 3.1, as there was no "task bar" at that time!

[scjet45]

Caja (file manager) is heavily integrated into the default (Mint) MATE DE.
I've had some issues with Caja years ago, (copying/moving many extremely large files...), cacheing issues.?, but it's been working great recently on Mint MATE. You can make Caja more responsive, (within Preferences), by limiting it's Behaviour and Preview'ing..., -which. btw, fixed my multiple large copying of files...locally and remotely.

If you tried to uninstall/replace Caja and/or it's dependencies then you're only asking for trouble, the "default" Mint MATE works great with Caja (file manager). -for me anyway.
Thunar and PCManFM are more meant for Xfce, Openbox, LXDE, ..., and mixing them with Mint MATE never worked for me.
-just sayin'.

[danindenver]

Going back to your lock up problem, it may be worth considering to make sure that your video drivers are up to date.
I've found random lock up problems with NVIDIA in the past.
If they are up to date, a regression could fix some problems.
Just a thought.

[igmint]

dconf-editor

org.mate.session.required-components

org.mate.session.required-components