LXDE - Desktop Folder or Home Folder in Panel?

[northshore90]

I'm running Mint V17.3 with LXDE Desktop - the Cinnamon desktop is nice, but is a bit heavy for my older PC - LXDE is a great replacement. In Cinnamon, you can put your home folder or desktop folder right in the panel, so if you're working fullscreen, you can just click on the icon in the panel and it will reveal the desktop. Is there a way to do this in LXDE? - there is no such applet in the Panel Settings. There is a desktop pager, so I can switch desktops, but I'm looking for a way to access the desktop from the panel with an icon. Also, it'd be nice to have the home folder in the panel too, for the same reason.
New to this forum - thanks in advance.

[LinuxUserNZ]

I have added a "My Documents", "My Music", "My Pictures" etc link to my main panel in LXPanel, to simulate a more Windows XP-like environment. I don't know if this is the proper, approved method of doing it, but here's what I did to achieve this.

I edited the file ~/.config/lxpanel/Lubuntu/panels/panel and inside the section for Plugin { type= menu }, and underneath the initial Config { } section, I added new sections like this....

Code: Select all

    item {
      image = ~/.themes/path/to/icon.png
      name = My Pictures
      action = pcmanfm ~/Pictures
    } 

Basically, it just invokes PCManFM and passes the destination folder as a parameter. I hope that helps.

[northshore90]

Thanks - it's certainly 'Linux Approved' to use the command line to solve a problem! I may try this, but it's really a minor issue - just nice not to not have to close the window I'm using to my desktop. My 'solution' was to I add a second desktop - then if I'm working with a window open in desktop 1, I just switch to desktop 2 with ctrl + alt and right arrow key - that 2nd desktop has all of the same desktop folders and files on it - then just switch back with ctrl + alt and left arrow key. By the way, Linux Mint with the LXDE desktop is a great combination - less resource-heavy than Cinnamon for older computers.

Thanks for your input - all the best!

[LinuxUserNZ]

My initial reply can be improved upon by placing the new code block(s) within the Config { } block, moving the system { } block down, like this...

Code: Select all

Plugin {
  type=menu
  Config {
    image=/usr/share/lubuntu/images/lubuntu-logo.png
    item {
      image = ~/.themes/path/to/icon.png
      name = My Pictures
      action = pcmanfm ~/Pictures
    } 
    separator {
    }
    system {
    }

After you've made the changes, you need to restart LXPanel. This can be achieved by logging out of your X session, or simply by stopping and restarting the daemon, using the command lxpanelctl restart from the terminal.