LXDE Forums

In Lubuntu and LXLE When I select a zipped file and "extract here" all of the files appear individually rather than in a folder. In other Non-Lxde distros the files remain in an unzipped folder.

I would appreciate thoughts as to what to do to keep the files together. Thanks.

You can always create a folder and unzip the files to that folder. Is there a reason that you want them all together?

Thanks. The zipped file is downloaded from the National Library Service, US Library of Congress, and contains an audio talking book, which is then transferred to a usb drive for use in a special audio player for the blind. My wife is blind. I have tried copying and them sending the files, in the order extracted, to the usb drive. Often the book cannot be listened to. In ubuntu, mate, etc., the files are collected in the Folder, which is then sent to the usb drive... And the book can be heard. Creating another folder has not worked so far for me, but I will explore.

My basic question remains though, what is missing from Lubuntu that aloows the extracted files to remain together in a folder?

I'm not running Lubuntu anymore to check anything and I'm not sure any of these ideas will help but for what they're worth:

1. Have you tried unzipping the SAME archive on Lubuntu and another system? Not just a similar one? In some situations an archive will extract to a folder or not, depending on how it was made. Just being from the same source doesn't guarantee they are consistent.

2. I don't remember what Lubuntu comes with for unzipping. On my Ubuntu Saucy 32 bit Openbox system (no Lubuntu, no LXDE, just OB) using thunar as a graphical file browser I have a right click menu item "extract here", which, with the zip I just tested, extracted it to a folder. I'm not sure exactly what thunar actually uses to do that. I have the following packages that may be relevant:
bzip2
cpio
file-roller
libarchive-zip-perl
libarchive13
libbz2-1.0
libzip2
thunar-archive-plugin
unar
unrar
unzip
zip

3. There are plenty of unarchiver programs in the repositories. If you verify that the files themselves aren't the problem, just install some more until one of them gives you the option you want. If you are tight for drive space or don't like the menu clutter (If I remember correctly, the last time I used PCmanfm it had god-awful right click menu clutter anyway.) just uninstall the ones you don't want to keep. I'm pretty sure I've used one of the big graphical archiver/extracter programs that gave a specific option to to extract archives into a similarly named folder even if they weren't zipped in a folder to begin with. Unfortunately, I don't remember which. Doesn't appear to be file-roller though. hmmmm .... just a moment ...
OK, I just installed p7zip-full and a rar plugin for it, thinking maybe that was it. But no, it doesn't seem to come with a gui. It gives file-roller or similar programs additional capabilities though. I don't see any graphical preference setting doodad in file-roller but there is a button that will let you conveniently make and name a folder to extract as part of the same process if you open the zip with file-roller.
4. It's possible the difference between what you can do with your present setup and what you did with others in the past is not so much a function of what kind or extraction software software you have as it is of the graphical file manager you're using. I believe Lubuntu comes with PCmanfm. I stuck with PCmanfm for more than a year. I tried to like it. I used Caja for a similar period. Before that I used Nautilus even longer. Now I use Thunar. If I get to like it any better I'll probably become obnoxiously evangelical about it. It'll do anything Nautilus or Caja will do and it is almost (not quite) as light as PCmanfm. It's MUCH better than any of them for customising context menus. So you can add a right click menu item to do ANYTHING you want and do it exactly the WAY you want.