MX Linux Forum

May I request sunflower dual-paned file manager for MX19 repos?

I've been using it all this while through MX15 to MX18.

Also, here's my previous post from the MX17/18 package request thread for the program:

asqwerth wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2017 12:51 am ...But I have a request - could python-vte be made a dependency of sunflower so that the terminal tab works OOTB?

For every install of sunflower, I keep clicking on the "run terminal in tab" button only to be told that python-vte needs to be installed before terminal will work....

http://sunflower-fm.org/

Thanks.

This one's giving me difficulty.
Debian has removed python-vte from the vte package and I'm having trouble getting it to build in Buster. Those gtk2 bindings are deprecated in favor of gtk3 bindings.
Sunflower will build but the terminal function won't work.

There's another tack I'll try in a day or two.

If the python vte package really can't be built, it's OK.

just get the main functionality (dual pane fm ) going. It just means I can't run the terminal as a tab in sunflower, but no worries.

timkb4cq wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 6:05 pm This one's giving me difficulty.
Debian has removed python-vte from the vte package and I'm having trouble getting it to build in Buster. Those gtk2 bindings are deprecated in favor of gtk3 bindings.
Sunflower will build but the terminal function won't work.

There's another tack I'll try in a day or two.

In Arch/Manjaro, sunflower can be built with vte-legacy via AUR.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sunflower/

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vte-legacy

Maybe the AUR pkgbuild for vte-legacy can give a hint on how to get the original full vte package built in Debian?

Thanks for the discovery, that seems a really cool file manager.

@timkb4cq,

The dev's webpage does indicate that he is working on a new gtk3 version: https://sunflower-fm.org/news/13

One possibility is to also try packaging the new gtk3 version still in development?
https://github.com/MeanEYE/Sunflower

Wasn't successful packaging the development version on my initial attempt. Will go back to it at some point.
Sunflower is in MX-19 Main repo now. There is an option in Preferences to use any external terminal from Sunflower instead of the disabled internal one.

Thanks! I'll test it this weekend!

The gtk3+ version of sunflower twin-pane file manager is finally out. May I request that it be packaged?

The present gtk2 version in the MX19 repo doesn't have the built-in terminal because the old python2 vte was deprecated in Buster. The new version of sunflower uses the python3 vte so built-in terminal works again based on my use of sunflower in Manjaro (AUR). The interface takes some getting used to because it's now a CSD app. But functionality is there. For some time, the picture-preview function didn't work in gtk2 sunflower, but it works again in this new version (at least it does in Manjaro).

https://github.com/MeanEYE/Sunflower

Sumimasen for meddling.
I am a Sunflower user and I am using it on MX Linux 19.2 64 bits.

Download it from here:
https://sunflower-fm.org/pub/sunflower-0.4.62-2.all.deb

I have a working build of the latest sunflower now in the MX-19 Test repository.
The mirrors won't have updated yet, so here's a direct link to the deb for those in a hurry
http://mxrepo.com/mx/testrepo/pool/test ... 19_all.deb

If you are already using the deb from the author, please purge it before installing this one. His build system & debian's pybuild put a package's local libraries in different places which can cause issues.

Let me know how it works.

It works very well, thank you very much !!!!.

I started with Norton Commander, so I always used dual screen file managers.

It is a shame that Alexander Schwinn, contrary to the MX Linux developers, excellent and very friendly distribution, does not accept suggestions such as incorporating dual screen to Thunar.

It's now in the Test Repo.

Most things work, except the fast media preview.

In Manjaro, the version installed from AUR has the fast media preview function working fine.

See screenshot below. Usually the first time you select an item in a folder the preview won't show up. If you click the same item again, it will.




https://imgur.com/AsHsIlZ


For the package in Test Repo, I clicked once, twice, etc. No preview appears. Is some dependency or package is missing from the version packaged for Test Repo?

Dependencies listed in AUR page at https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sunflower/

gtk3 (gtk3-donnatella, gtk3-cosy, gtk3-adwaita-3-32-git, gtk3-ubuntu, gtk3-mushrooms, gtk3-typeahead, gtk3-git, gtk3-classic, gtk3-patched-filechooser-icon-view, gtk3-cloudproviders)
librsvg (librsvg-git)
python-chardet
python-gobject (python-gobject-git)
vte3 (vte3-ng-emoji-terminix-zsh-notify, vte3-ng-fullwidth-emoji, vte3-git, vte3-tilix, vte3-ng, vte3-notification, vte3-kinetic)
libnotify (libnotify-gtk2, libnotify-id-git, libnotify-id) (make)
gvfs (gvfs-nosystemd, gvfs-git) (optional) – mount-management
libnotify (libnotify-gtk2, libnotify-id-git, libnotify-id) (optional)
python-mutagen (optional) – audio-metadata support

Just an update - I tried to compare the dependencies in the AUR list with what's in our stable repos. Not many with exactly the same name. I tried installing a few packages that had similar names, but the image preview function still doesn't work on the sunflower package in Test Repo.

I'd like to add my thanks for the package. It's version 0.5, which is later than available on the gitlab site. Also, image preview seems to work fine.

I've found the new gtk3 version in test repo does not mount my synology Nas drive. I used to be able to do it in gtk2 version, compare files and copy over new stuff from data drive to my NAS. now the Nas is unmountable even using its IP location on network. I tried ftp,smb.

Happens with the AUR version in arch/manjaro as well. I made a bug report there but it didn't appear to have been resolved yet. So on mx I'm reverting to and sticking with gtk2 for now.

I use thunar first to login to my nas folders, then I open double commander and the folders are mounted. Double commander's method of logging into a network folder is too dissimilar for me to figure out, and I've tried. I also tried spacefm and sunflower and any otherr probable dual pane file manager and none of them do it for me even if I had no nas. I think I actually had that same problem too. Afterwards where now your nas is unreachable? I had to reconfigure my nas adapters and finally got it working again. Weird but I may have a better simpler config now on the nas. Thunar works so well with MX and I find it frustrating that all other file managers just don't have the same level of cohesiveness that thunar does when just trying to do stuff. Double commander is 'bout perfect for me.

I do mount on thunar first. But the gtk3 version didn't show the mounted Nas in their list of mounted devices.

Maybe I'll check again with the latest sunflower in test repo.

That's just it. We want dual pane which thunar doesn't have yet having to use thunar first is something I'd like to not have to do. Not a big deal really. Main thing is being able to move files without using tabs or 2 separate windows. I ran the test sunflower one maybe a couple 3 weeks ago. Did not care for it.

Real wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:06 am I use thunar first to login to my nas folders, then I open double commander and the folders are mounted. Double commander's method of logging into a network folder is too dissimilar for me to figure out, and I've tried. I also tried spacefm and sunflower and any otherr probable dual pane file manager and none of them do it for me even if I had no nas. I think I actually had that same problem too. Afterwards where now your nas is unreachable? I had to reconfigure my nas adapters and finally got it working again. Weird but I may have a better simpler config now on the nas. Thunar works so well with MX and I find it frustrating that all other file managers just don't have the same level of cohesiveness that thunar does when just trying to do stuff. Double commander is 'bout perfect for me.

Can you say more about your NAS. I don't use one, and I'd like to hear about the details? Is this for a company or university? Also, why are you doing this instead of using a local drive?

Nothing special. When my old XP PC began to fall apart end of 2014, I bought a Synology NAS as a secondary backup over and above my external drive backup. Connected it to my network, so the family could upload media, family photos etc and stream it to their mobile devices.

Got my current PC early 2015 and the NAS is accessible via browser and it's still a secondary backup (only of selected parts of the shared Data partition, which is why I would like new sunflower FM to work just as gtk2 sunflower does). I backup the whole Data partition on my ext drive.

I'm not so concerned about my various distro installs (15!). If one dies I have so many more to use until I have time to restore a backup. I don't bother with timeshift or anything. Once in a few months I simply use gparted to copy a whole distro partition to a separate many-partitioned USB external drive that contains only distro partition backups. I let it run while I'm using my computer on whatever other distro I'm booted into.

And for things like MX I copy-backup very infrequently since they are bombproof. An old gparted copy can easily do as a restoration copy because subsequent updates are relatively small. I'm more regular for rolling stuff like Manjaro or arch-based since their updates accumulate fast. To be frank, I can count the number of times I've had to to restore any distro from those backups on 1 hand.

[ADDED: due to the distros being borked, that is. I've used the gparted copies many times to move distros to different/new partitions as I rearrange the drive containing my distros. Maybe I find a partition too small for a distro and I can't resize that partition because it's in between other distros, etc].

Kernel changes after a restoration don't affect my grub entries because I use custom grub entries for all my distros that point towards the grub.cfg of each distro. And the distros are identified by partition labels, not sdX reference numbers.

If having the dual pane function is the main thing, you could use pcManFM. It does have that, plus it's fast and of all the file managers I've used, it has the lowest RAM usage. For simple tasks like extracting archives, moving files and so on, it's excellent. And installing it doesn't pull in any other stuff you don't want.

No, it's the "compare file directories" function that helps me select new items to copy new stuff from my data partition to my NAS manually.

It somehow seems to work better for my use case than double commander's similar function. The latter seems to see many same name items as still different (eg the same wallpaper file with same name!) so I get more things highlighted as different and new than should be the case.

But with gtk3 sunflower I can't even mount Nas into a pane, even if premounted in thunar.

I'm keeping my mx18 and mx19 installs as long as I can so I can continue to use gtk2 sunflower, even after 21 is out.

asqwerth wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:54 am No, it's the "compare file directories" function that helps me select new items to copy new stuff from my data partition to my NAS manually.
...SNIP....

I've been doing a survey of file managers. I like Sunflower because of the clean look and simplicity. It's actually much more relaxed to use than, like SpaceFM, which is the most stressful, but also fun. I think the clean look of Sunflower is the main selling point.

I also did a survey of merging tools, but I didn't look at mounting remote drives. When you mount this NAS, what protocol are you using? Meld doesn't appear to have that functionality. Kompare has some ability to mount drives, but probably not what you're looking for. FreeFileSync is a nice package and allows mounting remote drives. Any good for you?

What about making a special launcher to mount the drive then run Sunflower?

Does anyone know how to get sunflower to bring up devices?
I hate to navigate the file system just to get to my usb devices.

OKie wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:25 am

asqwerth wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:54 am No, it's the "compare file directories" function that helps me select new items to copy new stuff from my data partition to my NAS manually.
...SNIP....

I've been doing a survey of file managers. I like Sunflower because of the clean look and simplicity. It's actually much more relaxed to use than, like SpaceFM, which is the most stressful, but also fun. I think the clean look of Sunflower is the main selling point.

I also did a survey of merging tools, but I didn't look at mounting remote drives. When you mount this NAS, what protocol are you using? Meld doesn't appear to have that functionality. Kompare has some ability to mount drives, but probably not what you're looking for. FreeFileSync is a nice package and allows mounting remote drives. Any good for you?

What about making a special launcher to mount the drive then run Sunflower?

We have the current Free File Sync packaged and in the MX 21 repo, but it needs gcc-10 to build, and we don't have that backported for MX 19--lack of time again. You can probably run the prebuilt binary built by the developers, though.