"Favorite Folders" section shows bookmarks pointing to unconnected external devices

[Mario Vukelic]

Binary package hint: unity-place-files

I have set up Nautilus bookmarks to various external USB disks.

In the Places menu of the top gnome-panel in the Ubuntu Classic session, and in the Bookmarks menu of Nautilus, these bookmarks do not show up when the devices are not plugged in. If the devices are plugged in but not mounted, the bookmarks show up, and clicking them will implicitly mount the device. This behavior has always made a lot of sense to me. It introduced no mental overhead for me at all when using these devices and their bookmarks, and added information for free because a glance at the Places/Bookmarks menus told me everything I needed to know about the device status.

In unity-places-files, icons corresponding to the Nautilus bookmarks appear under Favorite Folders. They are always visible even when the devices are not plugged in, and clicking their icons does nothing in this case.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity-place-files 0.5.38-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32-generic 2.6.38-rc6
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Mar 5 08:39:37 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100131)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=de_DE.utf8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity-place-files
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-02-16 (16 days ago)

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

I found out that this is probably a duplicate or subset of LP#489194, but I leave that to the more knowledgeable among you.

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup)]

@Mario: This bug is unrelated to bug #489194 since we don't use Zeitgeist to list volumes.

I'm a bit uncertain if I agree that it's a good idea to not list bookmarks to drives that are not available. Point is that you *did* create a bookmark, but it may seem to magically disappear to a less advanced user.

Maybe instead dim out unavailable drive-bookmarks and having it pop up a dialog "Please insert bla bla bla" if you click it?

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup)]

Waiting for design feedback

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

@Mikkel: I see your point about disappearing bookmarks. I'd have no problem with dimming them out when unavailable. However, I believe that consistency is maybe more important, and Nautilus currently makes them disappear. By the way, there was not too long ago an embryonic discussion about "Hiding unmounted bookmarks" on the Ayatana mailing list. IIRC it didn't really go anywhere, but someone may be interested: https://lists.launchpad.net/ayatana/msg04816.html

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

This link may not help to decide how best to deal with bookmarks pointing to removable devices, but it sure demonstrates how NOT to do it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978980

[dino99 (9d9)]

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