Option to disable creation of desktop icons for network shares accessed through nautilus

[Ryan Haigh]

Binary package hint: nautilus

Hardy Alpha 5
nautilus 1:2.21.91-0ubuntu3

When accessing a network share via the Alt-F2 run dialog using smb://server/share a desktop icon is created for the network share if that share requires authentication.

When browsing after connecting via smb://server no icon is created. After entering a shared folder that requires authentication a desktop icon is created for the share, returning to smb://server and entering another share that requires authentication creates another icon on the desktop.

After creating two network shares that do not require authentication I have confirmed that the desktop icon for the un-authenticated share is also created for each share on the server.

A desktop icon is also created when accessing the same shares by IP rather than the servers windows hostname.

I cannot confirm this behaviour when accessing sftp/ssh servers as this functionality currently appears to be broken.

This feature may be useful for those who access a few shares regularly however I access a large number of smb network servers on a daily basis each with a significant number of shares and creating a desktop icon for each share that I access quickly clutters the desktop often covering other more important icons and is more of a hindrance than a help as only a small number of these servers are accessed with any regularity and 'unmounting' sledom accessed shares quickly becomes annoying. As such I would like the option to disable the automatic creation of these desktop icons for accessed shares. Perhaps this option could be implemented through the use of an associated gconf key or the old behaviour reimplemented such that these 'shortcut' icons are only created when the connect to server option is used from the Places menu or associated gnome panel applet rather than for every share accessed via nautilus.

It seems, although I cannot be sure, that this functionality may have introduced an additional delay when accessing authenticated shares as I received the dialog Opening 'Share' you can cancel this operation... Once again I cannot be sure that this is associated with the new default behaviour of adding the desktop shortcut.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Do you still get the issue using the current versions? Could you describe easy steps leading to the bug?

[Ryan Haigh (ryanhaigh)]

Updated to nautilus 1:2.22.0-0ubuntu3 and libgnomevfs 1:2.22.0-0ubuntu1 and the issue remains.

To replicate simply enter smb://server/share in the Alt-F2 Run Application dialog, after entering username and password the share is opened and a networked folder icon placed on the desktop with the name share on server. If I then browse to another share by entering smb://server/share2 in either the run app dialog or nautilus address bar another icon is created called share2 on server.

I have also noticed that an entry is placed in the Places menu and the places pane in nautilus.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

There is already several bugs discussing this mounts, closing this one, you might want to read bug #198857