Editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs does not permanently change user directory locations
I figure it is bad form to leave my question without an answer. I eventually resolved all issues by following bessman's solution by the letter. He made it much clearer than the official docs how I was supposed to modify fstab - and now I also know how to create backups before I do so and got rid of the "documents inside a documents folder" issue - so triple props to his step-by-step solution. I wish I could upvote him twice since nothing else seemed to work.
Related videos on Youtube
Frikster
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
Frikster about 1 year
So it appears the same is happening to me on Ubuntu 14.04 as has previously been reported as a bug here
A difference though is I am trying to move the Home directory folders to a separate drive and am simply trying to follow the instructions here (scroll down to Configure Your Subfolders (Linux))
TL;DR: Attempt 1 and 2 are the important ones that really show my problem. Rest just there to show what else I've tried.
Attempt 1
I found a question with no accepted answer that has what appears to be precisely my problem.
Following the first suggested solution I tried using symbolic links:
cornelis@Bob:~$ ln -s /media/cornelis/Storage/Home/Documents /home/cornelis/Documents
This created the folder that linked to my other drive. I then tried modifying the user-dirs.dirs file as before such that
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents/Documents"
where the symbolic link folder was created. I logged out and logged back in and presto! It worked! I see that the Documents shortcut links to$HOME/Documents/Documents
, the user-dirs.dirs file is still appropriately modified. Looks like the change is permanent. Though less than ideal since I have to use a Documents inside a Documents folder. I cannot do something as follows that I had hoped would redirect the Documents folder directly:cornelis@Bob:~$ ln -s /media/cornelis/Storage/Home/Documents /home/cornelis ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘/home/cornelis/Documents’: File exists
I reboot. Disaster. Click image below.
- The Documents folder is missing from the Places shortcut
- The original Documents folder is now vanilla
- The symbolic link inside the Documents folder is broken
Also, this reverted again:
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
I used
xdg-user-dirs-update --force
to reset Documents back to its default.Attempt 2
Finally, I looked at the second suggested solution and I guess I can now safely assume that my problem is that my second drive isn't being mounted automatically upon boot. Since I have no issue creating symbolic links from logging off and logging in deduce I need an automatic systemwide mount. And this I'm afraid is where I'm pretty lost, seems quite the dense read though I did try to make heads and tails of it. I think I'm supposed to Edit Ubuntu's filesystem table, but I don't know what entry to add and the example they provide doesn't make it clear to me how I can automatically mount a drive on startup.
Here is my
fstab
file. Perhaps you can tell me what I need to modify here or how to arrive at knowing what to add here? My 1TB HDD drive that I want my Documents folder to be in is onsda3
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> # / was on /dev/sda5 during installation UUID=<hidden> / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation UUID=<hidden> none swap sw 0 0 /Storage/16GiB.swap none swap sw 0 0
Attempt 3
If I change
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
toXDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="/media/cornelis/Storage/Home/Documents"
it becomesXDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
upon reboot.Changing user-dirs.conf such that
enabled=False
I had hoped that"When set to False, xdg-user-dirs-update will not change the XDG"
so something else is causing changes in
user-dirs.dirs
to be impermanent?Attempt 4
I ran
xdg-user-dirs-update
after saving my changes inuser-dirs.dirs.
Nothing is displayed and a reboot results in the same problem as before. I also triedcornelis@Bob:/etc/xdg$ xdg-user-dirs-update --force Moving DOCUMENTS directory from /media/cornelis/Storage/Home/Documents to Documents
And sure enough, this results in what I changed in user-dirs.dirs. to revert back, which doesn't seem to make sense since the documentation states:
--force Update existing user-dirs.dir, but force a full reset. This means: Don't reset nonexisting directories to HOME, rather recreate the directory. Never use backwards compatible non-translated names. Always recreate user-dirs.locale.
Attempt 5
This also didn't work:
cornelis@Bob:~$ xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOCUMENTS /media/cornelis/Storage/Home/Documents cornelis@Bob:~$
Attempt 6
I Crawl into the fetal position and beg for help from Ask Ubuntu. Help me Ask Ubuntu, you are my only hope.
-
Jacob Vlijm over 7 yearsYou mention auto mount is needed (which is true), even provide the link. What is unclear in the link?
-
Frikster over 7 yearsI ended up following the solution here and it worked like a charm: askubuntu.com/a/110187/452147 Nothing else seemed to work. What's unclear about the link is what I have to read, also there's no example so I wasn't clear at all on how to modify fstab. It is pretty dense so I'm glad @bessman gave such a clear answer, props to him/her.
-
AlwaysTalkingAboutMyDog over 7 yearsLooks like OP already solved his problem, but this might help others if his solution didn't work. Thanks!