Hey guys! I have a pretty basic Manjaro XFCE installation (no heavy mods) and I’m wondering if on KDE Connect if I need to install dependencies for me to be able to browse my Android?
I installed Dolphin file browser and it worked fine but Thunar (default) opens the device SD card with just a blank page (in the file browser). I Googled around a bit and I’m not able to find anything, specifically.
I’m wondering if there are certain necessary dependencies that aren’t installed that I can just install real quick in order to get the compatibility going so I can just use Thunar, not have to revert to Dolphin, back and forth.
As far as I understand it, thunar, which is gtk-based, does not support kdeconnect, which is qt-based. You’ll probably need to install some gtk-specific packages for interfacing with Android.
That said, the most commonly used protocol for connecting Android to a separate computer — which does not require kdeconnect at all — is the MTP protocol, which thunarshould support.
I was pretty sure mtp was installed by default…but maybe it wasn’t on a minimal install so check for it.
And remember to allow the connection on the phone. The good old cable is my preferred method for big files like videos.
For occasional use for small files i find Localsend better.
Kdeconnect will pull qt stuff, if it is the first qt program you ever installed.
I use it mainly for notifications and clipboard share.
And you will have to allow it on the firewall if you use one on the pc.
I have android-tools, gvs-mtp and android-udev installed here and it works fine.
If you want or need KDE Connect, you might be better off installing Manjaro Plasma. I don’t see the point of installing a good deal of Plasma (KDE) dependencies on an Xfce system. I guess I prefer a cleaner Xfce system.
GSConnect is a GNOME Shell Extension that only includes a Nautilus and optionally a Nemo plugin. It is not compatible with Xfce or anything else.
@roiikkata Sorry, as far as I know there are no Thunar plugins for any sort of KDE Connect functionality.
As far as avoiding installing a huge pile of KDE dependencies required by kdeconnect on other environments, keep an eye on Valent created by the original developer of GSConnect. There are currently no file manager plugins, however it’s still in the Alpha stage of development. It can currently be installed via Flatpak or the valent-gitAUR package (which I maintain).
Just adding that the Krusader file manager may potentially provide a better interface in conjunction with KDE Connect, in non-Plasma environments.
This is based solely on having revisited it’s features for a few minutes, but to know if it will indeed be useful you will need to experiment with it yourself.
Indeed, i just tested. Doubleclicking on “browse” in kde connect opens empty thunar. But selecting the phone from krusader opens the internal memory.
By the way, i highly recommend fx explorer for android. It can make ftp server, or webserver…so browsing will be possible withouth special apps (except web browser or filezilla).
Alternatively, Wi-fi Pro FTP-Server for android also does that.
Just mentioning, because the OP wants to go light and Krusader is also KDE so it will also pull a lot of dependencies.
Surprisingly fewer than one might think;
just installed on XFCE:
[kermit@piggy ~]$ sudo pacman -S krusader
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
Packages (2) kstatusnotifieritem-6.18.0-1 krusader-2.9.0-1
Total Download Size: 3.96 MiB
Total Installed Size: 14.98 MiB
There are several optional dependencies, most of which are already installed; judging from the list there are none that seem mission-critical for the purpose, in any case:
Optional dependencies for krusader
xz: LZMA and XZ archive support [installed]
unzip: ZIP decompression support [installed]
zip: ZIP archive support [installed]
lhasa: LHA archive support
cpio: cpio archive support
unrar: RAR decompression support [installed]
arj: ARJ archive support
unarj: ARJ decompression support
unace: ACE decompression support [installed]
7zip: 7z archive support [installed]
keditbookmarks: Manage Bookmarks functionality
kde-cli-tools: manage file associations, root mode
kompare: file contents comparison
kdiff3: file contents comparison
krename: advanced rename tool
konsolepart: terminal
ktexteditor: file editing support [installed]
For some of these Krusader will offer to install them on firstrun, in the event they might be wanted.
Plus, an optional dependency for kstatusnotifieritem:
Optional dependencies for kstatusnotifieritem
pyside6: Python bindings
Appendum:-
The Total Commander app is generally quite useful on Android; it includes LAN and limited WiFi access among other features, though it can be confusing to use at times when hurried (I’m more comfortable with a desktop OS).
Thunar can access files on my Nokia phone when it is set to use file transfer mode
but issue with a Samsung Galaxy and Thunar/gvfs has been reported recently
For me personally, gnome and kde libraries are unavoidable on XFCE, i do not want to limit myself to app from only one camp. It is the whole point of FOSS, to have a choice.
Well, from my output (above) on XFCE only one of those was installed with Krusader: kstatusnotifieritem-6.18.0-1.
I would suppose the majority of those listed by pamac would already exist in a typical installation, and some of the Plasma based dependencies may not apply in XFCE.
would probably be part of every install. The rest is KDE and QT stuff. In theory if one never ever had kde apps or qt apps they should not be there.
Anyhow…it does not really matter how it is in your or my install. The way to check is that the OP starts the install - before that the required dependencies will be listed. This happens in pamac and pacman. So i find the initial question of the OP for the dependencies a bit strange…since he could have checked faster than posting the topic.
Still i regard this topic as a place to gather ideas and app alternatives, so it might be helpful for other people. And we confirmed a bug (or a lack of integration) between kde connect and thunar, so the OP now knows it was not a problem with his config.
And we found a workaround with Krusader. Which, if one already has KDE connect, will probably pull no additional dependencies. It did not in my case but i have pretty much everything KDE and GNOME already installed.
A Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) type identifies the format of a file. The MIME type enables applications to read the file. For example, a file manager can use the image/png MIME type to detect that a Portable Networks Graphic (PNG) should be opened with Ristretto.
With the MIME Type Editor application, you can view and modify the Default Application that is associated with a Type.
