I’ve recently installed Veracrypt on the Gnome 43.2 DE and noticed that mounted containers never appear on the left column of the Nautilus file manager. However, I can still access the mounted containers if I manually type the path in the Nautilus path/address bar.
This issue doesn’t appear when I use the KDE Plasma DE with Dolphin, FYI.
Also, this issue with Veracrypt persists in Kernels 5.15.93-1 and 6.1.11-1 of which I’ve tested in Gnome 43.2.
Furthermore, I’ve also tried manually building Veracrypt from the latest source files of the Veracrypt Github Repo instead of using the main Arch Repo, but the same issue still persists in Nautilus.
To change the behaviour one probably needs to adjust the xdg-open handling.
veracrypt has a setting option in the “system integration → open explorer window” - that will open nautilus on mount. You can also set a nautilus bookmark for the mounted volume. The bookmark will stay when it is not mounted, but perhaps this does not matter for you.
I expected the Veracrypt container to appear like a removable/USB drive on the left column of Nautilus like other file managers after I mount it in the Veracrypt GUI (e.g. choose slot 5 → select file → mount); however nothing shows up in the left column in Nautilus unlike other file managers.
ion’s solution is a workaround, but I’m a bit curious as why Nautilus doesn’t exhibit the same behavior on Veracrypt mounted containers as other file managers.
Nautilus - and Gnome in general - is a bit special.
It tries hard to hide complexity and make it appear simple.
The content of the mounted encrypted files is still available via the path that you mounted it in the veracrypt gui, no?
It’s just not visible as an “external” drive?
Perhaps that behavior is intended - perhaps this behavior depends on where you mount the encrypted folders to?
I don’t know.
I don’t use Gnome - for a multitude of reasons. Of which this could be another one … but I would not even care one bit about this one, nor would I even have noticed …
gnome-shell does have a automatism-trigger for removable drives (e.g. USB), but mounting from within veracrypt does not register as one. I’m sure one of the multitude of mount-helpers for crypt-devices can handle that, but you can also use dolphin within gnome and see the veracrypt volume appear on the left upon mount. That aside, gnome-shell does trigger the tracker3.miner when the volume appears, so some automatism does work.
<My 2cent> Clearly the behaviour is to simplify it for the user, yes. Personally, I do like that for regular use, but it boils down to personal preference. Still, gnome3 got more difficult to customize all the time (e.g. its extensions drama). Yet, current desktop entries specification still carry a “special” (i.e. not deprecated gruft) section for legacy KDE for a good dozen years. So, it’s too much to expect widely comparable behaviour I guess, but enjoy the choice of DE and tools. </my 2cent>.
Sometimes I feel like I’m fighting Gnome to get basic functionality that I expect to have available by default; I have about a dozen Gnome extensions to make it fit my use-cases, but hey … Gnome is still leagues more customizable/versatile than Windows and MacOS DEs of which I’ve been using as daily drivers for years until recently. I kinda get that Gnome developers prioritize emphasis on simple, minimalist, distraction-free UI.