Thunar permanent deletion

Support and Help
1

Ubuntu 24.04 new install
Gnome, X11, dash-to-panel plugin
When I installed Ubuntu and Thunar, I remembered I enabled permanent file deletion on Nautilus/Thunar, to be on the safe side, I’d rather delete it to Trash than permanent, but I don’t recall where I did the change, and looked around configuration and couldn’t find it either. Can someone please point me to the right direction where this setting is located?

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Unless you changed other settings, it should be possible to do it like this:

Nautilus

  • Open Nautilus (Files).

  • Click on the hamburger menu (☰) in the top-right corner.

  • Select Preferences.

  • Go to the Behavior tab.

Find the option “Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files” and make sure it is enabled.

Close the Preferences window.

Thunar

  • Open Thunar.

  • Click on Edit in the menu bar.

  • Select Preferences.

  • Go to the Behavior tab.

Look for “Enable Delete command that bypasses Trash”.

If it is checked, uncheck it to prevent permanent deletion and send files to Trash instead.

Close the Preferences window.

Off-topic question: why both Nautilus and Thunar?

1 Like
3

@rubi1200 thank you so much for your prompt reply, my Nautilus does not have tab, when I clicked Preferences, another popup screen came up, and under Optional Menu Context Actions, there’s an option Delete Permanently, it was unchecked, so I checked it. Then I went to Thunar > menu > Preferences > Behavior tab > Context Menu > Show action to permanently delete files and folders was unchecked. When trying to delete, it still says delete permanently, went back and checked it in Thunar, still shows delete permanently. Is there somewhere else that has this setting?
Off-topic: I did not remove Nautilus because it’s installed by default, when I was using MX Linux, I deleted an app installed by default and messed up my OS and had to re-install linux. I prefer Thunar over Nautilus because of tab feature. Can I safely remove Nautilus in Ubuntu?

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Perhaps @1fallen knows the answer?

I am not the right person to answer this; never tried it not even as a test.

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That Thunar setting controls whether the “delete permanently” is shown in addition to “Move to Trash”. Thunar does not offer the option of using trash on some types of filesystems/partitions - in which case it will always only show “delete permanently” for files on those filesystems, regardless of the setting.

What type of filesystem are you trying to delete files from? Is it the same partition that contains your home folder, or is it a separate storage partition? Is it a removable drive?

No. That would uninstall your GNOME desktop.

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6

Removing Nautilus in Ubuntu can be risky as it is a core application that is deeply integrated into the GNOME desktop environment. Attempting to remove Nautilus can lead to the removal of other essential packages, potentially breaking the GNOME desktop.
i.e.

apt depends nautilus
nautilus
  Depends: bubblewrap
  Depends: desktop-file-utils (>= 0.7)
  Depends: eject
  Depends: gsettings-desktop-schemas (>= 3.8.0)
  Depends: gvfs (>= 1.3.2)
  Depends: libglib2.0-data
  Depends: libnautilus-extension4 (= 1:48.0-1ubuntu1)
  Depends: nautilus-data (= 1:48.0-1ubuntu1)
  Depends: shared-mime-info (>= 0.50)
  Depends: <localsearch>
    tracker-extract
  Depends: xdg-user-dirs-gtk
  Depends: libadwaita-1-0 (>= 1.6~beta)
  Depends: libc6 (>= 2.38)
  Depends: libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4)
  Depends: libdbusmenu-glib4 (>= 0.4.2)
  Depends: libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 (>= 2.25.2)
  Depends: libgexiv2-2 (>= 0.14.2)
  Depends: libglib2.0-0t64 (>= 2.83.0)
  Depends: libgnome-autoar-0-0 (>= 0.4.4)
  Depends: libgnome-desktop-4-2t64 (>= 43~)
  Depends: libgraphene-1.0-0 (>= 1.5.4)
  Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0)
  Depends: libgstreamer1.0-0 (>= 1.0.0)
  Depends: libgtk-4-1 (>= 4.17.5)
  Depends: libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.42)
  Depends: libportal-gtk4-1 (>= 0.7)
  Depends: libportal1 (>= 0.7)
  Depends: libselinux1 (>= 3.1~)
  Depends: libtinysparql-3.0-0 (>= 3.8.1)
  Depends: libunity9 (>= 3.4.6)
  Depends: libwayland-client0 (>= 1.20.0)
  Depends: libx11-6
  Breaks: eiciel (<< 0.9.13.1-1.1~)
  Breaks: <folder-color> (<< 0.0.86-0ubuntu5~)
  Breaks: nautilus-dropbox (<< 2019.02.14-1ubuntu2~)
  Breaks: <nautilus-extension-brasero> (<< 3.12.3-2)
  Breaks: <nautilus-extension-burner> (<< 3.0.10-1.2)
  Breaks: <nautilus-extension-gnome-console> (<< 43)
  Breaks: <nautilus-filename-repairer> (<< 0.2.0-3.1~)
  Breaks: nautilus-font-manager (<< 0.8.8-2)
  Breaks: <nautilus-gtkhash> (<< 1.4+git20220617-2.1~)
  Breaks: <nautilus-ideviceinfo> (<< 0.1.0-0ubuntu15~)
  Breaks: nautilus-image-converter (<< 0.3.1~git20110416-2.1~)
  Breaks: nautilus-share (<< 0.7.3-2ubuntu7~)
  Breaks: nautilus-wipe (<< 0.3.1-2.1~)
  Breaks: <seahorse-nautilus> (<< 3.11.92-4.1~)
  Breaks: unity (<< 7.5.1+21.10.20210601.1-0ubuntu1)
  Recommends: gvfs-backends
  Recommends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin
  Recommends: librsvg2-common
  Recommends: xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
  Suggests: gnome-sushi

I’m a bit confused now, after reading the thread from the begining.

So your Title indicates you want to remove Thunar, but verbage also suggest you want to remove Nautilus. Help me make this clear.

My reply only addresses what the outcome might be for Nautilus.

If you want to actuality remove Thunar, that is a safe removal.

Also for a permeant delete in thunar I just use Shift+Delete and Enter. (Be cautious there is no return)

1 Like
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Slightly off topic but I find Krusader dual pane manager better fits my needs than does Thunar. Including the delete/trash discussion here. I do have Thunar installed. Just don’t use it much.

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@halogen2 no, my home folder is sitting on SSD and my data files are on a separate HD. Thanks for the explanation, I learned my lesson with previous OS.

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@1fallen sorry, English is not my mother tongue, what I was trying to say is deleting files from Thuna (not removing Thunar), I’m using Thunar due to its tab feature, that I use a lot. Now that dragonfly41 mentioned Krusader, I’ll give it a try, since Thunar can’t delete files to trash.

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@dragonfly41 thanks, I’ll give it a try.

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In that case, the trash for your data drive would be stored in a folder located at the filesystem’s root (mountpoint) named .Trash-XXXX (where XXXX is replaced with the user ID shown in output of running id -u in Terminal).

Does the .Trash-XXXX directory (with XXXX replaced appropriately for your user) exist on your data drive?
If not, does it make any difference if you manually create it, make sure your user/group is owner of this directory and make sure your user has rwx permissions on this directory?

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In Krusader I encourage you to explore UserActions to allow further custom workflows. And features such as Bookmarks. It is my main launch pad.

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@halogen2 yes, I do have a folder with .Trash-XXXX, and it has rwx permissions.

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@dragonfly41 thanks for the tips, I’ve installed Krusader. I have 2 questions: 1)Is there a way to install a dark theme? It seems not possible (only used for few hours). 2) Is it possible to change the date format to ISO?

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(1) I found this discussion on dark mode. And here.
(2) I will explore date format later. Busy at this moment. But here is a starter discussion.

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