I've decided to go with the dedicated home/data partition way of doing things for my first multiboot configuration, and for that reason have a bunch of symlinks linking to where I've mounted that partition. Everything works fine in the terminal, but when I use the GUI, it just opens up another window without having followed the link.
Example: I click on the symlink named "Documents" in my home folder which should link to the "Documents" folder on my dedicated partition, but another window of my home folder pops up instead.
Also, when I'm saving a file for the first time and would like to navigate somewhere by way of the symlinks, the symlinks are treated as files rather than directories. When I click on one to follow it, the name of the file-to-be-saved is changed to the name of the symlink.
I made the symlinks using terminal with ln -s
, and I've managed the same procedure in Mint 17 without any problems with the GUI.
Additional info provided to comment questions:
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity
The symlinks are absolute links.
One thing I've noticed is that the first time I open Files (right after I log in), all the links work. As soon as I follow one (unless I open in a new tab), they all stop working. I can rename a symlink and then it starts working, but only until I follow it again. Something definitely changes once I follow the symlink, because when I go back the symlinks are no longer arranged alphabetically with the other directories, they're arranged alphabetically with the other files. When I rename one, that seems to make it behave like a directory again because it moves to be alphabetically in line with the other "regular" directories.
Maybe somebody knows of a file or something that gets modified once I change the name of a symlink or follow it...?
$ ls -l
total 48
drwxrwxr-x 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 13 Mud 1 15:54 backup
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 41 Mud 1 15:18 Desktop -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Desktop/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 43 Mud 1 15:18 Documents -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Documents/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 42 Mud 1 20:44 Downloads -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Downloads
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 39 Mud 1 15:19 eBooks -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/eBooks
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 45 Mud 1 15:21 Google Drive -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Google Drive
drwxrwxr-x 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 2 Mud 5 20:55 made in terminal
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 38 Mud 1 15:21 Music -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Music
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 41 Mud 1 15:21 Pictures -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Pictures
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 38 Mud 1 21:01 Public -> /mnt/temp/Ubuntu/funkyrailroad/Public/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 401 Mud 1 21:03 steps
-rw-rw-r-- 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 406 Mud 1 17:32 steps~
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 40 Mud 1 20:54 Templates -> /mnt/temp/Ubuntu/funkyrailroad/Templates
lrwxrwxrwx 1 funkyrailroad funkyrailroad 39 Mud 1 21:00 Videos -> /mnt/temp/SnowLeopard/localadmin/Movies
I've mounted the data partition by editing fstab. It's nonjournaled hfs plus formatted because I want mac os x to be able to read it, and for lack of forethought I named the directory where it'll be mounted "temp". I used to access it by its UUID, but I must have done something weird and that partition no longer has a UUID, at least it doesn't show one when I run blkid, so I go by its /dev/sdax name. The relevant entry in /etc/fstab is:
/dev/sda3 /mnt/temp hfsplus rw 0 2
I've got the exact same setup on my Mint partition (and in the meantime my Zorin as well), and I can follow the symlinks with the GUI no problem. The messup with the UUID also affected my other setups, which still seem to work, so I'm tempted to think that the problem is elsewhere...
ln -s
, which is a symbolic link. That is what you want, anyway.