How to set Nemo as the default file manager in Ubuntu?

Question

I just installed Ubuntu and I want to replace nautilus with Nemo. I first installed Nemo by using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nemo

I then used the following commands to set Nemo as the default file manager:

xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true

I learned these commands from this post. However, I receive the following error:

> GLib-GIO-Message: 15:22:17.302: Using the 'memory' GSettings backend. 
> Your settings will not be saved or shared with other applications.

Edit:

I found a fix for this error which can be found in my answer below. The accepted answer provides an updated set of instructions to make Nemo the default file manager in recent versions of Ubuntu (18.04+ at the time of writing).

Answer 1

If your problem is that you have Anaconda installed and it has changed some things in your ~/.bashrc file, read this answer by the OP.

Otherwise, here are my generic instructions on...

How to install Nemo and set it as the default file manager in Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 (for 22.04, see here):

• Fully tested in:
  1. Ubuntu 18.04 running the default Gnome desktop.
  2. Ubuntu 20.04 on 8 Aug. 2020 running the default Gnome desktop.
• Why use nemo over nautilus? See the several screenshots at the very end showing the great usage of space and features which nemo has!

The main source where I first learned most of these details, starting with Ubuntu 18.04, was this article by Abhishek Prakash: https://itsfoss.com/install-nemo-file-manager-ubuntu/

To use Nemo instead of Nautilus as your default file manager, including to manage desktop icons, do:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 (for Ubuntu 22.04, see here)

We will install nemo, make it the default, let it control desktop icons too, and disable Nautilus's (the default Ubuntu file manager's) ability to control desktop icons.

Install nemo

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nemo
xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true
=gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false

# Then also install these tools so we can adjust some settings next

sudo apt install dconf-editor 

# And install this on Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04
sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

# Start up the nemo desktop to allow nemo to control the desktop icons too
nemo-desktop&  # We use `&` here to run it in the background

1. If on Ubuntu 20.04, you must also do this:

   (I can't remember if this is required for Ubuntu 18.04 too or not, but I had to do it on Ubuntu 20.04)

   You must also change a setting in the new "Extensions" program which we just installed (or "activated", maybe?--I'm not sure) above with sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool. Press your Super key (Windows key on a PC keyboard, or Command key on a Mac running Linux), then type in "extensions", and click the Extensions program:

   

   Inside this program, click the slider to turn off "Desktop Icons", as shown below. This turns OFF the nautilus desktop icons so that we can just have the nemo desktop icons instead. If you don't do this, you'll get a weird desktop with unusable nautilus desktop icons covered up by usable nemo desktop icons, as shown a couple images down.

   

   Here's a snapshot of my desktop:

   Before:
   (Shows the newly-activated nemo desktop superimposed on top of the now-unusable nautilus desktop):

   

   After:
   (Now shows just the newly-activated nemo desktop, with the default Ubuntu gnome nautilus desktop icons now disabled, as I want):

   

Now add the command nemo-desktop to your startup applications to turn on the nemo desktop icons at every boot.

Reboot (or just log out and then log back in) and run the following command to ensure it opens up your home folder in nemo now, and NOT in nautilus like it used to:

xdg-open $HOME

Set up nemo desktop icons:

If you want your Computer, Home, Trash, etc. icons on your desktop again (you can see some of these shown in a screenshot farther below), see Mark Greaves' answer here. In my own words: ensure dconf-editor is installed:

sudo apt install dconf-editor

Press your Super key (Windows key on a PC keyboard, or Command key on a Mac running Linux), then type in "dconf editor", and click the program:

Navigate to: org --> nemo--> desktop. You have options to show the following 5 things. Enable whichever ones you like. I recommend you don't change anything else unless you know exactly what you're doing:

1. computer-icon-visile (I like to enable this one--shown in the screenshot just below)
2. home-icon-visible (I like to enable this one--shown in the screenshot just below)
3. network-icon-visible
4. trash-icon-visible
5. volumes-visible

To change the desktop icon size when using Nemo as your file manager:

In Ubuntu 18.04, simply right-click on the desktop and go to Desktop --> Icon Size, as shown here:

In Ubuntu 20.04, you'll have to right-click on the desktop and then go to "Customize". It brings up a new window as shown below. I've highlighted a few things you may want to customize. One of them is a drop-down menu for "Icon Size", for example. The sliders at the bottom and right can be used to adjust horizontal and vertical desktop icon grid spacing, respectively.

To go back to using Nautilus instead of Nemo:

xdg-mime default nautilus.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true

# (optional) do NOT run if you want to keep nemo as an extra file manager
sudo apt purge nemo nemo*

# (optional) do NOT run if you want to **keep** applications which were once
# dependencies of other applications, but no longer are; see `man apt` for
# details  
sudo apt autoremove

# Reboot to test, when done
reboot

And remove the nemo-desktop command from your startup applications.

To choose which desktop options to display in Nautilus:

For Ubuntu 18.04, first ensure the gnome-tweak-tool is installed:

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

Then open it by searching for "Tweaks" in your start menu, and going to --> Desktop tab on left:

For Ubuntu 20.04, I believe the Nautilus desktop icons are just controlled by the "Extensions" GUI tool I've previously shown above.

Why use nemo over Ubuntu's default nautilus file manager?

This one's easy. Take a look at the beautiful use of space that nemo permits in Compact view. Look at all of the files you can see at once!

(Note that this view is NOT zoomed out all the way. You can still zoom out one more time while still seeing the file names, and one more time after that to see only tiny icons). I LOVE how compact you can see everything! Let this be a model for GUI file manager designers (Microsoft & Apple & Ubuntu/Nautilus, take note! :))

Versus the really user-unfriendly and space-wasting views available in the nautilus file manager (looking in the same directory in an identically-sized window):

1. Icon view (zoomed all the way out):
   
2. Or, list view (zoomed all the way out):

Aweful, in my opinion! I can't see hardly any files in comparison and it's much more difficult to find things!

Enough said. Notice the nice address bar you can easily type in in nemo too. In nautilus you have to use Ctrl + L to see the address bar to type in.

Troubleshooting:

If you can't get nemo to become your default file manager used by some tool like Dash to Panel, try the following (untested):

1. Search the repo for nautilus and manually replace it with nemo. See the search for "nautilus" in the Dash to Panel source code here: https://github.com/home-sweet-gnome/dash-to-panel/search?q=nautilus. OR:

2. Make your computer open nemo whenever nautilus is run, by making a symbolic link named "nautilus" in your ~/bin folder, but have it point to nemo!:

   mkdir -p ~/bin  # create ~/bin dir if it doesn't exist
   # see where the executable for nautilus is; sample output: `/usr/bin/nautilus`
   which nautilus  
   # see where the executable for nemo is; sample output: `/usr/bin/nemo`
   which nemo
   # create symlink to back nautilus path up; this allows running 
   # `nautilus_real` to run the real `nautilus`!
   ln -s /usr/bin/nautilus ~/bin/nautilus_real
   # create a new `nautilus` symlink to point to `nemo`; this means
   # that if you run `nautilus` it will actually run `nemo`!
   ln -s /usr/bin/nemo ~/bin/nautilus
   

   Log out and log back in. Now, running nemo will run nemo, running nautilus will run nemo, and running nautilus_real will run nautilus.

   To undo these aliases, simply delete those two symlinks you just created above:

   rm ~/bin/nautilus_real
   rm ~/bin/nautilus
   

References

1. https://itsfoss.com/install-nemo-file-manager-ubuntu/
2. How I learned how to change Ubuntu 22.04's latest settings: see both answers here: How can I hide the home folder icon from Ubuntu 22.04 desktop

Related:

1. Note that this answer was moved to this location from here: Change default file manager Ubuntu 18.04
2. How to change desktop icon size?
3. How to display Trash and Home folder icons?

Other things you might want to change:

1. [my answer] How can I add "Show desktop" to the GNOME dash or Ubuntu Dock?
2. [my answer] How can I create launchers on my desktop?
3. [my answer] How can I snap a window in a corner with 18.04?
4. [my answer] Permanently fix Chrome scroll speed

Answer 2

How to install Nemo and set it as the default file manager in Ubuntu 22.04 (for earlier versions, see here):

• Fully tested in:
  1. Ubuntu 22.04 on 19 Dec. 2022 running the default Gnome desktop.
• Why use nemo over nautilus? See the several screenshots at the very end of my other answer here showing the great usage of space and features which nemo has!

To use Nemo instead of Nautilus as your default file manager, including to open desktop icons, do:

For Ubuntu 22.04

We will install nemo and make it the default, but unlike the Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 instructions above, we will not let nemo control the desktop icons (mostly because I can't figure out how to disable the Gnome-controlled desktop icons once I do). Rather, we will simply tell Gnome to open up the desktop icons, which it controls, in nemo instead of in nautilus.

Install nemo

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nemo

# Make `xdg-open` open up directories in nemo instead of nautilus
xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
# Make Gnome-controlled directories and **icons on the desktop** open up in nemo
# now instead of in nautilus
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding use-nemo true

# Install a configuration tool we will use below
sudo apt install dconf-editor 

# (Optional, in case we want to try using this tool to tweak settings too) 
# Note: `gnome-tweaks` on Ubuntu 22.04 replaces `gnome-tweak-tool` on Ubuntu
# 18.04 and 20.04
sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Set up desktop icons:

Open the dconf-editor tool, and navigate to org --> gnome--> shell --> extensions --> ding.

Turn on the "use-nemo" option at the bottom in order to "Use Nemo to open folders".

Here are my current settings:

Note that you can also edit these settings at the command-line. Example:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding use-nemo true
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding show-home true

...and some of these settings are accessible via your main "Settings" menus as well.

Example: press your Super key (Windows key on a PC keyboard, or Command key on a Mac running Linux), and type in "Settings". Open your "settings", and go to the "Appearance" tab. Toggle off the "Show Personal folder" option to hide your "Home" folder, or toggle it back on if desired, as shown here:

That setting is directly linked to gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding show-home true at the command line and to the "show-home" setting in the dconf-editor.

Reboot to test, when done:

reboot

Test the changes:

# 1. Ensure `xdg-open` now opens up your home folder **in nemo**, and NOT in
# nautilus like it used to
xdg-open $HOME

# 2. double-click the Home dir or any folder icon on your desktop and ensure it
# opens up in nemo now instead of in nautilus too.

Notes & Troubleshooting:

1. If you can't find an expected icon, such as the "Home" folder after you have enabled it to show up on the desktop as described above, it may be on another monitor! Minimize all windows with Windowskbd + D and look for your lost icon on another monitor. You may need to right-click on the desktop and go to "Arrange By..." --> "Keep Arranged...", to auto-arrange them. Or, manually drag the icon back where you want it onto your main monitor.

2. If your bookmarks at the left-hand side of your Nemo file manager window are broken and show yellow boxes with exclamation marks in them, like this:

   

   ...then it means those bookmarks are broken. Fix them by going to "Bookmarks" --> "Edit Bookmarks...", then manually fix the "Location" (path) fields for each one. This will happen in particular if you have changed your username and home dir, as shown how to do here.

To change the desktop icon size:

Use the "Size" option under your regular Settings. It is found under Settings --> "Appearance" tab --> "Desktop Icons" section --> "Size" parameter, as shown in the last screenshot above. That is the recommended place to change it, but you can also access it via the dconf-editor at the screen shown above, or at the command-line via gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding icon-size <size>, where size is apparently an enum value chosen from the range obtained by gsettings range org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding icon-size.

Other settings I like to set in Nemo:

Choose View --> Compact View. Also ensure View --> Statusbar is checked. This shows the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Then go to Edit --> Preferences --> Views tab --> change the "Default View" to "Compact View", and reduce the "Compact View Defaults" "Default zoom level" from 100% to 66%, so you can see more files and folders in your Compact View. Here are my settings in this tab:

Under the "Behavior" tab, check the box for "Ask before moving files to the Trash":

Turn on image thumbnail previews for larger images by going to the "Preview" tab and changing the file size from 1 MB to 100 MB or so:

Under the "Toolbar" tab, turn on the "Computer" icon (no screenshot shown).

Under the "Context Menus" tab, check the box for "Make Link" (see screenshot below). This adds a "Make Link" menu option to the right-click menu in order to quickly make a symlink to the file or folder you have selected.

To go back to using Nautilus instead of Nemo:

# Make `xdg-open` open up directories in nautilus instead of nemo
xdg-mime default nautilus.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
# Make Gnome-controlled directories and **icons on the desktop** open up in
# nautilus now instead of in nemo
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding use-nemo false

# (optional) do NOT run if you want to keep nemo as an extra file manager
sudo apt purge nemo nemo*

# (optional) do NOT run if you want to **keep** applications which were once
# dependencies of other applications, but no longer are; see `man apt` for
# details  
sudo apt autoremove

# Reboot to test, when done
reboot

Test the changes:

# 1. Ensure `xdg-open` now opens up your home folder **in nautilus**, and NOT in
# nemo like it did before
xdg-open $HOME

# 2. double-click the Home dir or any folder icon on your desktop and ensure it
# opens up in nautilus again now instead of in nemo.

References

1. https://itsfoss.com/install-nemo-file-manager-ubuntu/
2. How I learned how to change Ubuntu 22.04's latest settings: see both answers here: How can I hide the home folder icon from Ubuntu 22.04 desktop

Answer 3

For those who are here because of the gsettings error mentioned in my question:

The cause of the error was Anaconda installation. I finally solved the problem as explained in this answer. To summarise, just comment the lines added by Anaconda to your .bashrc file, follow the instructions for setting Nemo as the default file manager (as per the accepted answer above), and after completing the instructions uncomment the lines in your .bashrc file.