How to make Caja file manager work with i3wm, Rofi, or keyboard shortcuts

Linux, Opensource

If you are using MATE as a basic Linux desktop, then the file manager Caja, and you are trying to open its window via i3wm, Rofi, an alternative launcher, or the keyboard shortcuts, you will have found yourself in the bad situation of seeing nothing happen on screen.

Yes, we are talking about a small, ancient and annoying bug still present. No problem, through an easy tweak we will be able to make everything work without problems. Let’s see how.

drun can’t open Caja, but also the keyboard shortcuts are not working

First, drun from Rofi calls the Caja.desktop file. Second, in the shortcuts control center, we set the execution command with /usr/bin/caja. Third, both the solutions are not working.

So, what to do?

Searching for a solution over the Internet, we found it on the official Rofi GitHub repository under Issues.

Old issue but in case anybody runs into this, edit /usr/share/applications/caja-browser.desktop and change Exec=caja –no-desktop –browser %U into Exec=caja –no-desktop –browser ..

drun can’t open Caja (file manager – MATE) #803

Easy. Edit the /usr/share/applications/caja-browser.desktop and change the Exec call.

From:

Comment=Browse the file system with the file manager
TryExec=/usr/bin/caja
Exec=/usr/bin/caja --no-desktop --browser %U

To:

Comment=Browse the file system with the file manager
TryExec=/usr/bin/caja
Exec=/usr/bin/caja --no-desktop --browser .

Now, you can launch Caja file manager directly from Rofi.

And for the keyboard shortcuts?

Simple, just change the launch command.

From:

/usr/bin/caja

To:

/usr/bin/caja --no-desktop --browser .

And now also the keyboard shortcut for Caja is working fine.

Enjoy it!

References and resources