I just installed Xubuntu on my new (to me) IBM X40, and one minor item is giving me fits. On my Ubuntu machine, I've set it up so that I can single-click a file located on the desktop to open it. I've been able to set this behavior in Thunar on the X40, but not for the desktop. Where can I find a setting that controls this?

I've never used Xubuntu, but I use Ubuntu, and I use Slackware with XFCE. In Slackware with XFCE I just open any directory in thunar and select edit > preferences. Then click the behavior tab. Select "single click to activate items". This works in XFCE in Slackware. It should be the same (or similar) in Xubuntu.

EDIT: Sorry, I misread your post. This does not work for icons on the desktop in XFCE, only for items in a directory in thunar. At least it doesn't work for me anyway. I would like to know how to do this though. If I find an answer I'll post it here.

Tommcd, like yourself, I too had discovered that it would work to allow for single-click inside Thunar, but that makes for a quite confusing desktop, double-clicking on Desktop icons and then single-clicking if they are in the file manager.

On my other laptop, that has regular Gnome-based Ubuntu 8.10, single-click works all the time, so I am guessing that it is NOT an Ubuntu problem, but rather one with the Xfce environment.

I also have an EeePC with Fluxflux-eee installed. This is a derivative of PCLinuxOS and it uses Openbox as the window manager. It too uses single-click, both on the desktop and in Rox, the file manager.

I like Xfce, but if I cannot find a solution to this, I will probably be forced to use a different desktop manager/environment.

I was just searching for a solution to this mildly annoying inconsistency.
Seems to be not doable.
Desktop icons are not controlled by Thunar as I understood it.
These are controlled by gtk - and gtk has no single-click support according to this thread here:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.d...nar.devel/3788

My point exactly. Now it's been two years or so. Xubuntu 12.04 will soon arrive, and 11.10 is rocking steady. Any news on this? I mean, has it become fully "doable" since this thread was last active? Cheers!