I'm almost afraid to ask this, as I received a ton of unsolicited advice and berating due to the fact that I run Kali and use the root account. If you feel like reminding me how dangerous what I do is, kindly keep it to yourself, thank you.

AVLinux is built upon Debian and comes with Xfce, Kali is based upon Debian and I have it with Xfce. The file systems are slightly different. Kali has a "Desktop" directory so anything placed in home goes there instead of on the desktop. AVLinux has no "Desktop" directory so when anything is placed in to the home directory goes straight to the desktop. The particular home directory is in the root account. I tend to place programs there because I prefer short filepaths as I'm a poor typist. I'd fixed it once, but for the life of me I can't recall how.

I appreciate your help, thank you

Hi LilDeadGirl and welcome to LQ!

Please don't be concerned about asking a question.

You seem to be describing differences between to Linux distributions and how they organize files. Therefore nothing specific seems to be broken.

You do say you fixed it once, but can't recall how. This is fine, we've all been there.

What would be helpful is if you could more clearly describe what you think is broken that you want to fix, and what you want the result to be.

I'd recommend sticking with one thing at a time, such as "You're running (A)Linux. It does (1), and instead you want it to do (2)"

Describing what another distribution does, merely tells readers that you know of different ways to organize files, it however doesn't tell people what you want.

Not sure I get the question but hello and welcome to LQ.

As far as I can tell your question is you want AVlinux to change how it structures the /home directory????

1 members found this post helpful.

Haven't really used Kali, and have never used AVLinux, but it appears AVLinux is displays the user's home directory as the desktop. I just ran into that situation when I updated Ubuntu 17.04 this morning. The cure has was:

1. Copy the files /etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf to $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dir
2. Edit the line that starts with XDG_DESKTOP_DIR to read
   
   Code:

   XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"

3. Save the edited file, then log out and log back in

2 members found this post helpful.

xfce I got a desktop directory within my home directory, I do not remember exactly where in xfce4 but it has a setting to show it on the desktop or not. I'd look within xfce settings and see if I could find that.

1 members found this post helpful.

"I tend to place programs there because I prefer short filepaths as I'm a poor typist."

Ok, this may help. I'm a poor typist too.

The secret to having things the way you like it in Linux, is aliases.

Say you have a command with A-long-and-uncomfortable-name in a path that is also /long/and/uncomfortable.

We've all been there.

Ok, so you make an alias

alias duh='/long/and/uncomfortable/A-long-and-uncomfortable-name'

Thereafter, anytime you type

duh

Linux runs /long/and/uncomfortable/A-long-and-uncomfortable-name for you.

You can stick your aliases in your .profile, .bash_profile, .bashrc or whatever startup script your favourite shell uses.

Eventually, you'll collect a whole bunch of aliases to make your life easier.

And, other people have published their aliases all around the net. There are lots of 2-fingered typists all over the place.

Somebody even has a blog named 'The Two finder typist' https://keystrokes2backspaces.wordpress.com

So, you don't have to feel alone.

Here's a link to something called 'Xfce, the missing documentation'

https://readthedocs.org/projects/xfc...ds/pdf/latest/

I've been using Xfce for years but I haven't read it yet.

<aside>I ran UNIX systems for years - always as 'root' - don't tell anyone!</aside>

It's your computer - you can mess it up as much as you want.

1 members found this post helpful.

To run programs that are in your home directory, you use ./(progname) - (normally programs that are in your PATH statement can be run from anywhere).

To not have to use long pathnames, use an alias, (as mentioned above), or use a (soft) link.
You then use it by entering abc.

1 members found this post helpful.

two:

(one being @fatmac post)


I do not do this a lot but sometimes I even just make a script and place it in my /home/scriptName that within the script it calls to execute a program. I only do this when I have one I know I will forget what its called. So having that script in my /home/ScriptName assists me in recalling what that program name is. Then all I have to do is ./SctiptName even and it starts the program.

that maybe seen as an idiosyncrasy but then that is prob what it is.

Furthermore,

you do not even need to use /bin/bash just added the name of the program inside the script then make it executable. Because like that one post above this stated. PATH is set to whatever directory it is stored in.

If you want to keep "your stuff" separate then you can still do so. This is what the /opt directory is intended for. Though elsewhere too can work. All that might be required is adding it to your PATH statement.

Soft Links help aid in this as well. Just add a soft link to whatever executable you have. No Matter where it is within your system. Then just link it to inside of /usr/bin which is already in your PATH so all you have to do is write the program name or whatever you named it using a soft link on the command line (or bashscript) and it starts.

No absolute path needed to be given to get it to start.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you everyone. I do think I am running into differences in distros file structuring. Aliases are something I do need to learn, I just ran across them while doing something else, but then never got back. Until then I will try Rock Doctor's suggestion. Again, thank you very much

Glad you got it solved.
with all that said, there really is a reason why one shouldn't be root all the time, especially when connecting to the internet.
kali linux runs as root with good reason, but it is not designed for daily use, i.e. browsing the internet etc.!
I've been using AVLinux a few years back, they didn't run as root then, and I don't think they do now.
For both distros, I cannot imagine the sort of vulnerabilities you are opening your system up to when connecting to the internet as root.
even puppy linux, a distro that uses the root account by default, have come up with a sort of "reverse sudo" (i.e. run as unprivileged user) for e.g. starting the web browser! think about that for a while.

it seems you have your mind set and won't listen to reason, but i just wanted to mention these things.

this sort of rebellion has been the privilege of very young adults across the ages, but it always baffles me how someone wants to rebel against a computer operating system - it seems to me there's much more important and relevant things to want to change, IRL.

some reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princi...east_privilege
http://docs.kali.org/introduction/sh...use-kali-linux

2 members found this post helpful.

I think the arguments are reversed.

1 members found this post helpful.

Yeah, AVLinux works best as a regular user. I just go in as root to set things up, it's just easier than sudoing and entering password a bunch of times. I've Slacko Puppy at church and here in virtualbox and it has no option for making a non-root user.
Sure Kali was designed for a different purpose than what I use it for. I like the os. I like it better than most others I've tried. Although when I learn enough I want to bu1ld an arch, ah dreams

If you have a lot of little jobs to do as root, try
sudo su
That lets you become the administrator for any number of commands with only your usual password. To end, type Control+d.

Puppy is supposed to run in the memory, loaded from DVD, USB, or a file on the HD (what they call a frugal install}. That way, if anything nasty happens, it stops the moment Puppy is shut down and the memory lost. Web-browsers are run an a virtual user rather than root, so anyone who hacks the browser will not be root.

why not try this instead: