File associations broken in Folder View (I think).

Hi

I’ve got desktop folder view set to layout = “folder view” and location = “show the desktop folder”.

If I attempt to click open a folder (i.e. directory), Gwenview (instead of Dolphin) opens and displays icons for the contents on the folder/directory. If I right-click and select to open the directory with Dolphin, it works and opens in Dolphin, but despite I tell it to set the system to use Dolphin, that system setting does not stick.

and also

If I attempt to click open a simple text file in the Desktop directory, LibreOffice Writer (instead of Kwrite) opens opens and displays the text. If I right-click and select to open the text file with Kwrite, it works and opens in Kwrite, but despite I tell it to set the system to use Kwrite, that system setting does not stick.

So just to see what happens I uninstalled Gwenview and LibreOffice. Than when I attempt to open a directory in the Desktop directory or a text file in the Desktop directory, I get a message that I am running KDE su and I should enter the root password. However I have checked and the ownership of contents is mine and the permissions are normal e.g. here is an example of ls -l for Desktop:

john@Tumbleweed421:~> cd ~/Desktop
john@Tumbleweed421:~/Desktop> ls -l
total 100
-rw-rw-rw- 1 john users   284 Nov 11 19:48 apache
-rwxr-xr-x 1 john users   891 Sep 15  2012 arrow.xcf
-rw-rw-rw- 1 john users    88 Jan  7 21:19 EZTV
drwxr-xr-x 2 john users  4096 Nov  2 21:03 FP.USA
-rwxrwxrwx 1 john users  2145 Nov 16 12:29 FStudy60.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 john users     5 Jan 24 21:47 index.php.txt
drwxr-xr-x 3 john users  4096 Jan 31 10:50 manuals

Any suggestions? I’m almost at the point of re-installing.

[Furthermore a trash folder on the Desktop occupies about 1/20th of the screen real estate and I can’t shift it. But bad widgets are another matter.]

Extra information: this happened immediately after a “zypper dup” on the weekend which brought in maybe 450 associated file upgrades/swaps.

The folderview widget just uses the standard KDE means to open files.
So this is a general KDE (KF5) problem.

A faulty patch has been added to kservice unfortunately. It has been removed again a few days ago, but that change is not in Tumbleweed yet.

Judging from other threads it seems to only affect the “Default Applications” configuration module though, you should still be able to change the default application for folders in “File Associations” (mimetype “inode/directory”).

For moving/resizing plasmoids, you need to click on it and hold the mouse button for a few seconds.
You can revert to the old behavior (the handles appearing as soon as you move the mouse over a plasmoid) in the (Desktop or Folderview) settings that you can reach via right-clicking on the desktop or via the desktop’s toolbox icon. It’s the second option in “Tweaks”.

Thanks, that fixed the associations.

And also: The Trash widget is now smaller and in place where I like to have it.

However if I attempt to peer inside the trash I get the error message “malformed url trash:/”. Any thoughts on that?

[Temporarily I have replaced the trash widget with a Desktop Link to URL (Trash:/) because I can see inside that icon by hovering.]

The “trash:/” protocol is part of kio-core which should be installed in any case.

Maybe try to run “kbuildsycoca5 --no-incremental” (as user) to recreate KDE’s caches.

Temporarily I have replaced the trash widget with a Desktop Link to URL (Trash:/) because I can see inside that icon by hovering.]

So “trash:/” works there?
Then the trash plasmoid should work too.
Maybe remove it and add it again.

I ran “kbuildsycoca5 --noincremental”. I didn’t see obvious change in behaviour.

There have been a few “zypper dup” instances sine I last wrote here. I still have to adjust the file associations in “configure desktop”.

The url-based trashcan folder no longer works for me. And the widget trashcan doesn’t work still. Both now give the response “malformed url trash:/”.

Also, just to test, I added another username account. Logged in to that account. Same problems.

Well, apparently kservice contained a broken patch. But this should be removed in TW since two days again.

But the glib2 fix is not in Tumbleweed yet, it still overrides all file associations with GNOME’s defaults (if you don’t have GNOME installed, that could probably also cause gwenview getting the default application for folders).
Does it help if you rename /usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list to gnome-mimeapps.list?

See 966739 – KDE/Plasma default application is broken and the fix Request 364661: Submit glib2 - openSUSE Build Service

- Follow the freedesktop conventions for the mime handler
  associations. The created link is gnome specific, so make it
  specific (gnome-mimeapps.list). This prevents association
  problems in Plasma 5 (boo#966739)
  https://specifications.freedesktop.org/mime-apps-spec/mime-apps-spec-latest.html

The url-based trashcan folder no longer works for me. And the widget trashcan doesn’t work still. Both now give the response “malformed url trash:/”.

Can you navigate to “trash:/” in dolphin or the file open/save/dialog?

Try to delete/rename the folder ~/.local/share/Trash/, maybe the info files are broken somehow.

PS: according to this the Trash problem might just be caused by the wrong file association for drawers:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=100899#p327795

But I think now I misunderstood the problem you have with the trash.

You get this error when you try to open the trash, right?
I thought the applet shows this error instead of the icon…

Swerdna,

I had similar problems my fixes:

TRASH:
System Settings>Applications>Default Applications
Click Dolphin click Apply
If all goes well you’ll have your trash back.

THE FILE ASSOCIATIONS

Rename your ~/.local to say was.local
Then C & P only the folders from your was./local/share into your new ~/.local/share

Hope that works for ya’

Almost forgot you’ll need to reconfigure your Panels & Desktop.

Yes, when I click to open the trash widget

Thanks, but no it doesn’t fix trash for me.

I decided to wait for glib2.
That arrived. I ran “dup”.
Associations are working now.

Thanks

Good to hear! :slight_smile: