Using NFS, with Dolphin the mount point placeholder in ~/ is not shown

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1

I have several placeholder directories in my home directory for use as mount points for NFS shares. In Dolphin placeholders which do not have a mounted directory are not displayed. This is confusing, how can I get my unmounted mount points to show please?

2

A directory not used as a mount point is just a directory. There is nothing special that differs it from any other directory.
In other words, a directory is only a mount point when it is in use as such.

Thus, how can Dolphin read your mind that you maybe,somewhere in the future, will use a directory as a mount point?

And answers your question in my opinion.

3

I understand. My problem here is that the placeholder directory, which has been used previously is not shown when the server is down. Here is my home directory:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> ls -l
total 2691973
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair      68680 May 21 10:03 apcupsd-gui-3.14.14-49.17.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair        184 Jul 25 20:33 api_keys.json
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       1520 Sep 21 21:21 applications
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        284 May 14 09:17 Archives
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         80 Mar 19  2024 bin
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       1024 Jun 28 12:18 Business_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 root     root              0 Jul 27 22:30 CLAMAV_db
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair 1861754318 Mar  7  2024 Claudio Monteverdi L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA - OPERA LIVE STREAMING.mp4
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        654 Jun  2 12:35 Computing_Documents
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root         682061 Jul 16 18:30 configs.zip
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        134 Jun  5 16:28 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       2200 Sep 21 13:53 Downloads
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair  893452076 Mar 20  2024 Monteverdi - Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria.mp4
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         22 Sep 19 22:56 Music
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair     607419 Aug 27 20:09 New_File_pps_39-41.pdf
drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root              0 Sep 22 02:13 NFS_from_ibmserv_134_alastair
drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root              0 Sep 22 02:13 NFS_from_ibmserv_134_Mastermedia
drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root              0 Sep 22 02:13 NFS_from_ibmserv_135_alastair
drwxr-xr-x 53 alastair alastair       4096 Sep 11 11:31 pCloudDrive
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       7578 Sep 15 17:52 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        518 Sep 13 16:46 Private_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair      17572 Jan 18  2024 Scanned_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         20 Apr 18 19:22 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        270 Jun  2 15:01 Videos
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        596 Jun  2 12:12 Working
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair        113 Sep 18 18:15 YouTube_API.txt
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> 
```  Form this you can see that I have three placeholder directories to be used as mount points.  The placeholder directory

NFS_from_ibmserv_135_alastair

Is not shown in Dolphin.  Any idea what is going on?
4
  1. The word “placeholder direcory” is of your own invention and has no meaning.
  2. Having directories owned by root in someones home directory is not a good idea.
  3. You did not prove that these directories are not “show in Dolphin”.
5

I think “placeholder subdir” is a phrase used in the Windows world. Does not apply in the Unix | Linux world.

Might want to define what a ‘placeholder’ is.

If you’ve created a sub-dir that is hidden, that makes sense, if Dolphin is not configured to show hidden files.

Otherwise, you may have sub-dirs that have invalid ownership.

Please clarify.

6

Never mind… I see it now as pointed out by @hcvv … those are root user owners.

7

Which in itself will not mean that “Dolphin does not show them”. But there is no Dolphin image shown of ~alistair/ that we can inspect. We only have the ls -l and there they are.

1 Like
8

Hi Henk,
I had used the term “placeholder” because I was trying to differentiate between my other mount points and those which are for NFS shares which depend upon the remote server running. I am sorry if this was not clear and shall refer to the problem directories as NFS mounts for my own benefit.

I can only agree to your point 2. My problem is that I created these subdirectories where I wanted them to be, in my ~/ directory. I then created the client NFS connection using Yast2 which showed the shared directories from my main server. I do not recall creating them as root but it is possible. More important, should they be owned by root or alastair:users?

Regarding your point 3 I am not sure what proof you need. A screenshot perhaps if you cannot take my word for it.

I have now shut down the server and here is the screenshot:-

HP-Z640-2_Dolphin_Screenshot_20240923_215653
HP-Z640-2_Dolphin_Screenshot_20240923_2156532560×1440 265 KB

Hope this is legible. You can see that none of the NFS mount points are now show.
Previously but I couldn’t tell you which TW but also on Leap 15.5 the subdirectories where still shown but with no contents indicated. You will see the banner at the top which indicates the subdirectories exist.

9

Dolphin-> View->Show hidden files

10

As I assumed “of your own invention”. You can of course use terms of your own invention for use inside your own shop, but do not assume they will be understood by anybody else.

I guess that when one talks about “NFS mount points” vs. just"mount points" that will be clear to anybody who understands what NFS is.

I assume you created them using YaST, and as YaST is running “as root”, they are then owned by root . Because of there place inside user alastair s home directory, you (as system manager, thus as root) should then indeed made them owned by the user alastair . As you can see (and should know) the primary group of users alastair on this system is the group alastair and not the group users as you seem to suggest. Thus my advice would indeed be to chown -R alastair:alastair them (must be done by root of course).
BTW there are more of those root owned items there. You should really investigate what is going on and be less sloppy in your security management as well as root as as alastair .

You know very well that we never take anybody’s word, but only trust computer facts.

I will now start and try to interpret your screenshot.

11

Yes, I now see what you mean (you could have show this in your first post, would have spared a lot of time and effort).

As a note: it is NOT the fact that they are not owned by the owner of the directory shown, because CLAMAV_db is also an empty directory owned by root and it is shown.

I have no idea, but as you say, they should be there, they were in earlier TW snapshots and they are in Leap 15.5, thus a bug report is in my opinion the way to go.
Do not forget to include the ls -l listing vs. the Dolphin screenshot. And please do not use terms of your own invention or people will probably ignore you.

12

I have a laptop here that I yesterday upgraded Leap 15.5 > 15.6.

It shows the same!

The directory is shown with ls (of course), but it is not shown in Dolphin.

After I started the server, I could see the contents with ls , but the still open Dolphin window did not alter. I can not find any “refresh the view” button or menu entry. so I still can not go there with Dolphin :frowning:

Edit: Restarting Dolphin now shows it.

I am afraid that this will be explained as being a new “feature” of Dolphin.

13

From the Dolphin menu: View > Refresh or press F5

14

Sorry, missed that.

In any case, you will understand that I do not love this lying about the existence of a directory for whatever reason.

Still wondering what the idea behind it is. Apparently somebody thought this being a good idea and then forced it’s implementation on the innocent users of Dolphin.

15

Hi Henk, I am very sorry that you doubted me but I hope you can see the issue I have raised for the screenshot and understand your quest for clarity and precision.

I raised this issue as a departure from what I had previously experienced. It is not a complaint but I would like to understand what is going on, particularly regarding the thread from NAS to Server and then from server to client and why these subdirectories on the machine on which I am now working and typing should have end up owned by root as the files I am accessing are my personal files and should not be owned by root. You have explained in more detail the ownership question but there are inconsistencies here which I do not have time now to fathom. Suffice it to say that all my NFS mount points have been creating in the same way whilst I have been logged in as myself and have used Yast2 similarly to create NFS shares.

I have re-built the server and client sides of the three shares in question and now I have:-

alastair@HP-Z640-1:~> ls -l
total 2691973
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair      68680 May 21 10:03 apcupsd-gui-3.14.14-49.17.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair        184 Jul 25 20:33 api_keys.json
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       1520 Sep 21 21:21 applications
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        284 May 14 09:17 Archives
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         80 Mar 19  2024 bin
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       1024 Jun 28 12:18 Business_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 root     root              0 Jul 27 22:30 CLAMAV_db
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair 1861754318 Mar  7  2024 Claudio Monteverdi L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA - OPERA LIVE STREAMING.mp4
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        654 Jun  2 12:35 Computing_Documents
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root         682061 Jul 16 18:30 configs.zip
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        142 Sep 24 11:17 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       2200 Sep 21 13:53 Downloads
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair  893452076 Mar 20  2024 Monteverdi - Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria.mp4
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         22 Sep 19 22:56 Music
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair     607419 Aug 27 20:09 New_File_pps_39-41.pdf
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair users          1342 Sep 24 09:26 NFS_from_ibmserv_134_alastair
drwxr-xr-x  6 alastair users            86 May 15  2023 NFS_from_ibmserv_134_Mastermedia
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        968 Sep 23 21:36 NFS_from_ibmserv_135_alastair
drwxr-xr-x 53 alastair alastair       4096 Sep 11 11:31 pCloudDrive
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair       7674 Sep 23 22:04 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        518 Sep 13 16:46 Private_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair      17572 Jan 18  2024 Scanned_Documents
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair         20 Apr 18 19:22 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        270 Jun  2 15:01 Videos
drwxr-xr-x  1 alastair alastair        596 Jun  2 12:12 Working
-rw-r--r--  1 alastair alastair        113 Sep 18 18:15 YouTube_API.txt
alastair@HP-Z640-1:~>

and the relevant screenshot:-

Screenshot_20240924_111600
Screenshot_20240924_1116002560×1440 285 KB

If my problem is a new feature I doubt it will be documented or even explained.
Out of interest Henk, what desktop do you use? It may be time for me to change!

Once again thanks for your help on this.
PS I have more issues with NFS now but will start a new thread and try and be precise!

16

I do not doubt you as in: you telling fairy tails on purpose. But I (and I am not the only one) have seen to many cases of people that post their conclusions instead of the computer facts. Posting the computer facts allow people to come to their own conclusions (which may differ from the ones of the OP) and also allow seeing things that the OP might think are unimportant were in fact they are very important.
When someone is at the end of his/her possibilities in understanding a problem and asks for help, a fresh look from someone else, not biased by the dead alleys already walked, is often illuminating.

Using YaST, you are not “yourself” (you probably mean “a normal user”), you are root . For that you even have had to type the password of root , haven’t you?

Why those users ? all others have alastair as group?

Relevant to what?
As I see it now the mounts are functioning.
Your problem (and when you have read my last post, I confirmed it is also my problem) is with an unmounted NFS.

You using Dolphin I assumed KDE. I also use KDE.

Did you start a Bug report or not?

That is something that you should not restrict to NFS. It is most important with everything related to computers. And in my opinion in many (when not most) other things in normal life communication.