Dolphin won't open, no error

[Glioburd]

Hello, well my problem will be quick to explain: Dolphin simply doesn’t open anymore. If I try to launch it from a terminal, nothing happens, and there’s no error or any log:

$ dolphin 

Dolphin version : 24.12.2

System:
Kernel: 6.6.80-1-MANJARO
DE: Plasma 6.3.2

Packages are up to date.

I noticed that the exact same problem happens for Filezilla, in case it might give you a clue, or maybe it’s not related at all.

I’m not sure where to start looking, since I don’t have any errors.

Thanks for your help

---

Edit : fixed with Plasma 6.3.3

[Mirdarthos]

Hi @Glioburd,

Please provide the output of:

dolphin . &2>&1

[Glioburd]

Hi @Mirdarthos !
Here’s the output:

$ dolphin . &2>&1
[1] 45084

Edit: different output every time, I suppose it’s normal (PID of running program?)

✦ ❯ dolphin . &2>&1
[2] 45289

~ 
✦2 ❯ dolphin . &2>&1
[3] 45335

~ 
✦3 ❯ dolphin . &2>&1
[4] 45381

~ 
✦4 ❯ dolphin . &2>&1
[5] 45427

~ 
✦5 ❯ dolphin . &2>&1
[6] 45473

[Mirdarthos]

Yes, because that is the ID of the dolphin process, if I’m not mistaken. basically this means that is actually is starting up, it’s just not visible. You don’t have any other monitors it can hide on do you? Or perhaps it’s starting minimized.

[Glioburd]

Indeed I can see the process running in htop, but they are not visible anywhere. I have two monitors (laptop + external screen).
But no Dolphin shown in the windows list when I press alt+tab, also the Dolphin icon in the taskbar has a dark background, like if the app was not running. (Yeah, that is a real technical description )

[zhongsiu]

Do you have other services running?
I have NFS server running on other computer occasionally. When I shut down that computer, Dolphin on my computer gets unresponsive and I have to kill it. If I try to launch Dolphin again, it never appears. Only a reboot fixes it.

Do you have something similar running?

[Glioburd]

I’m not running any special services, even on a fresh reboot it still doesn’t open.
I’m using docker for work (which is not started on login) so I don’t have anything special installed on my system.
Thanks for the help tho, I’ll keep investigating.

[Mirdarthos]

Does it happen in a Live environment?
Is it not on a different Virtual Desktop?

[Glioburd]

Yes, it happens in a Live environment, I’m not using virtual desktop or anything
Edit : ok I just noticed the same problem happens with Gwenview, the KDE image viewer.
So… So far the problem occurs with

• Dolphin
• Gwenview
• Filezilla

[Mirdarthos]

If it happens in a Live Environment as well, I’m thinking it has something to do with your environment rather than software. Or your computer. Try using a different keyboard.

[Glioburd]

Unfortunately, same problem without any device connected (screen, mouse, keyboard).

[Mirdarthos]

Then I’m officially stumped.

Last thoughts:

Make sure there isn’t a window rule for it.

Also make sure there’s nothing in the cache about it:

rm -r ~/.cache/dolphin

And delete any config for it:

rm -r ~/.config/dolphinrc

And if all else fails create and test from a new user.

[Glioburd]

I deleted the cache and the config, and still same problem.
Thanks for your help tho, I’ll keep you informed if I find a fix, or if it solves itself with an update :')

[scotty65]

Could you please post the output of:

ps ax | grep dolphin

If it shows any dolphin processes, then kill them all:

pkill -f dolphin

Then try launching dolphin from a terminal again and, if it seems to be running (i.e. the terminal does not return to the command prompt), then from a separate terminal run the ps ax | grep dolphin command again. Does anything change?

Also, a Stable Update was issued a few hours ago. Maybe that will fix the issue.

[Glioburd]

Okay, I just updated my system, now I’m on Plasma 6.3.3 and… after a reboot, it’s fixed.
I can successfully open Dolphin, Filezilla and Gwenview

Hard to tell what was the cause, but in any case, the problem has been solved thanks to this update.

Thanks @Mirdarthos, @zhongsiu & @scotty65 for your help!