How does Manjaro enable the Dolphin file manager to browse and discover Windows PC on a network, while other distro’s implementation of KDE cannot do the same? Are there specific packages and config. changes needed to replicate this functionality?
Note: This answer is based on my personal investigations with no actual testing and may not be 100% accurate.
On Arch (and Manjaro by extension), dolphin requires a package called kio-extras, which is described as “additional components to increase the functionality of KIO”, kio being a package to manage some of KDE networking. kio-extras depends on smb-client, which is a package for interfacing with Windows computers over the network. So, it appears that kio-extras is responsible, among other things, for making Windows file sharing work with Dolphin.
What is really intriguing about this is that in Ubuntu’s (and potentially other distros’, but I did not find an easy way to check online) version of dolphin, kio-extras is an optional dependency rather than a hard one. This means that in Arch and Manjaro, these features are turned on by default, whereas in other distros, additional packages (namely kio-extras, but maybe others) are required.
Thanks @fasto. I did some digging and here is what I’ve uncovered so far:
EndeavourOS Cassini 22-12:
* kernel v6.1.6-arch1-1
* smbclient v4.17.4
* kio-extras v22.12.1-1
* Dolphin v22.12.1
* Plasma v5.26.5
Manjaro 22.0.0:
* kernel v6.1.1-1-MANJARO
* smbclient v4.17.4
* kio-extras v22.12.0-1
* Dolphin v22.12.0
* Plasma v5.26.4
OpenSuse Tumbleweed 20230103:
* kernel v6.1.2-1-defaul
* smbclient v4.17.4-git.300.305b22bfceSUSE-oS15.9-x86_64
* kio-extras v22.12.0-1.1
* Dolphin v22.12.0
* Plasma v5.26.4
I’m betting there are several other packages and possibly customizations that enable the desired behavior.
OMFGawd it’s just a file manager. It’s not anything special Manjoro did.
When inspecting dolphin’s dependencies:
$ pamac info dolphin
Name : dolphin
Version : 22.12.0-3
Description : KDE File Manager
URL : https://apps.kde.org/dolphin/
Licences : LGPL
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 12.5 MB
Groups : kde-applications kde-system
Depends On : baloo-widgets knewstuff kio-extras kcmutils kparts kactivities kuserfeedback
Optional Dependencies : kde-cli-tools: for editing file type options [Installed]
ffmpegthumbs: video thumbnails [Installed]
kdegraphics-thumbnailers: PDF and PS thumbnails [Installed]
konsole: terminal panel [Installed]
purpose: share context menu [Installed]
Required By : dolphin-plugins
Optional For : --
Provides : --
Replaces : --
Conflicts With : --
Packager : Antonio Rojas <arojas@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Mon 19 Dec 2022 23:22:48
Install Date : Wed 21 Dec 2022 12:24:17
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Validated By : Signature
Backup files : --
…is would seem that what you’re looking for is in one of these packages:
Depends On : baloo-widgets knewstuff kio-extras kcmutils kparts kactivities kuserfeedback
Optional Dependencies : kde-cli-tools: for editing file type options [Installed]
ffmpegthumbs: video thumbnails [Installed]
kdegraphics-thumbnailers: PDF and PS thumbnails [Installed]
konsole: terminal panel [Installed]
purpose: share context menu [Installed]
Or something else entirely…possibly something to do with Samba…
Good luck!
Thanks Mir. I’ll have to DL the latest Manjaro KDE and check things out.
Rude bro and unnecessary. There is no need to push that negativity when someone is trying to Linux.
1 Like
There was and is nothing “rude” about my post.
Now to the point of your Original question if the Windows machine is discoverable on the network almost all Linux distros are capable of allowing you access to it’s files regardless of the base version of Linux, or desktop environment.