Most files and desktop 'icons' have mime-type all/all, and don't open with the right app

This happens since I ran the July 13 upgrade a few hours ago.
It could seriously slow down my work, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Plasma version is now 5.22.3
I ran kbuildsycoca5, but it didn’t help.
I’ve rebooted twice since the upgrade.

When viewed in Dolphin, or on the desktop,
most files now show the type all/all,
and do not open with the right application.
This includes .desktop files (but in menus these work fine).

For example, a pdf file:

  • In Dolphin, open its properties and the type shows as “all/all”.
    The icon beside it in Dolphin is a plain blank “page”.
    When I double-click it, it opens in SciTE (because that’s what I set for type all/all).

  • In KDE settings > Personalization > Applications > File Associations,
    the settings for *.pdf appear to be correct: the description is “PDF document”,
    the icon is correct, and the list of apps to open it with is fine.

Most file types follow that pattern: correct in the settings, wrong in Dolphin.

It’s not entirely about the file extension – a few ‘desktop’ files on my desktop
do not have an extension at all, but they work fine.

PCmanFM-Qt seems to go by only the extension:
when I look at $Home/Desktop in it, those files without an extension do not work.
and all those with an extension do work, even if they don’t work in Dolphin.

Some file types are not affected, e.g. mkv works right, but not mp4.
A few of my .desktop files on the desktop are fine too.

All those that don’t work in Dolphin show type all/all in Dolphin,
and all those that do work show their correct type.

No other obvious properties (permissions, whether executable, whether a symlink),
coincide with showing type all/all.

I would file a bug report with KDE, but I tried once before and got lost in their system…

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

  1. Please read this:
    How to provide good information
    and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.
  3. Please also provide the contents of the following files:
    /etc/xdg/kde-mimeapps.list
    /home/$USER/.config/mimeapps.list
    /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
    

:+1:

Thanks Fabby, that’s what I needed, info about where to look.

But I doubt you’ll find the answer in it,
as mimeapps.list looks basically correct.

(There are entries for some apps that were removed long ago,
and some apps are assigned where they should not be,
but it’s been like that for years, and didn’t cause the current problem.)

The problem is that dolphin is using only a few of those mimeapps entries,
and is assigning all/all to most files.

(Whatever provides the desktop does the same. It might be dolphin here too;
long ago I set the desktop to be the actual $HOME/Destop folder.)

This might need to go to KDE as a bug report,
so I see this as the first step in preparing a report.

Two of the files do not exist:
/etc/xdg/kde-mimeapps.list
/home/jh/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

This from /home/jh/.config/mimeapps.list :

[Added Associations]
all/all=SciTE.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
all/allfiles=SciTE.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/epub+zip=FBReader.desktop;firefox.desktop;
application/json=SciTE.desktop;
application/msword=libreoffice-writer.desktop;org.kde.calligrawords.desktop;abiword.desktop;org.kde.calligragemini.desktop;
application/octet-stream=org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/pdf=masterpdfeditor4.desktop;org.kde.okular.desktop;
application/pgp-encrypted=org.kde.kleopatra.desktop;
application/rss+xml=firefox.desktop;
application/rtf=libreoffice-writer.desktop;
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text=libreoffice-writer.desktop;
application/x-bzdvi=okularApplication_dvi.desktop;org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/x-bzip-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-bzpdf=okularApplication_pdf.desktop;org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/x-cd-image=mpv.desktop;vlc.desktop;
application/x-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-cpio-compressed=org.kde.ark.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-desktop=SciTE.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;meld-usercreated-0.desktop;
application/x-extension-htm=firefox.desktop;
application/x-extension-html=firefox.desktop;
application/x-extension-shtml=firefox.desktop;
application/x-extension-xht=firefox.desktop;
application/x-extension-xhtml=firefox.desktop;
application/x-gnumeric=libreoffice-calc.desktop;
application/x-gz-font-linux-psf=org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/x-gzpostscript=okularApplication_ghostview.desktop;org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/x-lzma-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-matroska=mpv.desktop;
application/x-mobipocket-ebook=FBReader.desktop;
application/x-ms-shortcut=org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-ole-storage=libreoffice-calc.desktop;
application/x-shellscript=SciTE-6.desktop;
application/x-sqlite3=sqlitebrowser.desktop;
application/x-subrip=SciTE.desktop;
application/x-tarz=org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/x-xz-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-zerosize=SciTE.desktop;
application/x-zip-compressed-fb2=org.kde.ark.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;xarchiver.desktop;
application/xhtml+xml=firefox.desktop;
application/xml=SciTE.desktop;sqlitebrowser.desktop;audacity.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;
application/zstd=xarchiver.desktop;org.kde.ark.desktop;
audio/flac=mpv.desktop;
audio/mpeg=mpv.desktop;
audio/x-wav=mpv.desktop;
font/collection=kfontview.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
font/otf=kfontview-3.desktop;pyftinspect.desktop;kfontview-2.desktop;
image/x-portable-anymap=inkscape.desktop;
image/x-portable-bitmap=inkscape.desktop;
image/x-xcf=gimp.desktop;
inode/directory=org.kde.dolphin.desktop;pcmanfm-qt.desktop;
inode/symlink=mpv.desktop;
message/rfc822=firefox.desktop;
model/x.stl-binary=SciTE-3.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;mpv.desktop;
text/csv=SciTE.desktop;
text/html=SciTE.desktop;firefox.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;bluegriffon.desktop;chromium.desktop;org.kde.falkon.desktop;calibre-ebook-edit.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;libreoffice-writer.desktop;
text/markdown=ReText_preview.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;SciTE.desktop;okularApplication_md.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;diffuse.desktop;abiword.desktop;qscite.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/plain=SciTE.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;libreoffice-writer.desktop;libreoffice-calc.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;meld-usercreated-0.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;
text/tab-separated-values=SciTE.desktop;libreoffice-calc.desktop;onlyoffice.desktop;org.kde.kexi-3.2.desktop;gnumeric.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/x-csrc=SciTE.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;
text/x-log=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-python=SciTE.desktop;spyder.desktop;eric6.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/x-python3=SciTE.desktop;wing-personal7.desktop;ipython.desktop;spyder.desktop;eric6.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;diffuse.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;abiword.desktop;org.kde.okteta.desktop;libreoffice-writer.desktop;meld-usercreated-0.desktop;
text/x-retext-rst=me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;SciTE.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/x-rst=me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;SciTE.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/x-ssa=SciTE.desktop;aegisub.desktop;org.kde.kate.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/x-tmplayer=SciTE.desktop;
video/mp2t=mpv.desktop;smplayer.desktop;
video/mp4=mpv.desktop;smplayer.desktop;
video/mpeg=mpv.desktop;
video/ogg=mpv.desktop;
video/quicktime=mpv.desktop;
video/webm=mpv.desktop;smplayer.desktop;Player.desktop;QMLPlayer.desktop;vlc.desktop;
video/x-matroska=mpv.desktop;smplayer.desktop;
video/x-msvideo=mpv.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/chrome=firefox.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/ftp=firefox.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/http=firefox.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/https=firefox.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/mailto=chromium.desktop;

[Default Applications]
all/all=SciTE.desktop;
all/allfiles=SciTE.desktop;
application/epub+zip=FBReader.desktop;
application/json=SciTE.desktop;
application/msword=libreoffice-writer.desktop;
application/octet-stream=org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/pdf=masterpdfeditor4.desktop;
application/pgp-encrypted=org.kde.kleopatra.desktop;
application/rtf=libreoffice-writer.desktop;
application/x-bzdvi=okularApplication_dvi.desktop;
application/x-bzip-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-bzpdf=okularApplication_pdf.desktop;
application/x-cd-image=mpv.desktop;
application/x-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-cpio-compressed=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-desktop=SciTE.desktop;
application/x-extension-htm=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/x-extension-html=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/x-extension-shtml=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/x-extension-xht=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/x-extension-xhtml=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/x-gnumeric=libreoffice-calc.desktop;
application/x-gz-font-linux-psf=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-gzpostscript=okularApplication_ghostview.desktop;
application/x-lzma-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-matroska=mpv.desktop;
application/x-mobipocket-ebook=FBReader.desktop;
application/x-ms-shortcut=org.kde.okteta.desktop;
application/x-ole-storage=libreoffice-calc.desktop;
application/x-shellscript=SciTE-6.desktop;
application/x-sqlite3=sqlitebrowser.desktop;
application/x-subrip=SciTE.desktop;
application/x-tarz=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-xz-compressed-tar=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/x-zerosize=SciTE.desktop;
application/x-zip-compressed-fb2=org.kde.ark.desktop;
application/xhtml+xml=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
application/xml=SciTE.desktop;
application/zstd=xarchiver.desktop;
audio/flac=mpv.desktop;
audio/mpeg=mpv.desktop;
audio/x-wav=mpv.desktop;
font/collection=kfontview.desktop;
font/otf=kfontview-3.desktop;
image/x-portable-anymap=inkscape.desktop;
image/x-portable-bitmap=inkscape.desktop;
image/x-xcf=gimp.desktop;
inode/directory=org.kde.dolphin.desktop;
message/rfc822=firefox.desktop;
model/x.stl-binary=SciTE-3.desktop;
text/csv=SciTE.desktop;
text/html=SciTE.desktop;
text/markdown=ReText_preview.desktop;
text/plain=SciTE.desktop;
text/tab-separated-values=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-csrc=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-log=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-python=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-python3=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-retext-rst=me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;
text/x-rst=me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;
text/x-ssa=SciTE.desktop;
text/x-tmplayer=SciTE.desktop;
video/mp2t=mpv.desktop;
video/mp4=mpv.desktop;
video/mpeg=mpv.desktop;
video/ogg=mpv.desktop;
video/quicktime=mpv.desktop;
video/webm=mpv.desktop;
video/x-matroska=mpv.desktop;
video/x-msvideo=mpv.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/callto=skypeforlinux.desktop
x-scheme-handler/chrome=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
x-scheme-handler/etcher=balena-etcher-electron.desktop
x-scheme-handler/ftp=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
x-scheme-handler/http=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
x-scheme-handler/https=userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop
x-scheme-handler/mailto=chromium.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/skype=skypeforlinux.desktop
x-scheme-handler/tel=skypeforlinux.desktop
x-scheme-handler/viber=viber.desktop

[Removed Associations]
all/all=sqlitebrowser.desktop;
application/msword=okularApplication_doc_calligra.desktop;libreoffice-calc.desktop;
application/x-desktop=libreoffice-writer.desktop;libreoffice-calc.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;
text/html=kfmclient_html.desktop;Yaourt-Gui.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;diffuse.desktop;userapp-Firefox-7F1ND0.desktop;notepadqq.desktop;libreoffice-calc.desktop;meld-usercreated-0.desktop;
text/markdown=ReText preview.desktop;ReText_orig.desktop;ReText.desktop;SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;
text/plain=org.kde.kwrite.desktop;okularApplication_txt.desktop;aegisub.desktop;org.kde.calligrawords_ascii.desktop;cr3.desktop;SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;diffuse.desktop;abiword.desktop;
text/tab-separated-values=me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;
text/x-python=SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;diffuse.desktop;abiword.desktop;
text/x-python3=SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;me.mitya57.ReText.desktop;
text/x-retext-rst=SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;diffuse.desktop;abiword.desktop;
text/x-rst=ReText_orig.desktop;SciTE-5.desktop;SciTE-2.desktop;diffuse.desktop;abiword.desktop;
text/x-ssa=SciTE-4.desktop;

Here’s the inxi output; it was run as root; where it says [jh],
that part was copied from the output of inxi run as user ‘jh’.

# inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.50-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@syst/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
  root=UUID=6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d rw rootflags=subvol=@syst
  sysrq_always_enabled=1 resume=UUID=5f991047-4839-44a3-97bb-18948a58fadf
  elevator=noop
  [jh] Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.3 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
  Console: tty pts/2 DM: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Z420 Workstation v: N/A
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 6 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1589 v: 0.00 serial: <filter>
  UEFI-[Legacy]: Hewlett-Packard v: J61 v03.94 date: 07/10/2018
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K270
  serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
  status: Discharging
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325
  serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
  status: Discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.28 GiB used: 4.29 GiB (13.7%)
  Array-1: capacity: 256 GiB slots: 8 EC: Multi-bit ECC
  max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: CPU0-DIMM1 size: 8 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3
  detail: synchronous unbuffered (unregistered) bus-width: 64 bits
  total: 72 bits manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M391B1G73BH0-CK0
  serial: <filter>
  Device-2: CPU0-DIMM2 size: No Module Installed
  Device-3: CPU0-DIMM3 size: 8 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3
  detail: synchronous unbuffered (unregistered) bus-width: 64 bits
  total: 72 bits manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M391B1G73BH0-CK0
  serial: <filter>
  Device-4: CPU0-DIMM4 size: No Module Installed
  Device-5: CPU0-DIMM5 size: No Module Installed
  Device-6: CPU0-DIMM6 size: 8 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3
  detail: synchronous unbuffered (unregistered) bus-width: 64 bits
  total: 72 bits manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M391B1G73BH0-CK0
  serial: <filter>
  Device-7: CPU0-DIMM7 size: No Module Installed
  Device-8: CPU0-DIMM8 size: 8 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3
  detail: synchronous unbuffered (unregistered) bus-width: 64 bits
  total: 72 bits manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M391B1G73BH0-CK0
  serial: <filter>
CPU:
  Info: 8-Core model: Intel Xeon E5-2665 0 socket: LGA2011 bits: 64 type: MCP
  arch: Sandy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 2D (45) stepping: 7 microcode: 71A
  cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 20 MiB L3: 20 MiB bogomips: 38321
  Speed: 1750 MHz min/max: 1200/3100 MHz base/boost: 2400/3800 volts: 1.1 V
  ext-clock: 100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1750 2: 1881 3: 1647 4: 1415
  5: 1466 6: 1704 7: 1477 8: 1614
  Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx bts clflush cmov
  constant_tsc cpuid cx16 cx8 dca de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept est
  flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear
  mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
  pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdtscp rep_good sep smx ss
  ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2
  mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107GL [Quadro K2000] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
  driver: nvidia v: 470.42.01 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 04:00.0
  chip-ID: 10de:0ffe class-ID: 0300
  Display: server: X.org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: nvidia
  tty: 178x43
  Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root.

 [jh] Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
  loaded: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 69 s-size: 707x392mm (27.8x15.4")
  s-diag: 808mm (31.8")
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 70
  size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Quadro K2000/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.42.01
  direct render: Yes

Audio:
  Device-1: Intel C600/X79 series High Definition Audio
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  chip-ID: 8086:1d20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e1b
  class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.50-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: sndio v: N/A running: no
  Sound Server-3: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no
  Sound Server-4: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes
  Sound Server-5: PipeWire v: 0.3.31 running: no
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard
  driver: e1000e v: kernel port: e040 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502
  class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  IF-ID-1: ppp0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Device-1: zp0 type: zfs status: ONLINE level: mirror raw: size: 3.62 TiB
  free: 360 GiB allocated: 3.27 TiB zfs-fs: size: 3.51 TiB free: 245.31 GiB
  Components: Online:
  1: sda maj-min: 8:0 size: 3.64 TiB
  2: sdb maj-min: 8:16 size: 3.64 TiB
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: raw: 7.73 TiB usable: 3.97 TiB used: 3.4 TiB (85.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM000-1F2168
  family: Desktop HDD.15 size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
  logical: 512 B sata: 3.1 speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5900 rpm serial: <filter>
  rev: CC54 temp: 28 C scheme: GPT
  SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 3y 279d 8h cycles: 3953
  read: 518.35 TiB written: 21.63 TiB Pre-Fail: attribute: Spin_Retry_Count
  value: 100 worst: 100 threshold: 97
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM000-1F2168
  family: Desktop HDD.15 size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
  logical: 512 B sata: 3.1 speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5900 rpm serial: <filter>
  rev: CC54 temp: 28 C scheme: GPT
  SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 3y 280d 14h cycles: 3958
  read: 401.81 TiB written: 21.63 TiB Pre-Fail: attribute: Spin_Retry_Count
  value: 100 worst: 100 threshold: 97
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB
  family: based SSDs size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
  logical: 512 B sata: 3.1 speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: SSD serial: <filter>
  rev: 2B6Q temp: 25 C scheme: GPT
  SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 2y 129d 21h cycles: 2429
  written: 35.58 TiB
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-2: /mnt/bigs raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-3: /mnt/info raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-4: /mnt/snap raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-5: /mnt/vid1 raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-6: /mnt/vid2 raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-7: /mnt/work raw-size: 441.52 GiB size: 441.52 GiB (100.00%)
  used: 131.97 GiB (29.9%) fs: btrfs block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sdc3
  maj-min: 8:35 label: STUFF uuid: 6205d844-ae0c-41a7-af1d-100a432fc03d
  ID-8: /mnt/zp0 raw-size: N/A size: 3.47 TiB used: 3.23 TiB (93.1%) fs: zfs
  logical: zp0 label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-9: /mnt/zp0/VOL_nocompress raw-size: N/A size: 291.5 GiB
  used: 46.2 GiB (15.8%) fs: zfs logical: zp0/VOL_nocompress label: N/A
  uuid: N/A
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 1 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 24 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
  dev: /dev/sdc4 maj-min: 8:36 label: SWAP
  uuid: 5f991047-4839-44a3-97bb-18948a58fadf
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sdc1 maj-min: 8:33 size: 2 MiB fs: N/A label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-2: /dev/sdc2 maj-min: 8:34 size: 240 MiB fs: fat (32 bit) label: EFISYS
  uuid: ADBB-99F8
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.1:3 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID
  driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
  power: 98mA chip-ID: 046d:c52b class-ID: 0300
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 52 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 33%
Info:
  Processes: 363 Uptime: 10m wakeups: 6 Init: systemd v: 249 tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 12.0.1 Packages: apt: 0 pacman: 1663 lib: 293
  Shell: Bash (su) v: 5.1.8 running-in: tty pts/2 inxi: 3.3.05

Do this first:

If you’re on KDE (Your profile says so) these are the contents of my /etc/xdg/kde-mimeapps.list:

[Added Associations]
application/pdf=okular.desktop;
application/x-bittorrent=qBittorrent.desktop;
application/x-zerosize=org.kde.kate.desktop;
application/zip=org.kde.ark.desktop;
text/html=firefox.desktop;org.kde.falkon.desktop;
text/plain=org.kde.kate.desktop;
inode/directory=org.kde.dolphin.desktop;
application/x-shellscript=org.kde.kate.desktop;

[Default Applications]
application/pdf=okular.desktop;
application/x-bittorrent=qBittorrent.desktop;
application/x-zerosize=org.kde.kate.desktop;
application/zip=org.kde.ark.desktop;
text/html=firefox.desktop;org.kde.falkon.desktop;
text/plain=org.kde.kate.desktop;

(Remove what you don’t need )

Clean that up next and see if the problem goes away.

If all of the above doesn’t help, create a new user, (E.G. j77h2) log in there and see if it’s happening there too.

If it doesn’t, shout out!

Probably not: this is a 95% sure a user problem, not a system problem.

:crossed_fingers:

Changes to mimeapps.list files take effect immediately, no need to logout/in to check the effects, so it’s easy to figure out how it works. (Rename or remove all but one of the mimeapps.list files, then make changes in the remaining one and check the effect in dolphin.)

After some testing, I’m sure the problem is not in the mimeapps.list files.
I tried one with a different user logon, and it works fine there, but not with my usual logon.

EDIT: also I saw “delete or rename the existing mimeapps.list, log out and log back in” here, but for me it didn’t change anything. (No mimeapps.list was created when I logged back in, and when I made a simple one, the problem was still there.)

The problem is that Dolphin is not recognizing most of the file types.

For types that it recognizes, the entry in mimeapps.list actually works.

Dolphin sees most files as all/all, and opens them with okteta,
because I have put all/all=org.kde.okteta.desktop; in mimeapps.list.
If I change it to Kate, Dolphin tries to open them with Kate.

In this screenshot of dolphin, at the right end of each row, is the file-type that dolphin sees.
You can see here that it does not recognize jpg, log, and png.
(The log is plain text – it recognizes some such without txt extension, but not this one.)


.
In another folder, I saw that it recognizes mkv files as ‘Matroska video’, but mp4 as ‘all/all’.

The point is: mimeapps.list is fine, and dolphin is reading it correctly.

The problem is: dolphin has to know what type a file is before it looks for the type in mimeapps.list, and dolphin is not correctly recognizing the type of most files.

How or where does Dolphin discover the mime type of a file?
That’s where the error happens.

Here’s a funny picture – what Gwenview says when I tell it to open a png file:
gwenview_error_filetype
.
The mistake is happening at a lower level, not just in Dolphin.

PCmanFM seems to go by the filename extension directly, not by mime-type; for example, it shows the type of PNG correctly.
But when I double-click a PNG in PCmanFM, it hands it off to some part of the system that passes it on to Gwenview, and then Gwenview shows the message above.

EDIT: Maybe it’s because Gwenview is a similar KDE app: it relies on the mimetype, and sees a wrong mimetype in the same way that Dolphin does. In PCmanFM I can open a video in mpv no problem; it’s not a KDE app, and I guess it doesn’t bother looking for the mimetype.


Obviously I could dump my current user profile, and start another, but then I would lose a huge amount of customization, and it would take ages to get back to my current work routine.

After about 20 years on Windows, 3 on Xubuntu, and 4 on Manjaro KDE, this is one of the worst problems I have ever had. Usually I can solve them myself, but for this one I don’t know KDE well enough. Every time I try to understand how KDE works, I get lost just trying to find the documentation! I find simple noob-user documentation, and high-level developer documentation, but not much in between for the ‘power user’ or ‘desktop administrator’.

Might switch back to XFCE when I have time. But I’ve got hooked on Dolphin – Thunar, PCmanFM and SpaceFM all used to crash because I use file managers so heavily, but Dolphin can handle the load. (Usually I have six workspaces, about 15 dolphin windows open, with a full row of tabs in each. KDE’s session manager saves them all, and opens them when I log on again. This is how I find my way back to each of the various jobs that I’m working on, in my labyrinthine file sytem.)

Hope some kind soul who knows KDE well enough can point me in the right direction. :slight_smile:

It’s been 2 days already that you’ve been trying to resolve this, so:

  • Verify that the new user has access to the same groups as your old one by executing groups and comparing the output of both users.

    groups twitty
    groups twitty2
    

    (Where obviously, twitty is your old user and twitty2 is your new one.)
    E.G. if twitty is a member of operator and twitty2 isn’t, execute:

    usermod --append --groups operator twitty2
    
  • Copy all data files from your old profile into your new one

    cp --verbose --recursive --preserve=time-stamps /home/twitty/Documents/* /home/twitty2/Documents/
    

    If that worked and you had no errors, remove the documents from your old user:

    rm --recursive /home/twitty/Documents/*
    

    repeat for:

    • Pictures
    • Videos
    • Music
    • .thunderbird
    • .mozilla/firefox/
    • Templates, and everything else that is important to you.
    • Linux games like Battle of Wesnoth have their game data stored under ~/.local/share/ E.G. ~/.local/share/wesnoth/

    After everything has been copied over, disable the old user so you cannot accidentally log on:

    usermod --lock twitty
    

    If you would have theming going on, don’t do everything in one day but do this at the rate of 1 application / theme / whatever per day and if the same issue crops up again, roll back your last change and thus you’ve now pinpointed the exact setting that made your old user misbehave. :thinking:

  • in 1 month delete the entire home directory of your old user, but don’t delete the user itself so that in 6 months time files still owned by that user will still show up under its username.

  • If you ever migrate to a new machine, just don’t migrate the old user: only the new one.

  • From now on, start making backups so you can roll back and never have to do this again:

:thinking:

Ah, I should have mentioned, I make a btrfs snaphot before each update,
so I can roll back, but one cannot keep a rolling distro suspended for long.

The update to Plasma 5.22.3 brought on this problem,
and I’d like to get to the bottom of it, rather than roll back.

All my work is on a ZFS mirror (big spinning disks) (on /mnt/, not in $HOME) with backups on external USB drives (also ZFS mirrors).

I’ve retired, and the work I do is voluntary, but I have taken on some responsibility doing technical things for a non-profit organization.
So I do have some time, but not for ever – and perhaps less energy than time. :wink:

Some of the delays in our conversation have been because my time zone is UTC+10.

Thanks for your help, I might have to migrate, but will hold out for a fix a bit longer. :slight_smile:

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TL;DR

The problem is caused by the interaction of
something in $HOME/.local/share/mime/
and something in Plasma 5.22.3

Removing $HOME/.local/share/mime/ has removed my problem.
Some of the info in there might be needed, so I’ll put bits back gradually,
so as to find out which bit is the culprit.

The longer story:

The discovery trail led me through
api.kde.org/frameworks/kio/html/classKFileItem.html
to doc.qt.io/qt-5/qmimedatabase.html, which says
that applications that want to define custom MIME types
need to install an XML file into [probably] /usr/share/mime/

There I found xml files that map filename extensions to mime types.
Knew such files must exist, but hadn’t seen them until this point.
(Many help sites mention only mimeapps.list,
which maps mime types to the apps that open them.)

The testing login that I made earlier did not have the problem,
so I figured the problem must be in my $HOME folder.
With kfind I searched it for *mime*, and discovered $HOME/.local/share/mime/.
It has the same kind of xml files as /usr/share/mime/.

The testing user did not have such a folder, so I renamed mine to disable it.
Then when I refreshed the view in Dolphin. all the right icons appeared,
and files can now be opened in the usual way.

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