11.10 & 12.04: Thunar freezes

[slamdunk]

Hi all,

Both versions 11.10 and 12.04 Ubuntu with installed Xubuntu/XFCE extension have problems when I try to open a folder with Thunar. For a long time Thunar looks frozen and after a couple of minutes it comes back from the dead.

Have you experienced the same issue? Any idea how to fix that? Or is it better replace Thunar with some other File Manager?

Thanks
Julio

[Toz]

You might be experiencing the slow opening bug. Workaround here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11816590&postcount=4

[mike555]

Better to install Xubuntu by itself then on top of Ubuntu, Xubuntu is not an extension, it's a desktop (like gnome) .....

[slamdunk]

You might be experiencing the slow opening bug. Workaround here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11816590&postcount=4

Thanks I tried it but unfortunately nothing is changed

[Toz]

Is there anything of relevance in your ~/.xsession-errors log file when thunar is hanging?

[slamdunk]

I used "tail -f ~/.xsession-errors" but nothing has popped out while I was running Thunar.

BTW after thunar back from the dead I used a bit its menu and desktop has frozen! so I killed thunar process from external shell and desktop was ok.

in ~/.xsession-errors I found appended just:

QNetworkReplyImplPrivate::error: Internal problem, this method must only be called once.

tho I don't know if it is related to thunar/xfce in some way

[Toz]

Try resetting your thunar settings and see if that helps. With thunar closed:

mv ~/.config/Thunar ~/.config/Thunar.BAK

If you're looking for an alternative file manager, pcmanfm is pretty good.

[slamdunk]

Thanks for replies!

moving the file to BAK didn't work so I have installed pcmanfm.

Now the problem is how to replace as default thunar to pcmanfm.

If I use Settings Manager->Preferred Applications->Utilities->File Manager->Pcmanfm it doesn't work.

I have found this file (as root):

/usr/share/applications/exo-file-manager.desktop

there is the command:

Exec=exo-open --launch FileManager %u

and if I launch it from shell it actually calls pcmanfm but if I click on a folder icon in the desktop for example, it still runs thunar.

How can I fix that?

Thanks

[fachtofer]

I just wanted to add that the workaround in post #2 shortens my Thunar opening time by about 75%. A huge improvement since that delay has been nagging me for a long time :) I'm on Xubuntu 12.04.

Thanks!

[Toz]

Thanks for replies!

moving the file to BAK didn't work so I have installed pcmanfm.

Now the problem is how to replace as default thunar to pcmanfm.

If I use Settings Manager->Preferred Applications->Utilities->File Manager->Pcmanfm it doesn't work.

I have found this file (as root):

/usr/share/applications/exo-file-manager.desktop

there is the command:

Exec=exo-open --launch FileManager %u

and if I launch it from shell it actually calls pcmanfm but if I click on a folder icon in the desktop for example, it still runs thunar.

How can I fix that?

Thanks

There are another couple of threads on this board about making pcmanfm the default file manager. Long story short - there doesn't seem to be a solution that works (or at least that I've seen).

As a workaround, you could try to link the pcmanfm executable to Thunar and have it run everytime Thunar is invoked. Here's how:
1. backup the Thunar executable:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/Thunar /usr/bin/Thunar.original
2. link in the pcmanfm executable:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/pcmanfm /usr/bin/Thunar

Just remember that if Thunar every gets updated, it may overwrite the pcmanfm link and have Thunar start up again.

Its a dirty workaround, but it seems to work.

[Toz]

I just wanted to add that the workaround in post #2 shortens my Thunar opening time by about 75%. A huge improvement since that delay has been nagging me for a long time :) I'm on Xubuntu 12.04.

Thanks!

Whats interesting for me is that I don't experience this delay. Not on 11.04, 11.10 or 12.04 and I can't figure out why. Alot of people seem to be affected by it.

[macachuto]

I just solved the same problem on 12.04 by disabling automount gvfsd-network.

This is definitely problem with thunar, because with automount disable it shows network resources icon as well disabled, but when one click on it, it tries to do something for exactly the same amount of time, and then draws normal network icon.

But thunar by it self should not do anything, it should rely on samba.

P.S.

Or, it may be the gvfs problem, because next time thunar starts quickly.

[Fragadelic]

I don't think this is an issue with gvfs as it works fine with pcmanfm.

This issue seems to only rear its ugly head when you have a home/office network with a windows share somewhere on it. If you don't, then it doesn't show up. It is really annoying. So much so that I stopped using xfce for now. I might try xfce 4.10 as there is a ppa out now to see if anything changed.

As for the thunar fix you posted relinking it, you can always dpkg-divert the thunar binary and then any updates will apply to the diverted file and your linked file that points to pcmanfm will not change. I do this all the time with files that I tweak myself.


dpkg-divert --add --rename --divert /usr/bin/Thunar.orig /usr/bin/Thunar

Now just make your link from /usr/bin/Thunar to /usr/bin/pcmanfm

To remove the diversion:

dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/bin/Thunar

If you want to see what files are diverted on your system, use:

dpkg-divert --list