Hello,
I have a problem with Mint 20.3 Mate26, unsolved on the Mint forums, regarding .desktop and Caja files. I think the mechanism involved might be similar under Ubuntu Mate
I had moved in application launchers to subdirectories. They worked and the icon was displayed normally (in Caja) when moved. Recently this is no longer the case.
Desktop files are displayed with their real name (... .desktop), without icon and a double click gives the message "Application not trusted".
- Under ~/.local/share/applications also files appear with their real name and without icons.
- On the other hand, files under /usr/share/applications are displayed normally (even without switching to admistrator).
- If I drag an application from the subdirectory where I had put it to the desktop, it appears and works normally again.
- If I open the ~/desktop directory, the executables work and their display is normal (in ~/desktop but still not in the subdirectories), so the difference in behavior is not in a particular treatment of the wallpaper items but in the different behavior of the directories. :?
- I tried with Dolphin : everything works normally.
Apparently Caja no longer uses the settings of the desktop files of the applications (Name, Icon etc) elsewhere than on the desktop or for system files. On the other hand, directories and other files remain normal. The reinstallation of the main packages concerning Caja has not changed anything.
So the problem is where Caja takes the information to use or not the contents of the .desktop files depending on the directory.
Does anyone have a clue? Thank you.
Translated from french with DeepL.com and corrected. Sorry if there are some mistakes.
This forum is for Ubuntu Mate, not Linux Mint.
The problem concerns Caja (since another file manager works) and a Desktop mechanism that is common at least to distributions of the same lineage.
As I didn't get any answer in the Mint forums and there is no real general forum for Mate, I thought maybe someone who knows this mechanism well would have an idea.
If not so be it.
Tried it on Linux Mint 20.3 MATE 1.26
Clicked on Disks, add to desktop. Clicked on the icon, disks comes up.
Using caja, moved the Desktop icon to the home dir, it shows as org.gnome.DiskUtility.desktop
Clicked on it, I get a popup with 3 buttons, Launch anyway, mark as trusted, and cancel.
Clicked on Launch anyway, disks opens.
Is the issue that the name changes from Disks (~/Desktop) to org.gnome.DiskUtility.desktop (~)
I renamed Disks to bob (~/Desktop). Moved bob to home, shows as bob.desktop Moved it back to ~/Desktop, just bob
Thank you, your example illustrates my problem. So it's not only with me.
When Caja reacts correctly, it sees the name declared in the file org.gnome.DiskUtility.desktop, as well as the icon.
In fact, in this file we find among others:
Name=Disks
Icon=org.gnome.DiskUtility
But if we move this file, Caja doesn't read it anymore and displays it with its "real name" (like an ordinary file).
This did not happen before. I don't know why it reacts like this.
Yes, you can still launch the application from the warning panel, but it's not practical or normal.
Maybe it comes from the recent upgrade from Mint 20.2 Mate 1.24 to Mint 20.3 Mate 1.26, if it doesn't do it for you with Ubuntu Mate (and if you have Mate 1.26).
But if I knew how Caja decides to read or not the .desktop file, I might be able to fix it.
I think the MATE DE comes from Debian MATE and then Linux Mint and Ubuntu-Mate copy.
You might take a look at Debian MATE bugs and see if it is reported there.
Thank you, I shall try.
But if the bug does not exist with Ubuntu Mate 1.26 or other installations of Mate, I don't think it shall be described in Debian MATE bugs.