Arch Linux

Square7

Member

Registered: 2015-11-20

Posts: 7

Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

Hello,

I've started setting up my first Arch install a few days ago and run into a lot of problems and still have a lot to solve. But none I could/can not solve by trial & error or searching online. Until yesterday I run into this really strange problem:

When I try to launch some apps (not all but e.g Firefox and Pulse GUI config) using the applications launcher or the "run command" field of KDE I only get a task bar entry with a loading icon. This entry dissapears after a few seconds without a window beeing openend. The only thread I found online describing my problem is this one, which does not provide a solution.

The strange thing is: After launching Firefox from the Konsole the applications launcher is able to start more instances. But when I close all again (including the one started from the Konsole) the problem reoccurs.

I am really desperate right now and wasted 3 hours trying to solve this so I am happy for anything I can try because I am out of ideas and can not find anything online.

Edit: Executing the firefox.desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ manually does work. Setting the "Run in terminal" flag in KDE Menu Editor also works. So why can't KDE just launch the .dekstop file on its own?

Edi1: "kioclient exec name.desktop" from terminal does also work. It is not the .desktop files they do work: I tried a working one and replaced the "Exec=" command. I really do not know what to do.... I could have just reinstalled the whole system instead of trying to solve this, but I want this to be solved...

Last edited by Square7 (2015-11-21 11:09:19)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,554

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

Not sure where KDE logs errors,  but look for a file ~/.xsession-errors .
journalctl -b may also have kde errormessages.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 757

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

Tried deleting files related to kio from ~/.cache ? Afterwards just run kbuildsycoca5. Sounds like a stale file to me.

Square7

Member

Registered: 2015-11-20

Posts: 7

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

Thank you for your replies.
Deleting the cache did not help, I think switching the user should have worked in this case too.

But I checked the error file (I did not find it before so thank you for the tip Lone_Wolf). The relevant section is:

Opening item with URL "krunner://services/services_firefox.desktop"
Duplicate entry added.  Removing existing entry from queue. // I do not know why this is hapening, it is definitely the first instance I am tried to launch
Recent app added "firefox.desktop" 2
process 957: arguments to dbus_message_iter_append_basic() were incorrect, assertion "_dbus_check_is_valid_utf8 (*string_p)" failed in file dbus-message.c line 2712.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
  D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort

When trying to start firefox. And the following on startup:

Could not open firefox using a library: Cannot load library /usr/lib/libkdeinit5_firefox: (/usr/lib/libkdeinit5_firefox.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,554

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

No clue what the krunner error means, but the missing libary is weird.

it talks about /usr/lib/libkdeinit5_firefox.so , and pkgfile doesn't find that file in any arch package.

Maybe you have more then 1 firefox package installed,  repo firefox and an aur package (like firefox-kde-opensuse)  ?

please post pacman -Qs firefox output.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Square7

Member

Registered: 2015-11-20

Posts: 7

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

I pretty much gave up on the system because I encountered more strange problems and suddenly remembered: The HDD of this test-install is my last seagate hard drive so I run systemctl. Turns out it is almost dead. So I'll just blame the HDD and move on I wasted enough time trying to repair this. I am going to wipe my Windows system and Install Arch on my SSD tomorrow anyways.

But thanks for the help, maybe I'll look into it some time in the future (I am definitely not going to integrate this drive in my main system).

louiswi

Member

Registered: 2015-11-29

Posts: 7

Re: Some apps launch from command line but not from app launcher (KDE)

Right click start icon,and you can edit  it.