Arch Linux

PonJar

Member

Registered: 2019-07-05

Posts: 57

[Solved] Issue with TimeShift on KDE and LXQt

I am having an issue with the TimeShift app.

Expected behaviour in the application gui:
1. Having selected a snapshot and clicked the Browse button the snapshot should open in the default file manager
2. Having clicked the Menu button > View TimeShift Logs the storage location for TimeShift logs should open in the default file manager

Behaviour experienced:
   1. On my desktop running Arch with LXQt DE only nothing happens in both cases above.
   2. On my laptop running Arch with KDE or LXQt I get the KDE Crash Handler open a window showing a problem  “kfmclient  Aborted (6)”. Again this happens when trying to browse a snapshot or the logs.

Action taken:
   1. I have checked all the stated TimeShift dependencies are installed, which they are with the exception of an optional dependency, gksu, which deprecated and not relevant to KDE.
   2. I can use kfmclient on the command line to open a snapshot location in the default file manager without error. The same successful result with xdg-open.
   3. I have looked for a kfmclient config file but not found one.
   4. I can get the expected behaviours in a VM running TimeShift on Ubuntu.

Timeshift is a very popular app so I would expect to be able to get every aspect of it to work on KDE and LXQt but so far it has defeated me! Any help would be much appreciated.

Last edited by PonJar (2020-04-17 16:46:31)

PonJar

Member

Registered: 2019-07-05

Posts: 57

Re: [Solved] Issue with TimeShift on KDE and LXQt

I think I have found the answer to this: https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift/issues/310

It would appear there is a restriction on allowing a file manager to run as root in Arch so these functions of TimeShift will not work.

04:47 pm john@ArchLaptop ~ > sudo dolphin
Executing Dolphin with sudo is not possible due to unfixable security vulnerabilities.

The workaround is simply to navigate your file manager to the relevant snapshot and log locations without elevated permissions.

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [Solved] Issue with TimeShift on KDE and LXQt

It would appear there is a restriction on allowing a file manager to run as root in Arch so these functions of TimeShift will not work.

This has nothing to do with Arch, it was a decision made by the dolphin devs.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

PonJar

Member

Registered: 2019-07-05

Posts: 57

Re: [Solved] Issue with TimeShift on KDE and LXQt

Thanks for the clarification, it didn't sound like an Arch thing. Do you know of a file manager where this does not apply or perhaps its a KDE restriction?