[SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

timminybo · 2026-04-14 19:52:49

Recently (maybe within the last 3 weeks), using librewolf web browser on my desktop system, I can no longer file > open > path.to.local.file, cannot right click and save an image, or right click and save-file-as.

In all cases, the window just disappears without performing any action.

On a laptop, also running arch and librewolf, I don't have the issues.

My best guess is I uninstalled something on the desktop system that is causing the issue.

I have a workaround for the file > open > localfile. I can use a graphical file browser (pcmanfm) to navigate to the file and then I can drag it onto librewolf and it opens. And I can save files using curl from the command line. But I would like the normal behavior.

Librewolf has been updated at least once since I first noticed these issues. I don't recall changing anything within librewolf. I have reinstalled librewolf. Issues remain.

Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas on how to correct this behavior or what may be the cause?

Last edited by timminybo (2026-04-14 21:43:30)

seth · 2026-04-14 20:17:30

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=313029 started out similar but currently struggles with printing.
Any similarities (notably wrt xdg-desktop-portal implementations installed)
Does it affect a fresh user account?

timminybo · 2026-04-14 21:17:26

Thanks Seth for the RAPID reply. That issue does seem similar. He describes being able to navigate to his local file then the popup window disappears. I don't get that far. File > open and my popup window immediately disappears. I never get to the tree navigation (file picker).

I am running vanilla arch with i3 window manager and X11. At some point I did install Wayland/Hyperland but subsequently uninstalled it and as much of Wayland as I could without (I thought) affecting other applications based on the dependency warnings pacman gives. The librewolf I have installed is librewolf-bin from the AUR.

I tried opening librewolf from the command line but no errors show up when I file > open or right click > save as.

I now remember some sort of librewolf message from weeks ago, something.Manager not running. I thought I made a note somewhere but can't find it. I haven't seem that popup message since that time.

More recently I remember popups in librewolf asking to enable webgl. Each time I did not enable webgl. (not sure if related at all). I haven't seen one of these popups for a week or two.

I also searched librewolf about:config for file_picker and found this: widget.disable_file_pickers which is set to False which seems correct. Changing it to True had no effect.

I'll study the post you referenced in more detail and search for some of the portals mentioned and trying installing/uninstalling them. I'm not sure if X11 uses portals but should be easy enough to try.

Last edited by timminybo (2026-04-14 21:21:41)

timminybo · 2026-04-14 21:42:08

FIXED!

I uninstalled xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and xdg-desktop-portal, did a full system upgrade which upgraded some xorg-server packages, rebooted, and now librewolf opens local files and saves files normally again.

Many thanks Seth!

sake · 2026-07-10 20:22:27

If anyone else has this issue, I fixed it by setting widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker in about:config to 0. Also make sure you have xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-gtk installed.

Last edited by sake (2026-07-10 20:22:38)

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-10 21:36:32

Hi there,
I had the same problem and I temporarily fixed it by removing xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and xdg-desktop-portal, as suggested by timminybo. However, those libraries are required by another package.

I also followed sake's advice but that only works with Firefox. Other applications are also affected by the presence of xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and xdg-desktop-portal. For example, Min complains in the log when I try to open a file, and the file dialog doesn' pop up:

 $ min-browser 
[3218:0710/173114.737424:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1640] vaInitialize failed: unknown libva error
(electron) 'webContents.canGoBack' is deprecated and will be removed. Please use 'webContents.navigationHistory.canGoBack' instead.
(electron) 'webContents.canGoForward' is deprecated and will be removed. Please use 'webContents.navigationHistory.canGoForward' instead.


[3171:0710/173138.775974:ERROR:components/dbus/xdg/request.cc:169] Request ended (non-user cancelled).

The last line shows after using a file picker on a web page.

Any clue why those libraries are creating this problem across the board?

Thanks
gm

Lone_Wolf · 2026-07-11 15:02:58

xdg-desktop-portal is designed for flatpak to allow communication between (flatpak) sandboxes and the host envirinment .

Despite the name it's not a standard maintained by X Desktop Group / freedesktop.org like the XDG base directory specification .

It often causes issues for non-sandboxed stuff.

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-12 02:40:44

Thanks @Lone_Wolf. So how do I go about installing packages? It looks like many standard Arch packages depend on xdg-desktop-portal, so I can't install those without breaking my file dialogs.

Last edited by gattu_marrudu (2026-07-12 02:40:55)

seth · 2026-07-12 07:15:52

loginctl session-status

and also check the system journal about xdg-desktop-portal messages.

About at the time xdg-desktop-portal broke for many users but this was fixed w/ a downstream patch, https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … a7b2f7f5a8

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-17 12:04:55

@seth

 $ loginctl session-status
1 - ste (1000)
  Since: Fri 2026-07-17 07:58:52 EDT; 1min 26s ago
  State: active
 Leader: 455 (login)
   Seat: seat0; vc1
    TTY: tty1
 Remote: no
Service: login
   Type: wayland
  Class: user
   Idle: no
   Unit: session-1.scope
         ├─ 455 "login -- ste"
         ├─ 493 sway -d
         ├─ 526 swaybar -b bar-0
         ├─ 530 foot
         ├─ 532 sh -c "source \${HOME}/.wayland_session"
         ├─ 533 wlsunset -l 39.95 -L -75.16
         ├─ 539 pcmanfm
         ├─ 541 dunst
         ├─ 544 swayidle -w timeout 300 "swaylock -f -c 000000" timeout 600 "swaymsg \"output * dpms off\"" resume "swaymsg \"output * dpms on\"" before-sleep swaylock
         ├─ 549 /usr/bin/bash
         ├─ 554 i3status
         ├─ 631 /usr/lib/electron41/electron --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox
         ├─ 632 /usr/lib/electron41/electron --type=zygote
         ├─ 646 /usr/lib/electron41/electron --type=zygote
         ├─ 904 /usr/lib/electron41/chrome_crashpad_handler --monitor-self-annotation=ptype=crashpad-handler --no-rate-limit --database=/home/ste/.config/Min/Crashpad --url=https://minbrowser.org/ --annotation=_p>
         ├─1030 /usr/lib/electron41/electron --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox
         ├─1061 /proc/self/exe --type=utility --utility-sub-type=network.mojom.NetworkService --lang=en-US --service-sandbox-type=none --render-node-override=/dev/dri/renderD128 --crashpad-handler-pid=904 --enabl>
         ├─1086 /proc/self/exe --type=renderer --crashpad-handler-pid=904 --enable-crash-reporter=196837d0-3984-4e20-bc7c-433dcb8e450b,no_channel --user-data-dir=/home/ste/.config/Min --standard-schemes=min --sec>
         ├─1087 /proc/self/exe --type=renderer --crashpad-handler-pid=904 --enable-crash-reporter=196837d0-3984-4e20-bc7c-433dcb8e450b,no_channel --user-data-dir=/home/ste/.config/Min --standard-schemes=min --sec>
         ├─1204 /usr/lib/electron41/electron --type=zygote
         ├─2113 loginctl session-status
         └─2114 less

Jul 17 07:58:53 sistolo login[455]: LOGIN ON tty1 BY ste
Jul 17 07:58:53 sistolo systemd[1]: Started Session 1 of User ste.
lines 1-37/37 (END)

I see these xdg-desktop-portal related messages in my journalctl:

Jul 17 08:00:33 sistolo xdg-desktop-portal-gtk[2310]: cannot open display: 
Jul 17 08:00:33 sistolo systemd[485]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 17 08:00:33 sistolo systemd[485]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 17 08:00:33 sistolo systemd[485]: Failed to start Portal service (GTK/GNOME implementation).
Jul 17 08:00:33 sistolo /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal[1115]: Failed to ReadAll() from Settings implementation: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not activate remote peer 'org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.gtk': startup job failed

Do you know what the DBus error could be caused by?

I have xwayland installed and not explicitly disabled in my sway config.

seth · 2026-07-17 13:20:58

xdg-desktop-portal-gtk[2310]: cannot open display:

It tries to use a bogus Xorg DISPLAY,

printenv

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-17 13:51:57

I thought that would be always empty in Wayland:

 $ printenv
SHELL=/usr/bin/bash
COLORTERM=truecolor
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups
WLR_RENDERER_ALLOW_SOFTWARE=1
QT_WAYLAND_DISABLE_WINDOWDECORATION=1
LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
I3SOCK=/run/user/1000/sway-ipc.1000.493.sock
VSSCRIPT_PATH=/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/vapoursynth/libvsscript.so
SAM_CLI_TELEMETRY=0
LARCH_PATH=/usr/share/splint/lib
XCURSOR_SIZE=24
EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
XDG_SEAT=seat0
PWD=/home/ste
LOGNAME=ste
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
ECORE_EVAS_ENGINE=wayland_egl
BEMENU_BACKEND=wayland
TERMINAL=/usr/bin/foot
MOTD_SHOWN=pam
HOME=/home/ste
LCLIMPORTDIR=/usr/share/splint/imports
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
_JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1
SWAYSOCK=/run/user/1000/sway-ipc.1000.493.sock
WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1
LC_LANG=en_US.UTF-8
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland-egl
XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=us
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
TERM=foot
USER=ste
SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland
LIBRARY_PATH=/home/ste/.local/lib:/usr/local/lib:
QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI=physical
TITLEBAR=\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]
DISPLAY=:0
SHLVL=1
MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
XDG_VTNR=1
XDG_SESSION_ID=1
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/ste/.local/lib:/usr/local/lib:
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
PS1=[\[\033[0;36m\]\t\[\033[0m\]] \[\033[0;32m\]\u \w\[\033[0m\] $ 
DEBUGINFOD_URLS=https://debuginfod.archlinux.org
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LUA_CPATH=/usr/local/lib/lua/5.5/?.so;/usr/lib/lua/5.5/?.so;/usr/local/lib/lua/5.5/loadall.so;/usr/lib/lua/5.5/loadall.so;./?.so;/home/ste/.luarocks/lib/lua/5.5/?.so
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/usr/local/scripts:/home/ste/bin:/home/ste/scripts:/home/ste/.local/bin:/home/ste/.rvm/bin:/home/ste/.luarocks/bin:/home/ste/bin:/home/ste/scripts:/home/ste/.local/bin:/home/ste/.rvm/bin:/home/ste/.luarocks/bin
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
PKAR_CONFIG_DIR=/home/ste/.config/pocket_archive
ELM_ENGINE=wayland_egl
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/ste
QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/qt/plugins
LUA_PATH=/usr/share/lua/5.5/?.lua;/usr/local/share/lua/5.5/?.lua;/usr/local/share/lua/5.5/?/init.lua;/usr/share/lua/5.5/?/init.lua;/usr/local/lib/lua/5.5/?.lua;/usr/local/lib/lua/5.5/?/init.lua;/usr/lib/lua/5.5/?.lua;/usr/lib/lua/5.5/?/init.lua;./?.lua;./?/init.lua;/home/ste/.luarocks/share/lua/5.5/?.lua;/home/ste/.luarocks/share/lua/5.5/?/init.lua
CPATH=/home/ste/.local/include:/usr/local/include:
_=/usr/bin/printenv

seth · 2026-07-17 13:57:16

DISPLAY=:0

but there's also nothing in that environment that would drive gtk towards X11 itfp
Can you manually "systemctl --user start xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service or run /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk from within the session?

nomorewindows · 2026-07-17 15:07:47

It's happening on brave and firefox as well. Can't print, can't download anything.

Starting xdg-desktop-portal-gtk makes things work correctly.

Tells me the systemd service doesn't exist.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2026-07-17 15:09:17)

seth · 2026-07-17 15:12:08

Question being why xdg-desktop-portal-gtk doesn't start implicitly - do you have similar errors in your journal?
How do you start what kind of session?
@gattu_marrudu doesn't seem to use any DM, is https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Univer … on_Manager involved?

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-17 15:18:33

seth wrote:

DISPLAY=:0

Are you suggesting to add that to my .bashrc or .profile?

seth wrote:

but there's also nothing in that environment that would drive gtk towards X11 itfp

What does that mean?

seth wrote:

Can you manually "systemctl --user start xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service or run /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk from within the session?

The systemctl command fails with the same "cannot open display:" message even if I export DISPLAY=:0 in the same shell.

The direct invocation seems to work. As long as that process is running, I can open the file dialogs.

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-17 15:21:49

seth wrote:

Question being why xdg-desktop-portal-gtk doesn't start implicitly - do you have similar errors in your journal?
How do you start what kind of session?
@gattu_marrudu doesn't seem to use any DM, is https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Univer … on_Manager involved?

I'm booting my system in console mode and then I have this in my .bash_profile to start Sway after logging into tty1:

if [[ -z $WAYLAND_DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
    source ~/.wayland.env
    exec sway -d 2>~/.sway.log
fi

Could that be the problem?

Last edited by gattu_marrudu (2026-07-17 15:22:15)

WorMzy · 2026-07-17 15:47:57

Mod note: moving to AUR Issues.

seth · 2026-07-17 15:53:34

@gattu_marrudu, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway#Configuration - do you "include /etc/sway/config.d/*" ?
I guess the display error is subsequent after approaching the wayland backend has already failed.

@WorMzy, although the subject mentions librewolf, the problem isn't AUR related (was probably "xdg-desktop-portal had a stupid idea" related and w/ the downstream patch just bubbles up more broken sessions)

gattu_marrudu · 2026-07-17 19:47:22

seth wrote:

@gattu_marrudu, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway#Configuration - do you "include /etc/sway/config.d/*" ?

That was it. Problem solved. Thank you!

File dialogs open and I can see xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-gtk are running without any additional command on my end.

Aside, I tried to install and start UWSM, but that delays the session start quite a bit, and crashes often. So, if it's not necessary for my setup, I'll skip it.

seth · 2026-07-17 19:53:46

Aside, I tried to install and start UWSM, but that delays the session start quite a bit, and crashes often.

That was just a question, not a suggestion

if it's not necessary

Absolutely not.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-04-14 19:52:49

[SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#2 2026-04-14 20:17:30

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#3 2026-04-14 21:17:26

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#4 2026-04-14 21:42:08

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#5 2026-07-10 20:22:27

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#6 2026-07-10 21:36:32

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#7 2026-07-11 15:02:58

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#8 2026-07-12 02:40:44

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#9 2026-07-12 07:15:52

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#10 2026-07-17 12:04:55

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#11 2026-07-17 13:20:58

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#12 2026-07-17 13:51:57

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#13 2026-07-17 13:57:16

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#14 2026-07-17 15:07:47

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#15 2026-07-17 15:12:08

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#16 2026-07-17 15:18:33

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#17 2026-07-17 15:21:49

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#18 2026-07-17 15:47:57

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#19 2026-07-17 15:53:34

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#20 2026-07-17 19:47:22

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

#21 2026-07-17 19:53:46

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

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