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[SOLVED] Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 7:57 am
by hpmital
I upgraded my Mint 17 cinnamon 64 bit to 17.3 cinnamon a few days ago. In its file browser/file manager, I am not able to search for any file or folder. As soon as I make any keystroke to type in the search bar, the file-browser closes and the desk top goes blank. All desktop icons disappear. I discovered that by going to 'settings' - 'desktop', and clicking the 'show desktop icons' once OFF and then back ON again, the desk top icons are restored. The file browser is not restored.
I wonder if anyone can help. Am I missing something or is there a bug?

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 8:07 am
by Cosmo.
The vanishing desktop icons indicate, that Nemo (the file manager) has crashed.

Create a fresh new user account to check the behavior there.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 11:22 pm
by hpmital
Thanks.
I created a new user. Logging in as the new user, I find that the problem is not there.
To see if reinstalling nemo will help, I uninstalled nemo through software manager and installed it afresh. But The same problem persists even after that. Can you suggest what I should do?
Thanks again for your help.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 5:21 am
by Cosmo.
The problem seems to be related with your user account, possibly an ownership problem. To investigate into this (this will not yet solve anything):
Mark the following command and press ctrl-c

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f
open a terminal and press ctrl-shift-V
Mark the complete result inclusive the command with the mouse and press ctrl-shift-C
In the forum click the Code-button above the text box, than press ctrl-v.

Report in case, that there is no output.

Note: Reinstalling anything will near to never solve anything.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 8:05 am
by hpmital
I have followed your instructions, and give the information below:

Code: Select all

hari@hari-Aspire ~ $ find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f
find: `/home/hari/.cache/dconf': Permission denied
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/scripts-2.7/pdfbooklet
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/utils.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/pdfshuffler_g.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/pdfshuffler.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/xmp.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/setup.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/__init__.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/filters.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/pdfshuffler_iconview.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/files_chooser.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/generic.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/pdfbooklet.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/pdf.py
/home/hari/pdfbooklet/pdfBooklet-2.2.2/build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pdfbooklet/elib_intl.py
/home/hari/.photorec.cfg

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 10:17 am
by Cosmo.
To correct this:
Mark the following command completely and make sure, that you do not miss any sign, than press ctrl-c

Code: Select all

find /home/$SUDO_USER ! -user $SUDO_USER -exec chown $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER '{}' \;
Open a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

sudo -i
and press the Enter-key; you get prompted for your password, enter it.
Now still in the same terminal press ctrl-shift-V
Run this command and wait until it has finished. It does not produce a readable output.
Press twice ctrl-d
Immediately log off and back into your account.

I admit, that it appears unlikely that this solves the problem, but it is always good, to correct such mistakes. Apply it and test the original problem, than report back.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 7:19 pm
by hpmital
Thank you for your trouble.
I did exactly as instructed.
The original problem is still as it was.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 6:06 am
by Cosmo.
I feared so.

To find the culprit will take some effort.
Go into the test account and copy all hidden folders except .mozilla and .thunderbird from the main account into this. Log out and back in. You should now get the same problem in the test account. Now you have to delete the folders one by one to find out, where the problem exists. Begin with the folders .config and .local, both are the most suspicious one.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 2:32 am
by hpmital
It seems to be going right, now.Thanks a lot.
I tried with .config deleted first. And it worked!
What next now?

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:55 am
by Cosmo.
By deleting .config you have most likely found the culprit. Restore it in the test account and delete now only the subfolder dconf inside of .config.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:57 am
by hpmital
I am sorry for a long break.

I started afresh and created a new 'test' user once again. This time I copied to it just the .config directory of my user account, since I knew that was causing the problem. On checking 'test' it was confirmed that the test account too had developed the search problem. Then I removed the dconf directory and its contents as you guided me in your last post. Happily the problem disappeared. I noticed that a new copy of dconf had got self-generated and the desktop back ground got changed to mint default (my user account has a modified no picture blue background).
So now can I proceed to delete the dconf directory from user account likewise? I hope there would be no other risk in doing so.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:13 am
by Cosmo.
Yes, you can delete the folder dconf from the main account. To make sure, that no old (trouble-full) data get written to a new copy, immediately after deleting log out and back into your account. The new folder (with the file user inside) will get created automatically. All settings, which are stored in this file are back at default state; that applies mostly for Cinnamon (but not the configuration of the applets, which are stored on other places). The settings for the major stand-alone applications (prominently: Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Gimp, VLC) are not affected, as they do not use this storage.

Re: Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64 bit File Browser 'Search' problem

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:40 pm
by hpmital
Thank you very much for your help.
The problem is now fully solved.