[SOLVED] File permission of Desktop shortcuts

[JerryF]

Hi all,

My partner has several shortcuts on his Desktop. Almost all are for websites. Yesterday, he told me that a few are not opening in Chrome. When I went to check this out, a few of them are trying to get opened by VLC Player.

I didn't know what to look for, but I started at the properties of the file.

The ownership and permissions of the file files on my partner's Desktop directory cannot be read. To test, I created a website shortcut on my laptop and got the same result. When I right-click on one of those files in /home/jim/Desktop and click on the Permissions tab, I get a message saying "The permissions of ‘filename' could not be determined."

What can I do to make the few shortcuts open in Chrome and what is the situation with the permission of the files in the directory Desktop?

Here's some output from my partner's desktop that I hope will help:

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jim@Gateway-Mint ~/Desktop $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Gateway-Mint Kernel: 4.4.0-121-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   Mobo: Gateway model: DX4870 Bios: American Megatrends v: P11-B1 date: 04/30/2013
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-3330 (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 23945
           clock speeds: max: 3200 MHz 1: 1602 MHz 2: 1599 MHz 3: 1599 MHz 4: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@59.98hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-3 Logitech driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-003
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-121-generic
Network:   Card: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (26.3% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3500413AS size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST500DM002 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 57G used: 17G (31%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
           ID-2: /home size: 387G used: 26G (7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 16.67GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 44.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 212 Uptime: 6:32 Memory: 1997.5/7921.4MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

ls of /home/jim

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jim@Gateway-Mint ~ $ ls -l
total 80
drwxr-xr-x  2 jim jim  4096 Jul 26 18:56 brscan
drwxr-xr-x  5 jim jim  4096 May 17 18:13 DEB Installation Files
drwxr-xr-x  2 jim jim 12288 Aug  7 15:16 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 10 jim jim 12288 Jul  4 22:37 Documents
drwxr-xr-x  4 jim jim 20480 Aug  7 11:33 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 13 jim jim  4096 Jun  2 19:05 Music
drwxr-xr-x  7 jim jim  4096 Jun  8 15:48 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x  2 jim jim  4096 Sep 27  2017 Public
drwxr-xr-x  5 jim jim  4096 Jan  2  2017 Scanned Documents
drwxr-xr-x  2 jim jim  4096 Aug  7 08:27 Shutter Snapshots
drwxr-xr-x  2 jim jim  4096 Jan 15  2018 Templates
-rw-r--r--  1 jim jim     0 Apr 13 17:06 troubleshoot-logs.txt
drwxr-xr-x  9 jim jim  4096 Jun  2 19:15 Videos

ls of Desktop (just a few listed, but all have the same owner and permissions)

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jim@Gateway-Mint ~/Desktop $ ls -l
total 264
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jim jim 262 May 31  2017 (144).desktop
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jim jim 240 Aug 21  2017 (211) - YouTube.desktop
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jim jim 163 Jun 21  2017 630 wpro.desktop
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jim jim 228 May 31  2017 Airport Detail: KPVD | LiveATC.net.desktop

[gm10]

The question is what's in those .desktop files. If they are of type=link then it's normal that the permissions fail because the file browser tries to determine the permissions of the link target, and a linked URL doesn't have any.

You can avoid that by creating them as application type with xdg-open <url> as the command.

However, seems your real issue is not permissions but the links not opening correctly. The handlers for that are defined in .config/mimeapps.list. Either search by the type of link or search for everything that's currently associated with vlc.desktop in there and change it to whatever browser you want to use.

[JerryF]

Thanks so much gm10. When I get home, I'll apply your suggestions.

[JerryF]

Now I understand links much better. I checked what I had for permissions on some *.desktop files for apps and web links. Default for apps were 755, weblinks were 664. I made sure his were corrected from my previous chmod commands.

Yes, permissions weren't the problem with the couple of links that were opening with VLC. I deleted those, then recreated the links. All are working properly.

I did check .config/mimeapps.list and nothing looked out of the ordinary so I left it alone.

Thanks again gm10!