Nemo bug list view not sorting by name

[artopal]

I did what you suggested: undid the renaming of ~/.config/dconf and renamed ~/.config and ~/.local to ~/.config.bck and ~/.local.bck

After doing that, it worked! I logged out and back in, opened nemo and changed just 2 things in the preferences: 1) View new folders using list view and 2) Ignore per-folder view preferences. Then I opened a new nemo instance and voilá, the list was sorted by name. And after clicking the mtime column, the new instance of nemo was still sorted by name.

After that I undid the renaming deleting the newly created ~/.config and ~.local folders and renaming the *.bck ones.

Oddlily, many things remained changed, like for example my desktop background remained the default one, or nemo's preferences for the most part, or icons appearing on the desktop which I had removed.

But the wrong nemo behavior came back: every new instance in list view is sorted by mtime, regardless of the preferences.

So it does have to do with ~/.config or ~/.local or both.

What can I try next?

[Cosmo.]

So it does have to do with ~/.config or ~/.local or both.

I agree. Both are the most suspicious places for such kind of problems, that is the reason I pointed you to them.

Now do the test with both, but only one folder at a time.
That means: Rename .config, log out and back in and test
Revert the renaming.
Now the same with .local
The point is, that possibly the cause for the problem is in both (not very likely, but possible), so with testing both one after the other we ensure, to track it correctly down.

If done report back to discuss the next step(s).

[artopal]

Now do the test with both, but only one folder at a time.
[...]
If done report back to discuss the next step(s).

I tested renaming both separately, one at a time. Changing ~/.locale did nothing, changing ~/.config solved the problem. So the problem is somewhere in ~/.config.

One other weird thing (at least for me it's weird): after the test I undid all the renaming and put everything back to normal, only it didn't go back to normal. All the personalization I made to the desktop, from the desktop background to the appearance of nemo, keyboard shortcuts, desklets and widgets, etc., all was lost, even though I logged back in with the old ~/.config folder. Those are minor things that I can always change back, but still. I thought everything would be back to normal after renaming ~/.config.bck back to ~/.config, but that wasn't the case.

[Cosmo.]

The most suspicious folder in .config is dconf, but this does not seem to the culprit in your case, as you reported already.

To prevent to make too much confusion in your main account, I suggest the following procedure:

Go into the test account. Delete the folder .config and copy this folder from the main account. Immediately log and back in. Following the given results this should reproduce the problem in the test account.

Now rename the following subfolders in test's .config folder:

• autostart
  cinnamon-session
  dconf
  gtk-2.0
  gtk-3.0
  ibus
  menus
  muffin
  nemo
  session-state

Don't worry, if the one or other subfolder should not be present.
After renaming them log out and back in. I expect that the issue is gone. Now rename them back one by one, you need to log out and back in after each renaming. At the end you should have isolated the culprit.

... desklets and widgets

I cannot follow completely and I do not now, what you mean with widgets. Do you mean the applets. The settings for desklets and applets are stored inside of .cinnamon, so I do not see the relationship.

[artopal]

Some weird results.

I followed your instructions, I went to the test account, deleted the ~/.config folder and copied the ~/.confiig folder from the main account (~219 MB), logged out and back in. First weird thing: this didn't reproduce the problem, files were sorted by name by default.

Second weird thing, I tried to hide nemo's status bar through the menu View > Status bar, and this didn't work. Tried to hide the Menu bar, and this also didn't work. I couldn't change nemo's appearance at all. Showing hidden files and other changes were not a problem.

Third weird thing. Next I tried messing directly with my main account. Logged out and back into the main account. Renamed the folders inside of ~/.config that you listed. Just three of them weren't present: ibus, muffin and session-state. Logged out and back in. The issue should be gone, but wasn't. Files in nemo are still sorted by mtime by default, even though the preferences show otherwise.

I checked the folders inside of ~/.config and new folders were created for cinnamon-session, dconf and menus, but not for autostart, gtk-2.0 and gtk-3.0.

Regarding your last question, yes, I meant applets and desklets. I don't know where the settings are saved, but some of applets I had on the panel just disappeared or changed places, or changed to their respective default settings. The theme I chose was also changed, also nemo's appearance, the behavior of windows, keyboard shortcuts, keyboard layouts, etc. Many things changed after I renamed ~/.config and ~/.local and then renamed then back.

I'll be changing all that back again to the way I prefer it, but as of nemo sorting files by mtime by default, I don't know what to try next.

[Cosmo.]

Your "weird" results have possibly the reason, that you spent to much time between renaming the folders and logging out; maybe, that the system saved some settings in the meantime from what is currently set in the memory.

Regarding your last question, yes, I meant applets and desklets. I don't know where the settings are saved, but some of applets I had on the panel just disappeared or changed places, or changed to their respective default settings.

You must distinguish between the settings inside of a applet or desklet (do be done inside of their respective configuration dialog and stored as said in the folder .cinnamon) and the arrangements of the applets on the panels (= on which panel, if there are more than 1, where inside of the panel); the latter one are parts of the panel properties, which are stored in the file user in .config/dconf. There are also the settings for wallpaper keyboard and more stored.

You made already a test with renaming the folder dconf alone with negative result. This negative result might also be a result of the delay which I mentioned here in my first sentence. So let us try another attempt:

Install the package dconf-editor. Launch it from the menu. The content is a kind of database, organized in hierarchical structure. Go to org -> nemo -> preferences. You see on the right side the values, all non-default values are set in bold. Look for the value default-sort-order: What does it read? Mark it and click the button on the bottom to set it to default and find out, if this helps.

[artopal]

Install the package dconf-editor. Launch it from the menu. The content is a kind of database, organized in hierarchical structure. Go to org -> nemo -> preferences. You see on the right side the values, all non-default values are set in bold. Look for the value default-sort-order: What does it read? Mark it and click the button on the bottom to set it to default and find out, if this helps.

I forgot to mention I had already tried dconf-editor without success (before even writing my first post). But now I discovered something weird again.

So, I open dconf-editor and under nemo > preferences > default-sort-order the value is correctly set to 'name'. But if I click on it, the only option to choose from is 'modification_date'. In other preferences with different value choices, dconf-editor usually lists the choices. In this case there should be at least 'name', 'size', 'type' and 'modification_date' to choose from. For example in comparison, when I click on the value choices for 'default-folder-view' I get 'icon_view', 'compact_view' and 'list_view' to choose from. But not so when clicking on the values for 'default-sort-order'. There, even though 'name' appears to be already set, the only choice is 'modification_date'. After clicking on 'modification_date' I can still click on the button that appears on the lower right that reads Set to Default to reset the value to 'name', but there's no way of doing it directly.

I think the glitch has to do with that...

But of course, even though I reset the value to the default ('name'), the behavior of the app is still the same: every new window in list-view is sorted by mtime by default.

[Cosmo.]

The described (wrong) behavior is the same here, so this does not seem to be related with your original problem. Even if I set in the Nemo preferences to size, only the modification_date, not even name. Obviously a bug.

Look into the folder .cache in your home. If you find a folder dconf inside delete it, log off and back in.

[artopal]

The described (wrong) behavior is the same here, so this does not seem to be related with your original problem.

Oh, thanks for clarifying that.

Look into the folder .cache in your home. If you find a folder dconf inside delete it, log off and back in.

I did as you instructed, but new nemo instances are still sorted by mtime by default.

By the way, I checked the ~/.cache folder but a new dconf folder wasn't created in it (or at least yet).

[Cosmo.]

We have reached a point, were we are running in cycles. The single results do not allow to find a logical cause.

I suggest, that you create a new main account. Make sure, that this account belongs to the group sudo. Go into the new account and copy (not move!) your user data from inside of the new account over.

[artopal]

An update on this, for a bit of closure.

I didn't want to move to another account just for this glitch. The move would have cost me almost as much time as reinstalling the whole system.

But I did found something new. When I start a nemo instance with a folder inside my home folder that I have saved as a bookmark as a parameter (through the menu, usually hitting the super key and beginning to type the name of the folder/bookmark in question), the contents are sorted (finally!) by name.

I have tested this and it also works if I open a nemo instance from the terminal. If I just type nemo and press enter: wrong sorting. nemo .: also wrong sorting. nemo ~: wrong sorting. nemo downloads/../: wrong sorting. But if I open nemo downloads (or any other folder inside of my home folder for that matter), the sorting is correct.

No idea why. Works with any folder but /home/$USER/ (or just nemo without parameters). /home/$USER/ always opens with the wrong sorting (sort by mtime).

This works as a good enough workaround for me, and I have set a custom key combo to open my most used folder inside of /home/ as default (which happens to be ~/downloads/). If necessary, I can make more key combos for other folders, or just hit super and begin typing the name of the folder (for which I previously made a bookmark in nemo). Now I have to live with more bookmarks than before, but that's ok.

Thanks for all the help nailing this down, even though we didn't discover and correct the glitch.

[norb]

I had the same problem. Solved it by killing nemo. And then using dconf-editor to restore all values in org->nemo to the default values.

[catweazel]

I had the same problem. Solved it by killing nemo. And then using dconf-editor to restore all values in org->nemo to the default values.

Please don't necrobump old threads. Also, please read the forum rules.

[drrummer]

So it does have to do with ~/.config or ~/.local or both.

I agree. Both are the most suspicious places for such kind of problems, that is the reason I pointed you to them.

Now do the test with both, but only one folder at a time.
That means: Rename .config, log out and back in and test
Revert the renaming.
Now the same with .local
The point is, that possibly the cause for the problem is in both (not very likely, but possible), so with testing both one after the other we ensure, to track it correctly down.

If done report back to discuss the next step(s).

I followed the suggestion here, to rename the config and local folders. Now I can't find my images and documents.