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

[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?

[Cosmo.]

The vanishing desktop icons indicate, that Nemo (the file manager) has crashed.

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

[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.

[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

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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.

[hpmital]

I have followed your instructions, and give the information below:

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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

[Cosmo.]

To correct this:
Mark the following command completely and make sure, that you do not miss any sign, than press ctrl-c

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find /home/$SUDO_USER ! -user $SUDO_USER -exec chown $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER '{}' \;

Open a terminal and enter

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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.

[hpmital]

Thank you for your trouble.
I did exactly as instructed.
The original problem is still as it was.

[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.

[hpmital]

It seems to be going right, now.Thanks a lot.
I tried with .config deleted first. And it worked!
What next now?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[hpmital]

Thank you very much for your help.
The problem is now fully solved.