Dolphin cannot open a tar file on a smb share

[Tzvetan Mikov]

When Dolphin is browsing an SMB share like "smb://server/share/dir" and the user clicks on a .tgz file like "smb://server/share/dir/archive.tgz", Dolphin tries to open "tar://server/share/dir/archive.tgz". It can't because this is on an SMB share, so it just fails with an error "The file or folder ... does not exist".

At this point using "Alt+up_arrow" also starts generating invalid paths without the "smb:" prefix. It can be extremely confusing for an "ordinary" user. I myself for second or two got scared that my Samba server was down :-)

I am not sure technically what the path for the tar file should look like ("tar://smb://path" ??), but this does work transparently with Konqueror in Debian. In Kubuntu Konqueror is configured to start Ark in a separate window, so it also works, albeit not as "transparently".

Since Dolphin is the default file manager in 7.10, I this should be considered a regression. A minor one of course - an easy workaround is to right click on the tar file and select "Open with Ark".

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Could you see if this is an issue with the KDE4 version of Dolphin?

[Tzvetan Mikov (tmikov)]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 6:51 AM, Jonathan Thomas <...> wrote:

> Could you see if this is an issue with the KDE4 version of Dolphin?
>
> ** Changed in: dolphin (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete

OK, I just ran a couple of more tests:

- First I reproduced it in KDE 3 in Hardy, just in case. The problem is
still present in Dolphin and it is a general problem for all KIO protocols,
smb:, fish:., etc. Konqueror works fine. If you leave this bug open, we
should update the bug description to be more general - something like
"Dolphin cannot open an archive file on a KIO share in the embedded viewer"
- but I am not very fluent with KDE terminology, so I've left it as is for
now.

- Then I tried it with Kubuntu's KDE 4 live CD. Technically the problem is
_not_ present in Dolphin in KDE4. As far as I can tell, there is no way to
force Dolphin to open archive files on a KIO share in an embedded viewer. It
always launches the external viewer Ark, so the whole problem is
side-stepped. As before, Konqueror works find with the embedded viewer.

I do very much prefer the Konqueror behavior - displaying the archive files
as directories. I find it much more convenient. However in KDE4 technically
this is no longer a bug - it is a request for enhancement or something ...

Bottom line:
- in KDE3 in Kubuntu 8.4 it is still a bug
- in KDE4 it is a request for enhancement.

I am not sure that Kubuntu or KDE have the resources or the time to bother
with the latter though ... So I guess the bug can either be marked as
KDE3-only, or closed with the assumption that we will move to KDE4 sooner or
later, or split into a bug and a RFE... It is up to you.

regards,
Tzvetan

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Thanks for testing.
Dolphin is moving to kdebase in Intrepid so I'll change it to a bug in there. Hopefully somebody with wishlist-setting powers can set this bug to a wishlist report.

Oh, and {K)Ubuntu in and of itself probably won't implement this feature on it's own. (E.g. Make a patch, send it upstream, etc.) Kubuntu just doesn't have that kind of resources atm. The best bet for getting this feature is to file a wishlist report at http://bugs.kde.org. If you (or anybody) files a wishlist it would also be handy to link the report here or at least post the link to the wishlist in the comments.

Thanks for investing your time to making Kubuntu better.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Should be fixed in KDE 4.2.