kio_tar and kio_zip not used automatically

[Daniel Eckl]

Hi!

When clicking a compressed file (tar.gz, tar.bz2, zip, ...) in konqueror, then always ark is opened. There seems to be no possibility to open it embedded via tar: or zip: url automatically.

While I can manually enter tar:/path/to/tarfile.tar.gz and this works flawlessly, it seems that I cannot configure the system to open it embedded by just left-clicking.

When editing the mime-type, tab embedded, there is no kpart for this configured and I cannot find a matching one in the list.

I have installed ark which contains ark_part.desktop and libarkpart.so and so on, but it doesn't show up in the list of kparts.

Best,
Daniel

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Forgot to mention: I'm using kubuntu dapper with all availiable updates. So I use kdebase-bin 4:3.5.1-0ubuntu14 and ark 4:3.5.1-0ubuntu2. Sorry.

[Kenny Duffus (kduffus)]

I believe this is intentional in kubuntu?

[Jonathan Riddell (jr)]

Yes, it's currently intentional to reduce the multiple different ways of being able to do the same thing. If you have a rationale for preferring one of the other ways such as ioslaves we're happy to listen.

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Well, I have six good reasons. I know it depends on you if you find them good, too.

First reason is that I got used to it under another distribution. Second reason is, that copying single files from an archive is a lot simpler that way, because ark always has bad drag-and-drop problems (on any distribution I know). Third reason is, that I have a lot of web-page archives in tar.bz2 format and I love to just click it and open index.html and view the pages as if they were not compressed. Fourth reason is that the kio plugin starts listing the contents a lot of faster. Fifth reason is that I don't need a new window to be opened. And sixth reason is that I think that every behaviour should be configurable. That's the fun in linux to choose the way you can use it.

I don't have a problem being the actual way the default. But I want to be able to change it. Can I do that (I didn't find out how)? If it's not changeable then this would be a wish instead a bug, that this default should be configurable somehow.

Thanks for your fast feedback!

[Francois-Denis Gonthier (fdgonthier)]

I agree with the reporter. I'm fine with ark_part not being the default at install, but hiding it from everybody sounds a bit radical to me.

To the reporter: to activate ark_part, edit /usr/share/services/ark_part.desktop, and change

Hidden=true

to

Hidden=false

It's right at the end of that file. I had to logout and log back in for it to work but I guess kbuildsycoca might have worked.

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Thanks for this comment. But that's not exactly what I need. This doesn't eliminate the d-n-d problems of ark, it just embeds them. I just thought that ark_part would be the thing I was searching for, but it seems I was wrong.

What I want is: I have a archive.tar.gz in /home/daniel.
I click on it and konqueror should go to URL tar:/home/daniel/archive.tar.gz

The URL is already working right now if I enter that manually, but konqueror doesn't go there automatically.

It does on SuSE, though.

Can you help me here, too?

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Found in (e.g.) /usr/share/mimelnk/application/x-tgz.desktop:
[Property::X-KDE-LocalProtocol]
Type=QString
Value=tar

That should tell konqueror to redirect to URL tar:/path/to/file.tar.gz when you click on that file.

But it does not do that like in other distributions... Why, oh why?

[Loïc Corbasson (cnb)]

I agree with you; kioslaves for zip and tar are very nice because like fish://, locate or even http they are deeply embedded in KDE, I mean I can click on a zip file and then click on a file inside it and have the associated app opening it, seamlessly. I think it's far easier and less confusing than opening ark, uncompressing to a temp folder [a newbie will create and have to find in the app or in konqueror (takes time), never delete (wastes space)], an approach which IMHO doesn't bring any benefit, excluding the fact it's more gnome- or windows-like, which isn't for me a reference for simplicity.
The abstraction brought by kioslaves like these is, I think, good for the user which IMO doesn't matter about where his files are stored and what an archive is. Just my 2c, though.

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Hi dear Jonathan! So did you listen as promised? What do you think? Should kio_tar and kio_zip be enabled by default? If not: Could you help me by giving me a hint what is needed to install/configure to enable it just for me? I really tried but I cannot figure it out....

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Okay, for the archive:
Kubuntu overrides the kde default mimelink paths, so that the files in /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde-profile/default/share/mimelnk is taken as default. The x-tgz.desktop etc. there does not contain the needed [Property::X-KDE-LocalProtocol] paragraph. So a Ubuntu style system wide change of the behavior would have to be made in the .desktop files in /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde-profile/default/share/mimelnk (package kubuntu-default-settings).

User-workaround:
Copy x-tar.desktop, x-tarz.desktop, x-zip.desktop, x-tgz.desktop and x-tbz.desktop from /usr/share/mimelnk/application to ~/.kde/share/mimelnk/application.

System-wide workaround:
Copy x-tar.desktop, x-tarz.desktop, x-zip.desktop, x-tgz.desktop and x-tbz.desktop from /usr/share/mimelnk/application to /usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kde-profile/default/share/mimelnk/application. But this will be reset with future updates of kubuntu-default-settings package.

[Andy Braben (abraben)]

Who needs Ark to be loaded when clicking a .tgz or similar in Konqueror? Daniel's already given six very good reasons. Please allow Konqueror to open compressed files by default.

[Teemu Likonen (dtw)]

Sorry to spam this report with already stated information, but I'm also begging Dapper's Konqueror to use tar:/ etc. kioslaves by default. That is why I love Konqueror: there's no need for multiple applications to do simple things with archived files. Konqueror's kio_tar and kio_zip work much better than "Ark".

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

Jonathan: I know you are subsribed to 642 bug reports at the moment. But after one month after giving my opinion you should state your opinion on this subject. You promised, you would be happy to listen. So please don't take this literally and follow that with an answer no matter how your result is.
If you stay at your opinion that this should be handled by an external application by default, then I think you shouldn't rely on Ark which is known to be very buggy and absolutely non-intuitive. That's not "ubuntu". Just my 2c.

[Andy Braben (abraben)]

When I first used Linux, I was drawn to Konqueror and in particular the way compressed files just open as if they are not compressed. I see no reason why kubuntu has to alter the functionality of the default konqueror setup at all. Modifying Konqueror is not "ubuntu" or "KDE", nor intuitive.

I thank Daniel for his post on setting Kubuntu back to the default setting, and found it a complete nuisance having to find this bug and carry out his useful instructions.

[SadaraX (sadarax)]

Respectfully, I also think that removing the automatic kio usage was not a good idea. Taking away this kio functionality makes me (and perhaps other users) feel like its not KDE but Gnome Desktop being used. KDE seems to make its case as a desktop environment by being so heavily customizable. I think that Ubuntu would be doing a disservice to its users by disabling them the kio slaves, especially because they seem to work better than Ark (which is still somewhat buggy).

If nothing else can be suggested, why not pose it as a poll on the forums? I perhaps it would be good get the users opinions on this point.

[Anthony Mercatante (tonio)]

This has been a long debate during the kubuntu-meetings...

Here are the reasons we removed that functionality :
- kio slaves are responsible for lots of issues with non kde applications.
A user opening a zip file containing odt files or images he want to edit with gimp will get an error message while application launches. Regarding to new users, that will appear as a non clean job.
- there are several kind of compressed files : rar, 7z, bz/bz2... We wanted to have an homogenous integration for all of them, and ark was the solution to this, as there are no kio-slaves for most of them.

One of the main goals of the dapper release of kubuntu was a clean and logic desktop implementation, and that way to manage compressed files is a consequence of this.

In the other way, I perfectly agree with the fact that it is not easilly possible to reactivate those 2 kio-slaves, and this is an issue.

It has to be possible graphically, without playing kubuntu-default-settings files in the shell, and the method has to be documented.

I'll have a look at this toonight to find the best way to correct this

[Daniel Eckl (daniel-eckl)]

I can understand the reasons. It is inconsistent indeed if only 5 out of 10 archive types open in konqueror and the rest in ark. It's not that bead, because most of the archives users get in touch with are of the first type, but the issue is existing, of course. In my opinion the actual default setting is not a problem when it can be configured easily. While graphical would be nice for a personal user setting, I think there should be the possibility of a system wide setting, perhaps via "dpkg-reconfigure".
But are there any alternatives to ark? It's drag-and-drop is so horribly buggy...

[Anthony Mercatante (tonio)]

I have tested deeply, and there is no easy way to switch between those two possibilities except with patching x-{zip|tar}.desktop files...
So we have to make a choice, and as I explained the actual kubuntu aim of a coherent and logic desktop is the priority.
There will certainly be a solution with kde 4, but this bug is not currently resolvable...