delete key doesn't do delete files or move to trash

[Philip Peitsch]

Binary package hint: nautilus

The delete key does not appear to function in nautilus. As far as I can tell there are no other shortcut keys for deleting files...

== Updated to include reproduction steps ==

1. Create a bunch of files and folders. Here is a quick one-liner bash script to do this easily:
seq 1 5 | while read seqnce; do touch "file$seqnce"; mkdir "folder$seqnce"; done
2. Select the last file in the display (file5 if using the script I pasted above)
3. Delete this file using the delete key. Usually it will delete, sometimes it won't
4. Hit the down arrow on the keyboard to select the last file in the list again (this only works 100% when using the down arrow... sometimes it works when using the right arrow as well)
5. Attempt to delete the selected file ONCE. On my setup, the file is not deleted almost every time (almost... as in 4 / 5 times). Hitting delete a second time will remove the file.

I have been experiencing this with mouse selection as well under various circumstances, but can't find a reliable way to reproduce it.

nautilus:
  Installed: 1:2.29.92.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:2.29.92.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.29.92.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ftp.iinet.net.au lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
 * What error do you get?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

[Philip Peitsch (philip-peitsch)]

Hi there. Sorry I didn't put those in the first time around... I have been playing around with this a bit more to try to come up with a 100% way of doing this. I've discovered the following generally exhibits the behaviour I'm talking about. Please note: I have mouse focus turned on.

1. Create a bunch of files and folders. Here is a quick one-liner bash script to do this easily:
seq 1 5 | while read seqnce; do touch "file$seqnce"; mkdir "folder$seqnce"; done
2. Select the last file in the display (file5 if using the script I pasted above)
3. Delete this file using the delete key. Usually it will delete, sometimes it won't
4. Hit the down arrow on the keyboard to select the last file in the list again (this only works 100% when using the down arrow... sometimes it works when using the right arrow as well)
5. Attempt to delete the selected file ONCE. On my setup, the file is not deleted almost every time (almost... as in 4 / 5 times). Hitting delete a second time will remove the file.

I have been experiencing this with mouse selection as well under various circumstances, but can't find a reliable way to reproduce it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the steps describe non consistent behaviour which is somewhat weird, not confirming there

[Philip Peitsch (philip-peitsch)]

Oh... definitely not normal I agree. This exhibits the symptoms I was reporting... and at the moment I am unable to find a good reproducible way using mouse selection. It seems to happen occasionally too that ctrl+c & ctrl+v don't either.

Either way, if you follow those steps and get the same behaviour, then it is a bug.... though how high a priority considering the obtuse repeatability is obviously open for debate :)

I'll keep an eye out for reproduction with the mouse, but it is currently very unreliable. It happens several times an evening, but I can't predict when or how just yet :(

[Jason J. Herne (hernejj)]

I can confirm that Nautilus seem to me "missing" the delete key event sometimes. I have the same issue as OP.

If instead of simply pressing the delete key you hold it down, the file will be deleted. Holding the key down caused multiple "delete" key events. This is why my theory is that Nautilus is somehow missing the first delete key event.

This used to work perfectly fine in Karmic and every other Ubuntu & Linux distro I've ever used.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

I found the upstream bug https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137455, but it is very old.

[jack (jumpinjack)]

Yes I confirm this bug too, and lastly with nautilus 2.30 in Lucid. Nautilus seems to miss 1 "press delete key" out of 2. The first one does not work but the second does work.

Any fix ?
Thanks

[norm2929 (norm2929)]

Confirming this bug on my Lucid system 2.6.32-19-generic

[xtknight (xt-knight)]

This happens with every operation: copy, paste, delete in particular. It is so frustrating.

[xtknight (xt-knight)]

It wouldn't be related to the fact that you can start typing a file name to search and it deliberately scrolls, would it? Maybe the delete key is getting mistaken for a search event. Try to delete when you're searching. Doesn't work, does it?

And if I wait long enough before I do "the last event" it seems to also work fine. I can delete all those files if I wait long enough between each one (about 2 seconds?)