Tips for Using Dolphin File Manager in MX without converting totally to KDE

[nathan2423]

sorry - mistake -deleted

[Stevo]

Well, I fixed that a long, long time ago.


made with Peek

But so long ago that I've forgotten exactly how . I hang onto my precious, precious home settings like Gollum with the One Ring from MX upgrade to upgrade. I think it has something to do with the KDE appearance settings in systemsettings5 and the color scheme and theme you choose there, though I could be wrong. Often you have to log out and in to see the changes, or at least restart Dolphin.

I think you might have to enable previews for certain file types in Dolphin's settings to get thumbnails.

[richb]

I think I know the direction of the answer to my own question but it appears on reboot after installing KDE5 that baloo is not running, and that is required for Dolphin search to work.

Anyone care to opine on whether baloo is worthwhile in this kind of setup, and if so how best to start it?

Code: Select all

In a terminal balooctl enable

These are the baloo commands

Code: Select all

balooctl --help (return code: 0)
Usage: balooctl [options] command status enable disable start stop restart suspend resume check checkDb index clear config monitor indexSize

Options:
  -v, --version  Displays version information.
  -h, --help     Displays this help.

Arguments:
  command        The command to execute
  status         Print the status of the indexer
  enable         Enable the file indexer
  disable        Disable the file indexer
  start          Start the file indexer
  stop           Stop the file indexer
  restart        Restart the file indexer
  suspend        Suspend the file indexer
  resume         Resume the file indexer
  check          Check for any unindexed files and index them
  checkDb        Check database for consistency
  index          Index the specified files
  clear          Forget the specified files
  config         Modify the Baloo configuration
  monitor        Monitor the file indexer
  indexSize      Display the disk space used by index
Installed via
baloo-kf5
Path
/usr/bin/balooctl

I generally use catfish for search. However in Dolphin with baloo added some useful features are revealed in the left pane. These find files as indicated.

[richb]

@Stevo. I think that is a different phenomenon.. If you click on the plus of the icon at the upper left when you hover it disappears then move off the icon to a blank area and it reappears. Still may be related to the theme chosen

[nathan2423]

yes in terms of the disappearing phenomena, I am referring to "detailed list" view mode. The blue highlight bar extends across the detail when a file is selected. When the arrow/cursor is placed within the filename, the blue bar and filename totally disappear. I don't think I can do or attach a screenshot but it happens every time.

[nathan2423]

Probably a good tip to add to this list would be how to tell baloo what directories or drives to index other than the home drive, if a data partition is being used in addition to home. If I figure it out i will post back.

The basic configuration is explained here: https://community.kde.org/Baloo/Configuration

The config file is generally present as ~/.config/baloofilerc for Frameworks 5 (including Plasma 5), and ~/.kde4/share/apps/config/baloofilerc in the kdelibs 4.x world (old Plasma).

Exclude Folders

[General]
exclude folders[$e]=$HOME/FolderA/,$HOME/FolderB/

This list is comma separated and is used to check which directories should never be indexed. By default this list is empty.
Include Folders

[General]
folders[$e]=$HOME/

This list governs which folders Baloo should index recursively. By default, it will index your $HOME directory. The $e allows environment variable expansion.

For example, if you have a Windows drive mounted at /media/Windows, here is a sample line to index some common folders of user "Alice".

folders[$e]=$HOME/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Desktop/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Documents/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Downloads/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Music/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Pictures/,/media/Windows/Users/Alice/Videos/

Only index Files Names

[General]
only basic indexing=true

This will trigger Baloo to only index the filename.
Hidden Folders

[General]
index hidden folders=true

[richb]

You can also configure the excludes in KDE System Settings>Search>File Search.

[nathan2423]

Very interesting -- thank you for pointing that out Rich -- it did not occur to be (but should have) that installing the KDE package gives access to all the KDE system settings. That's much easier for new users than the command line.

I see that the Search options talk also about the plasma search, which I presume must be accessed through some widget or other location other than Dolphin itself. Not sure if that uses the index created by Baloo but I hope so as it would be a waste to be duplicative. If it shares the index, however, might be good to get access to it.

[richb]

As far as I know plasma search is accessed through dolphin. I am not aware of any other app. I think searches in KDE Plasma are all handled by the baloo index.

Edit. When in KDE Plasma Desktop alt-F2 brings up krunner which will do searches using the baloo index. But if in XFCE it's application search will be active with alt-F2.

[Stevo]

yes in terms of the disappearing phenomena, I am referring to "detailed list" view mode. The blue highlight bar extends across the detail when a file is selected. When the arrow/cursor is placed within the filename, the blue bar and filename totally disappear. I don't think I can do or attach a screenshot but it happens every time.

I still don't have the same problem in list view either. It's the same behavior as in icon view. I still think it might have to do with the KDE color settings in systemsettings5.