Can't open files through file managers in other DEs and WMs

I installed the Guix System several months ago and selected GNOME as the Desktop Environment (DE). Recently, however, I decided to fallback to another DE or Window Manager (WM) because of a memory issue in GNOME (see https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2020-02/msg00206.html).So far I have installed XFCE, MATE and sway, but, in all of them I can't open most files using their default file managers: Thunar (XFCE), Caja (MATE), Nautilus (sway [not really a default]).

Performing the following operations to open files from file managers fail for most file types (PNG, PDF, HTML, ODT, SVG, ...):

• Double clicking a file.

• Pressing Enter on a file.

• Right clicking a file and selecting the default app for that kind of file.

• Right clicking a file and selecting another application from a list of suggested apps.

The only kind of file that opens correctly so far is MP3.

Doing the following from a terminal opens files correctly in the default applications:

$ xdg-open path/to/file.png

$ xdg-open path/to/file.pdf

(Note that I never use xdg-utils directly to manipulate MIME types and default apps associations. I leave that to GUIs provided by DEs.)

System Information:

MATE 1.22.0

XFCE 4.14.0

sway 1.2

guix 079ee3b

repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git

branch: master

commit: 079ee3b5ea7e9e9bf34753df42957d280e8eabc5

---

I forgot to say:

When trying to open a file using Nautilus in sway, I get this message:

######

Could Not Display "file-name-here.ext"

There is no application installed for "FILE TYPE HERE" files

Button: Select Application

Button: OK

######

Pressing the "Select Application" button displays a list of applications that

can handle the given file type, but selecting an application from the list has

no effect. The message above shows up again when you try to open a file.

I see this warning appear in a terminal when I try to open a file:

######

** (org.gnome.Nautilus:13530): WARNING **: 14:59:45.839: Couldn't call Modify

on the PackageKit interface: no owner for PackageKit

######

When trying to do the same thing in Caja (MATE), I get this message:

######

No se pudo abrir el archivo XYZ. Falló al ejecutar el proceso hijo «gio-launch-desktop» (No existe el fichero o el directorio)

######

Which means "Couldn't open the file XYZ. Failed to run the child process «gio-launch-desktop» (No such file or directory)"

And Thunar on XFCE doesn't display anything, nothing happens.

Also, I have a "mimeapps.list" file living in "~/.config" and file managers seems to use it, because when you right click on a file, file managers show the right application configured to open that particular type of file (as defined in "~/.config/mimeapps.list").

---

It turns out there is a known issue that reports the gio-launch-desktop problem (see https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/38135).The problem is fixed, but the fix is not in production yet. However, I can confirm that the workaround described in that issue report fixes all the problems I mentioned in my original messages.

So, opening files through Thunar on Xfce, Caja on MATE and Nautilus on sway works correctly if you modify your system configuration so that it imports "(gnu packages glib)" and adds "(list glib "bin")" to the list of packages.

After removing the workaround from my system configuration file and reconfiguring the system with a recent Guix (see below), things work find in MATE, Xfce and sway. I can't reproduce the problems anymore.

$ guix describe

Generation 72 Apr 17 2020 08:12:14 (current)

sirgazil-x 66d4b67

repository URL: https://gitlab.com/sirgazil/guix-channel-x.git

branch: master

commit: 66d4b677875c84d0b7a946376cd4885f202094eb

guix 79ef072

repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git

branch: master

commit: 79ef0726a9afb7bd4676b9a53401f742c7b83653

Thanks for fixing this.