Copying and pasting files between desktop and Nautilus does not work

Bug #1948008 reported by Dariusz Gadomski
50
This bug affects 11 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Gnome Shell Extension Desktop Icons Ng
Fix Released
Unknown
gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Low
Dariusz Gadomski
Focal
Confirmed
Low
Dariusz Gadomski
Hirsute
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Impish
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Low
Dariusz Gadomski
Focal
Confirmed
Low
Dariusz Gadomski
Hirsute
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
Impish
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Dariusz Gadomski
Focal
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
Hirsute
Won't Fix
Low
Unassigned
Impish
Confirmed
Low
Dariusz Gadomski

Bug Description

[Impact]

 * After upstream Nautilus has reverted the following commit [1] related to upstream bug [2] the desktop icons extension lost it's ability to copy to/from nautilus.

 * This is related to the fact that before there was some metadata passed along in the clipboard along with text data. This was causing issues with compatibility with some applications that were not expecting any metadata (MIME type in this case) was glued to the text clipboard contents. Hence, it was reverted upstream [3].

 * Fixing the root cause of this issue required changes to Nautilus [3], gnome-shell [4] and desktop-icons [5] [6]. Nautilus and gnome-shell parts are already implemented and present in Hirsute and Impish.

[Test Plan]

 1) Make sure desktop-icons extension is enabled.
 2) Open nautilus window and copy any file from there by right-clicking and selecting "Copy" from the popup menu.
 3) Right-click on desktop and select "Paste" from the context menu.

Expected result: selected file is copied to the desktop.
Actual result: "Paste" item is disabled in the menu.

[Where problems could occur]

 * Mixing a version of nautilus without commit [3] and fixed version of desktop-icons may still lead to a scenario when copying will not work.

 * Any extension/application copying to desktop using the smuggled-in-text clipboard behavior should be expected to stop working.

[Other Info]

[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/merge_requests/289
[2] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/634
[3] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/merge_requests/573
[4] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/1321
[5] https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/-/merge_requests/186
[6] https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/-/merge_requests/195

Tags: focal jammy
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Hirsute):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Bug 1843588 already has a task for gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons so can you clarify why this bug is required?

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Also gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons is not used in hirsute and impish. They use gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng instead.

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: New → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish):
status: New → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish):
status: Won't Fix → Invalid
Mathew Hodson (mhodson)
no longer affects: gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish)
Revision history for this message
Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski) wrote :

Thank you Mathew. I assumed it's the same package in later releases.

The reason behind splitting the bug was the fact that I believe these are 2 separate problems by coincidence having their root causes in similar portions of code.

Bug #1843588 is focal specific and is about altered contents of clipboard and fixing it requires fixing reverting the change in nautilus.

This one on the other hand is about not being able to copy from the desktop to nautilus and vice versa. And fixing this should require fixing:

For focal (beside fixing bug #1843588):
* gnome-shell
* gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons

For hirsute & impish:
* gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng

no longer affects: gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Hirsute)
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish):
status: New → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: New → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Focal):
status: New → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: New → Won't Fix
status: Won't Fix → Fix Released
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Impish):
status: New → Fix Released
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
importance: Medium → Low
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Focal):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Hirsute):
importance: Undecided → Low
importance: Low → Undecided
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Focal):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Hirsute):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Impish):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: Won't Fix → Invalid
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Impish):
status: Won't Fix → Invalid
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Focal):
status: Won't Fix → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons is only being maintained for focal. All other Ubuntu releases should use gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski) wrote :

I have backported the gnome-shell fix for focal, however I'll wait with uploading until desktop-icons extension is fixed to push them together.

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Focal):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
tags: added: impish jammy
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu Focal):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Focal):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Impish):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Reopened the primary task for gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons. Although focal is still the last release to use that and it is invalid for later releases, I noticed you can't actually find this bug unless the primary task is kept open.

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → Confirmed
summary: - Copying and pasting to/from Nautilus does not work
+ Copying and pasting files from/to desktop to/from Nautilus does not work
summary: - Copying and pasting files from/to desktop to/from Nautilus does not work
+ Copying and pasting files between desktop and Nautilus does not work
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Hirsute):
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu Impish):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (Ubuntu Focal):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski)
tags: added: focal
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

I just accomplished the steps in the test plan on latest jammy, and couldn't reproduce the issue. The file I copied in Nautilus could successfully be pasted onto the desktop.

@Dariusz: Should gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng be marked "Fix Released" for the development version?

(If it's fixed, I'm not able to tell which upstream commit(s) makes the difference, though.)

Revision history for this message
Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski) wrote :

Thank you for this observation Gunnar. Indeed, looks like its fixed for jammy. I'll try to figure out the right commit and backport it.

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski) wrote :

It seems this has been fixed with https://gitlab.com/rastersoft/desktop-icons-ng/-/commit/4c6de6a39f3e0d7ccff4399cb06f4bcd6485c047

I'll look into a way of backporting it into impish.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Yes the fix is in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng >= 34

Revision history for this message
Dan (devildan) wrote :

Hi,
We have a lot of computer using Ubuntu 20.04, in all of them, we can't copy/paste between Desktop and Nautilus, Focal is impacted, when we will have a fix ? a patch ? please ? We need to deploy it on all the computers in emergency.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

It looks like a fix for focal is still awaiting review in https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/-/merge_requests/195

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

On 2022-02-11 10:07, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
> It looks like a fix for focal is still awaiting review in
> https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/-/merge_requests/195

I applied that one in a PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj/+archive/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons

but it didn't help. So maybe that's not it, after all. Or there is more into it.

Revision history for this message
Dan (devildan) wrote :

Oh dear, do you have a vision to know if the fix is on? Do you have any idea if there will be one? Because there are many of us who are affected by this problem. And we have just switched our park to 20.04 :/

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

I just mechanically applied the MR which Daniel pointed at. Let's see if Daniel or Dariusz is able to say more.

Please note that the desktop icons package used in 20.04 is not the same as in 22.04. 22.04 uses a fork, and the projects have diverged quite a bit by now.

Revision history for this message
Dan (devildan) wrote :

Any news ? :'(

Revision history for this message
Dariusz Gadomski (dgadomski) wrote :

Hey Dan. I've been trying to backport it to 21.10 (available in ppa:dgadomski/lp1948008-desktop-icons) but it seems to work only one-way for now. I am looking into this.

20.04 on the other hand seems even more complicated, I will look into it right after I get 21.10 working, but can't provide any estimates at this point.

Revision history for this message
Dan (devildan) wrote :

Hello,
Thank you for your feedback.
I hope we will have a solution, which we can deploy across our entire fleet. I thank you and wish you good luck. Thank you for your work on this bug.

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng:
status: Unknown → Fix Released
tags: removed: impish
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