[Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

bendipa · 2023-03-26 15:16:25

I'm running Linux Mint 20.3 with Cinnamon DM originally. I installed Xfce as I use that DM for my other Linux distro. But unfortunately, although just about everything works fine, I cannot get any thumbnails to display.

I've checked that all the usual suspect packages are installed as per image below. After a few hours of getting nowhere fast, I decided to switch to the Nemo file manager. Then, the thumbnails finally showed. So it appears the problem arises with Thunar, even though I configured it to always display thumbnails. I'd still like to use Thunar, and it works fine with my other distro as expected. So any reason it won't display thumbnails with Xfce in Linux Mint 20.3?

Last edited by bendipa (2023-03-29 11:09:27)

ToZ · 2023-03-26 15:54:12

Is it any specific files that aren't being thumbnailed, or all of them?

Check your ~/.xsession-errors log file and the journal:

journalctl | grep tumblerd

...to see if there are any error messages.

Also try quitting thunar and restarting in terminal window:

thunar -q
thunar

...to see if that generates any errors.

If still no thumbnails, check to see if the tumblerd process is running:

ps -ef | grep tumblerd

If not, try starting it manually (search for the tumblerd executable in your system) and run it manually in a terminal window.

bendipa · 2023-03-26 19:17:44

Thanks for replying.

ToZ wrote:

Is it any specific files that aren't being thumbnailed, or all of them?

All of the media files, but icons on my panel are unaffected - eg weather, power-manager, cilpman, etc.

Check your ~/.xsession-errors log file and the journal:
journalctl | grep tumblerd
...to see if there are any error messages.

No output shown for journalctl | grep tumblerd Can't see anything that stands out in .xsession-errors file. Quite a few warnings and a couple of criticals relating to GLib-GIO-CRITICAL..., whatever that's about.

Also try quitting thunar and restarting in terminal window:
thunar -q thunar
...to see if that generates any errors.

No errors shown. No change in media file icons appearance

If still no thumbnails, check to see if the tumblerd process is running:
ps -ef | grep tumblerd
If not, try starting it manually (search for the tumblerd executable in your system) and run it manually in a terminal window.

No tumblerd shown for ps. Tried searching for tumblerd, and found just one - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd, but that's not an exec file.. I did find a tumbler.rc file, and a number of tumbler plug-ins with an .so extension for the different media types

ToZ · 2023-03-26 19:44:00

bendipa wrote:

No tumblerd shown for ps. Tried searching for tumblerd, and found just one - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd, but that's not an exec file.. I did find a tumbler.rc file, and a number of tumbler plug-ins with an .so extension for the different media types

Actually, that is the tumblerd executable. Run that manually in a terminal window to see what output it generates and then open thunar to a directory that has some files that could be thumbnailed.

You may also need to install additional tumbler plugins. I believe there might be a tumbler-plugins-extra package?

bendipa · 2023-03-26 21:54:23

I already have that extra package installed (see terminal image below).

I'm afraid running that tumblerd file did not execute fully as it threw out errors towards the end (see image below). Thumbnails still not working (see terminal image below).

Last edited by bendipa (2023-03-26 21:54:41)

ToZ · 2023-03-26 23:22:18

Don't run the thumbnailer with sudo. Just:

/usr/lib//x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

bendipa · 2023-03-27 12:07:17

ToZ wrote:

Don't run the thumbnailer with sudo. Just:
/usr/lib//x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

Well i got a 'permission denied' when I removed sudo, which isn't exactly surprising considering the file is root-owned.

I changed ownership permissions to myself and ran the command again without sudo. It ran like it did before with errors and failed to complete (see image), however, I stopped the command after 10 minutes of BASH freezing, checked again on my media files, and finally I'm getting some thumbnails. But all pdf files and the vast majority of media files are still failing to show thumbnails I feel there's still some unresolved issue present if I'm getting errors like this. On a reboot it's back to square one with no media files showing thumbnails.

I've moved back to Nemo file manager, and no issues there.

Last edited by bendipa (2023-03-27 12:44:25)

ToZ · 2023-03-27 14:12:39

The permissions error is really odd. You should be able to run that command as a regular user - there is something wrong at a system level.

Can you try re-installing tumbler, libtumbler-1.0 and tumbler-common, then try running:

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

...again to see if you get a permissions error?

If so, can I see:

ps -ef | grep tumbler
ps -ef | grep -i thunar
whoami
ps -ef | grep xf

bggf1 · 2023-03-27 18:00:54

Hi bendipa,

To see if this is a problem with thunar:

To my understanding what happens is:

1) thumbnailer starts and registers it's services with the dbus. Stops.
2) Thunar opens a folder, calls thumbnailer for the folder through dbus.
3) thumbnailer updates the cached thumbnails under .cache/thumbnails (large/normal/xlarge)
4) Thunar reads that cache and displays thumbnails.

I think I read that gnome uses another thumbnailer program for this, but I'm not sure.

1) can you share ls -l of the tumblerd? mine is:

ll /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 151K Dec 15 23:54 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd*

so executable by everyone.

If yours is not perhaps a re-install is a good option or try to set the permissions...

2) Where are your thumbnails stored? They must be somewhere if nemo is displaying them, they are a long hash with .png, just like the error messages you saw on your screen.
Btw. although I do not fully understand the error messages, it seems as if there was a "time" problem with one of the files in the cache. Files will be deleted if they are too old, so a timecheck is done.
Your thumbnails should be under ~/.cache/thumbnails but give a look at ~/.thumbnails as well.
There should be some/many files with long numbers.png.

3) What about your desktop, do films, pdfs etc. show as thumbnails there?

4) When you start tumblerd in the background as you did, will thunar now display thumbnails in the folders you go to and the thumbnails cache directory populated? (with more thumbnails as you go through folders?).
btw. I'm not 100% sure if it should, as tumberd should be reached through the dbus, but perhaps it will work.

5) Without starting tumblerd in the background manually:
busctl --user|grep tumblerd
:1.103 3234 tumblerd bggf :1.103 user@1000.service - -
org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Cache1 3234 tumblerd bggf :1.103 user@1000.service - -
org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Manager1 3234 tumblerd bggf :1.103 user@1000.service - -
org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 3234 tumblerd bggf :1.103 user@1000.service - -

to see if the tumblerd is registered with the dbus.

5b) does this change after you started tumblerd?

Regards

bendipa · 2023-03-28 15:24:03

Hello bggf1.

To answer your first question:-

ls -l /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd
-rwxr-x--- 1 paulbenson paulbenson 149888 Dec 23  2020 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

As you can see 'others' have no access to tumblerd, which explains why I got a 'no permission' error when I ran this without sudo as instructed. I've now reset the permissions to executable for anyone.

ls -l /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 paulbenson paulbenson 149888 Dec 23  2020 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

And when I run it:-

$ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd
Registered thumbnailer /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Registered thumbnailer xreader-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Registered thumbnailer gsf-office-thumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s
Registered thumbnailer ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s -f
Registered thumbnailer /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o

it hangs on the last line and does not complete. But I've just discovered some important info since last posting. While the terminal is hanging, if I then go to a folder containing media files they will all open as thumbnails. If I don't open a folder containing media files while the terminal is running they stay as they are (as a mime-file icon.) Also, if I then delete the contents of the thumbnail folders in cache, I lose all the thumbnails, which will not re-appear after a logout or reboot. Ie tumblerd is not an automatic process as it should be.

busctl --user|grep tumblerd produces nothing. I'm guessing this is where the problem lies In fact, since running that and now running tumblerd again, this time round no media files are opening to thumbnails. Running tumblerd again after a reboot and once again thumbnails appeared while the command was hanging as described in previous para.

Last edited by bendipa (2023-03-28 15:38:32)

ToZ · 2023-03-28 16:58:37

it hangs on the last line and does not complete.

This just means that it is running - its not hanging. As you can see, you are getting thumbnails generated now.

busctl --user|grep tumblerd produces nothing.

It will only produce output while tumblerd is running. Tumblerd is programmed to terminate after 30 seconds if not used and called up automatically when needed.

So the question is: why doesn't it start automatically as it should?
Can you create a second account on your computer and test to see if thumbnail generation works there. Lets see if this is a system issue or a profile issue.

bendipa · 2023-03-28 21:14:58

ToZ wrote:

it hangs on the last line and does not complete.
This just means that it is running - its not hanging. As you can see, you are getting thumbnails generated now.
busctl --user|grep tumblerd produces nothing.
It will only produce output while tumblerd is running. Tumblerd is programmed to terminate after 30 seconds if not used and called up automatically when needed.
So the question is: why doesn't it start automatically as it should?
Can you create a second account on your computer and test to see if thumbnail generation works there. Lets see if this is a system issue or a profile issue.

Done that. Same issue using Thunar.

ToZ · 2023-03-28 23:04:57

Can we see your user journal after a fresh login:

journalctl --user -b0 --no-pager

...in case there are some hints there.

Last edited by ToZ (2023-03-29 00:38:21)

bggf1 · 2023-03-29 04:19:27

Hi Toz, bendipa,

@Toz, thanks looking over this, you are correct, the grep will only work if the tumblerd has been active in the last 30 sec. or so.
I looked into this a bit more and have a better test to see if the service is registered in dbus: "grep Thumbnailer1".

@bendipa: As Toz mentioned tumblerd is not a process that will simply create a thumbnail for everything at startup.
It is thumbnailing at request.(further explanation below)

- We already seem to have 1 workaround to this: to start tumblerd in the background in your .bashrc with a &.

Can you confirm the below is happening on your system as well (through the commands you see in ++++ below)

What will happen is more or less:

1) At start the session dbus will start some services, but also read the "usr/share/dbus-1/service" folder for .service files.
These services are registered as "activatable", so not started yet, but known and they have a binary commands associated that can be started at any moment.

As at this stage the service is in mode "activatable" and the program aka. tumberd will not show up in my grep or ps. (my mistake, the grep for the command tumblerd will not work ...yet).
But this should:

+++++++++++++++++
busctl --user |grep Thumbnailer
org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 - - - (activatable) - - -
+++++++++++++++++

2) Thunar will start and ask the org.freedesk.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 service (I will refer to it as oT1 for short) for a list of files the Thumbnailer can manage (the answer will depend on the modules that tumbler will have installed). The oT1 service entry on dbus will activate the tumblerd program/command and send back the information.
The service oT1 is not in state "activatable" mode any more, but will show the binary behind it now.

+++++++++++++++++
busctl --user |grep Thumbnailer
org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 3160 tumblerd bggf :1.107 session-2.scope 2 -
+++++++++++++++++
note: Only at this stage the busctl --user|grep tumblerd will work sad
-----------------------------
tumblerd will send back a list of loads of files he can make a thumbnail for (huge list containing for example):
.....
STRING "video/x-ms-asf";
STRING "application/smil";
STRING "application/x-flash-video";
....

3) thunar will open a folder and when he sees one of those files he will request a thumbnail for it like this:

Type=method_call Endian=l Flags=0 Version=1 Cookie=465
Sender=:1.11 Destination=:1.58 Path=/org/freedesktop/thumbnails/Thumbnailer1 Interface=org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1 Member=Queue
UniqueName=:1.11
MESSAGE "asasssu" {
ARRAY "s" {
STRING "file:///home/bggf/Pictures/Screenshot_2023-02-27_20-27-27.png";
};
ARRAY "s" {
STRING "image/png";
};

Note:it can send multiple files at once, here I only have one png in the Pictures dir, but files types that are not from the type tumbler sent will not be queried. For example if there is a .txt file in the folder no thumbnail request will be sent for that. (at least for me, I have no text module installed with tumbler for text files)

A thumbnail will be created in the cache by tumbler, tumbler will tell Thunar that he is done and Thunar will display the thumbnail.
Even if tumbler is not responding, if a file in the cache fits the filename (the long name of the thumbnails is just a hash of folder+filename) Thunar should show the thumbnail anyway (so you may see thumbnails for some files where you actiavated tumblerd manually previously, but not for newer ones)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Can you check:

- the service file:
/usr/share/dbus-1/services$ cat org.xfce.Tumbler.Thumbnailer1.service
[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1
Exec=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/tumbler-1/tumblerd

- the ls -l of that file,
ls -l ./org.xfce.Tumbler.Thumbnailer1.service
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 111 Dec 23 2020 ./org.xfce.Tumbler.Thumbnailer1.service

Thunar is not the first program that requires tumbler, if you remember I had asked if the thumbnails work on the desktop:

journalctl |grep Thumbnailer1|head

Feb 27 17:31:37 firstdebian dbus-daemon[706]: [session uid=1000 pid=706] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1' requested by ':1.20' (uid=1000 pid=858 comm="xfdesktop ")
Feb 27 17:31:39 firstdebian org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[866]: Registered thumbnailer evince-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Feb 27 17:31:39 firstdebian org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[866]: Registered thumbnailer /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Feb 27 17:31:39 firstdebian org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[866]: Registered thumbnailer atril-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Feb 27 17:31:39 firstdebian org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[866]: Registered thumbnailer /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o

Regards

bendipa · 2023-03-29 11:09:02

Hi folks.

Finally, I seem to have cracked this. I added tumblerd to Session And Startup. I don't know why I didn't think of trying this before. Anyway so far, all thumbnails are opening now.

I'm going to try 1 or 2 other tests to ensure things stay that way, before I mark this as 'Solved'. But thanks to ToZ and bggf1 for your help.

Last edited by bendipa (2023-03-29 11:11:46)

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#1 2023-03-26 15:16:25

[Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#2 2023-03-26 15:54:12

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#3 2023-03-26 19:17:44

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#4 2023-03-26 19:44:00

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#5 2023-03-26 21:54:23

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#6 2023-03-26 23:22:18

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#7 2023-03-27 12:07:17

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#8 2023-03-27 14:12:39

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#9 2023-03-27 18:00:54

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#10 2023-03-28 15:24:03

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#11 2023-03-28 16:58:37

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#12 2023-03-28 21:14:58

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#13 2023-03-28 23:04:57

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#14 2023-03-29 04:19:27

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

#15 2023-03-29 11:09:02

Re: [Solved] No thumbnails with Thunar

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