Xfce Forum

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

The chain icon that used to appear next to the mouse pointer when making a symlink no longer appears.

To reproduce in thunar, hit ctrl, shift and then click and drag a file into another folder or tab to make a symlink in that folder. If you don't see a little chain icon next to the mouse pointer while doing this, then that is the bug/regression.

Distro is Manjaro Xfce

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,482

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

Probably best to create a bug report - https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/issues.

---

Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

eriefisher

Member

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 528

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

The symlink works fine using the method you describe but you are correct, I don't see a chain icon. Honestly, I don't ever remember seeing an chain icon but it's not something I do very often and it's usually done in a terminal.

---

Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.18

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

Thanks. So its replicatable, it seems. I'd go on the xfce gitlab but I notice its trying to pull in Google recaptcha javascript, I'll come back in a week and we if anyone in these forums reports it.

lastonestanding

Member

Registered: 2018-11-12

Posts: 22

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

It could be the (now incomplete) Adwaita cursor theme. Did you test with a different cursor theme yet?

gogogadget

Member

Registered: 2023-03-19

Posts: 28

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

I also think the problem could be the theme, I can see the chain with Volantes Light Cursors theme .

---

EndeavourOS
Xfce+gtk3-classic (no CSD)+Picom

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

Yes I think I'm using Adwaita I'll touch base soon to confirm (I must go) but it looks like another puzzle may be solved.

Well done, and thanks all!

Last edited by uibits (2024-07-23 17:33:49)

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

Thanks lastonestanding, problem is weirdly solved somehow after trying something related to what you said. I'm not sure whether two other things were also important so listing them too. If anyone else has the same issue try working backwards through the list:

I didn't need to install anything new, thanks gogogadget for suggeting a theme but it wasn't needed. Btw that page you linked to didn't load properly, even with javascript enabled.

HOW I FIXED IT

1) (I am still going through the notes from updating Manjaro Xfce and) I followed an instruction that said (sic):

To force Libadwaita appliations to use the gtk-4.0 theme,
symlink the gtk-4.0 theme to config folder
(replace Matcha-dark-sea with chosen theme variant):

mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-4.0/
ln -sf /usr/share/themes/Matcha-dark-sea/gtk-4.0/{assets,gtk.css,gtk-dark.css} ~/.config/gtk-4.0/

2) Opened the Appearance (settings dialog), this can be done either from the whisker menu or with the command xfce4-appearance-settings. Then in the Style tab I basically tested that every theme worked. They all did work (but not all of them look great).

3) Opened the Mouse and Touchpad (settings dialog), again this can be done either from the whisker menu or with the command xfce4-mouse-settings. Then in the Theme tab I basically tested that every theme worked TWICE(?) It was either twice or I had to check more than just the next theme in the list after Adwaita.

Its a slight mystery how the above worked.

I assume that step 3 alone fixed it but my system had reset since the Manjaro update. *shrugs*

As an aside, it seems that every Mouse theme uses the same Adwaita icon when Ctrl+Shift dragging to make a symlink. Its possible Adwaita is some sort of "fallback" theme?

Anyway, weirdly solved.

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

UPDATE: Step 1 above solved it!

I tried rolling back (1) because it did not fix the VLC media player losing its dark theme issue and also made dialog popup boxes dark, and other programs dark that I didn't really want.

After I reset the machine, those things were no longer dark, but the symlink emblem feedback on the mouse was gone! I would encourage devs to look into this, if one thing is broken in gtk3 in the transition to gtk-4.0 then it's possible other things are too!?

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

...instead I'll try NOT incluing the dark:

ln -sf /usr/share/themes/Matcha-dark-sea/gtk-4.0/{assets,gtk.css} ~/.config/gtk-4.0/

uibits

Member

Registered: 2022-07-02

Posts: 39

Re: Thunar: Chain icon no longer shown with pointer while making symlink

The above attempt to not include the gtk-dark.css and only the gtk.css has not been able to restore the chain link emblem. I'm trying to get to the bottom of why that is. In the meantime Re-adding the dark file...

ln -sf /usr/share/themes/Matcha-dark-sea/gtk-4.0/gtk-dark.css ~/.config/gtk-4.0/

Starting to think this is a red-herring because I remember this had immediate effect, ie. symlink cursor showed immediately, whereas now the symlink cursor still refuses to show. I could be misremembering, though.