Running Kubuntu 14.04, level 4.13.3.

After installing the latest updates the other day, I removed some old
kernels by:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

I noticed that it was also going to remove package 'baloo'. But maybe it is
being replaced by 'baloo2' or some such; what do I know? So I let it run.

I later discovered that my email in kmail was no longer indexed, and I could
not open files using krunner. I either got only the option to

Go to http://fpcpl_2014.xls/

or the file was not found at all.

So I reinstalled package 'baloo', and caused a re-indexing using

Remove your baloorc file (typically in ~/.kde/share/config/baloorc), and then restart akonadi via akonadictl restart.

This fixed the email indexing, but the file problem persists.

I also see:

$ balooctl status
Baloo File Indexer is running
Indexed 6640 / 6641 files
Failed to index 1 files
File IDs: 689

All of the plugins in krunner are enabled.

What did I break, and how can I fix it?

in krunner options do you have a "desktop search" and "nepomuk Desktop search" ?

Yes, I have both, and both are enabled.

does search work in Dolphin? in the places panel (F9) the "search for" section at the panel's bottom works?

try disabling the Nepomuk search in krunner

Yes, searching works in Dolphin, and finds files that krunner does not.

Disabling the Nepomuk search in krunner has no effect; behavior same as previous.

does file /usr/lib/kde4/krunner_baloosearchrunner.so exist? it should be part of baloo package ?

does search work in milou (you may need to install it) ?

does it work for a new user ?

try renaming ~/.kde/share/config/krunnerrc

ps - I'm out of ideas

does file /usr/lib/kde4/krunner_baloosearchrunner.so exist? it should be part of baloo package ?

Yes.

does search work in milou (you may need to install it) ?

Yes, and that's a cool tool I didn't know about -- thanks!

does it work for a new user ?

Yes. (hmmmm...)

try renaming ~/.kde/share/config/krunnerrc

No change.

ps - I'm out of ideas

Thanks for trying. And milou looks so handy that I may just have to re-train my muscle memory to use it instead

since it works for a new user it seems that there's an issue somewhere in an rc file of yours

the krunner process is always active so check and see if renaming krunner actually created a new & different rc file then kill and restart krunner (might need a restart)

Yeah, I forgot to kill the krunner process last time. Duh!

So I killed krunner, deleted krunnerrc, and restarted krunner process.

Now krunner works properly and finds files as it should. The curious thing is that it did not generate a new krunnerrc file. It must be running off of default settings.

Thanks again!