Yes, this is the same problem. KDE thinks that any NFS or SMB folder is «slow» and that's why it doesn't show icons inside such folders. I believe the developers should make it changeable through a config file, but they haven't.

If you want any SMB folder to work like a «fast» (not «slow») drive, you can download kdelibs sources, change this line in kio/kio/kfileitem.cpp:

m_slow = (fsType == KFileSystemType::Nfs || fsType == KFileSystemType::Smb) ? Slow : Fast;

to something like this:

m_slow = (fsType == KFileSystemType::Nfs) ? Slow : Fast;

or, maybe, even this:

m_slow = Fast; // EVERY drive is fast enough!

and compile kdelibs with make and sudo make install.

I don't know a more easy way to get icons shown.

hmm... i see.. but i think of it more like a bug.. dolphin counts the subdirectories on my remote shares.. THAT really takes some time and should be turned of on "slow" devices.. not reading a simple desktop file makes no sense - especially on local area networks with 100 or 1000 mbits..

Someone knows if the developers leave ntfs drives as "fast" ones?, I ask this because here, at work (opensuse) my external hd (ntfs) shows the icon that I set in .desktop a lot of time ago (before this "bug"), and at home (kubuntu 12.04) doesn't show them.
I think will be great if the developers leave this like an option for the user (something like "always show customized icon", "don't show c. icon at filesystem x", etc.)

Unfortunately, NTFS operates via FUSE, so it is considered a slow file system.
All FUSE filesystems are considered to be of the type "KFileSystemType::Nfs" and are considered to be "slow" per the above code.

Bcooksley you are using openSUSE, right?, Don't know if the openSUSE developers leave the NTFS filesystem like "fast" or something like that, but, this distro is showing the custom icon for folders in the NTFS filesystem.
At kubuntu isn't the same, the custom icons doesn't show if the folder is in a NTFS filesystem.
Don't know yet if the KDE version of openSUSE is the same Kubuntu's one.
If I apply the "manual patch" described before on kubuntu, is safe to do it?
Regards.

It is perfectly safe to apply the previously mentioned manual patch.
I use self-compiled KDE at this point in time, so I cannot compare against the KDE distributed by openSUSE. It is possible that they patch KDE, however it is also possible that they use a more native method of mounting NTFS partitions (although this doesn't seem to be the case, at least on openSUSE 12.1).

I'm using openSUSE 12.1 (KDE 4.9.5)
Thanks for the advice, I'll apply the patch soon on Kubuntu (if they don't apply before)

greatperson wrote:If you want any SMB folder to work like a «fast» (not «slow») drive, you can download kdelibs sources, change this line in kio/kio/kfileitem.cpp:

m_slow = (fsType == KFileSystemType::Nfs || fsType == KFileSystemType::Smb) ? Slow : Fast;

to something like this:

m_slow = (fsType == KFileSystemType::Nfs) ? Slow : Fast;

or, maybe, even this:

m_slow = Fast; // EVERY drive is fast enough!

and compile kdelibs with make and sudo make install.

I don't know a more easy way to get icons shown.

This doesn't seem to work (anymore?). I have changed the line to "m_slow = Fast;" as per instruction above, rebuilt kdelibs, rebuilt kdebase, rebooted the OS, no icons on any smb drives. This is with kdebase 14.12.3 and kdelibs 4.14.6

Anyone?