Relatively new KDE user here, wondering if there's something very obvious I'm missing.

So in Dolphin (and every other graphical file browser on the planet), in order to open a folder (with the keyboard), you press Enter with the folder highlighted.

This works in the KDE save dialogue as well.

Except, in a KDE dialogue, Enter does the default dialogue action: in this case, saves the file in the current folder and closes the dialogue.

The effect of both of these seem to be that, at the moment, it opens the folder you've selected and immediately saves in there.

At first, I assumed that there must be some other keyboard shortcut you can use to open a folder that won't also save and close the dialogue. None to be found in the Dolphin 'configure shortcuts' menu -- and it's not even on the context menu, so you can't use the menu key. Next I thought that maybe there was some way of stopping Enter from doing the default action on the dialogue -- after all, you can always use Alt+S to do it. No luck with that either.

So as far as I can tell, there's no way to navigate through folders in the Save dialogue using only the keyboard. Which *can't* be the case -- I can't be the only person who likes using the keyboard, given how good KDE's keyboard shortcut configurability is. Which means I'm missing something obvious. Anyone?

Thanks in advance...

It shouldn't behave like that. Or at least it doesn't for me. I just tried just in case (using Kate).

I hit ctrl-s (a new document so no previous filename). The file dialogue pops up starting in /home/user/. I hit the first-letter of the folder and hits return. The new folder opens up. I repeat that for a subfolder, again the folder opens up. Same thing works if I the highlight around with the cursor keys. Now I'm where I want to save the file.

I hit tab to select the "Name" field, and gives a filename and hits return. NOW it saves.

Is that more like how you expect it to work?

Kryten2X4B wrote:It shouldn't behave like that. Or at least it doesn't for me. ... Is that more like how you expect it to work?

Indeed it is.

So that's... Even more weird then.

I've just tried again, and very definitely get different behaviour to you. Pressing return with a folder in the folder list active, selected, and focussed enters the folder and simultaneously saves and exists the dialogue.

So it's... My computer? But how? I've just been through Dolphin settings again, and can't see anything that would affect this. And what other setting *could* affect it? It's an absolutely vanilla KDE installation. (The only big thing changed is replacing KWin by compiz, since KWin for some reason was dead slow for me -- but a window manager shouldn't affect something like this, surely).

Any ideas? Thanks...

SEMW wrote:So it's... My computer? But how? I've just been through Dolphin settings
again, and can't see anything that would affect this.

You can forget about finding the solution there, since it seems to me to be a
more generic problem than one app behaving oddly. Especially since it's the
file-selector that's not behaving properly and not Dolphin.

SEMW wrote:And what other setting *could* affect it? It's an absolutely
vanilla KDE installation. (The only big thing changed is replacing KWin by
compiz, since KWin for some reason was dead slow for me -- but a window manager
shouldn't affect something like this, surely).

Compiz shouldn't affect it no, but I don't have Compiz installed so I can't check.
Maybe try switching temporarily to kwin just to check? I know, it's a longshot.

Other than that, the only place I can think of where there may be a messed-up
configuration somewhere is in:

System-Settings->Keyboard & Mouse->Keyboard or Standard Keyboard Shortcuts or
Global keyboard shortcuts.

I've looked but I can't see anything that should affect your system in this
manner. Global keyboard shortcuts is probably the most likely candidate,
but the shortcuts there should have a modifying key as well so just cursor-left
for instance shouldn't trigger anything there.

Hm, maybe "Keyboard repeat" in "Keyboard" is set to too sensitive values so your keypresses
registers as several?

Edited to add: what if you try the same under a freshly created user? Alternatively rename .kde (or .kde4, whatever Arch names it) to something else temporarily to get a fresh start on KDE. Note that if you want to try the renaming solution, you need to be logged out of KDE when you rename the directory.

Compiz shouldn't affect it no, but I don't have Compiz installed so I can't check.
Maybe try switching temporarily to kwin just to check? I know, it's a longshot.

Just tried that; no dice.

Global keyboard shortcuts is probably the most likely candidate ... Hm, maybe "Keyboard repeat" in "Keyboard" is set to too sensitive values so your keypresses registers as several?

Just gone through both; neither Stand nor Global have any shortcuts set which involve Return. (I have had a previous problem with global shortcuts -- alt-space doesn't show the window menu, despite being set to in both compiz settings and global shortcuts -- but I don't see how that could be related to the problem here). And no, it's not keyboard repeat (I've had no repeating problems generally; and to confirm I switched it off: no dice).

I'll try your 'rename .kde4' idea tomorrow (it's 20 to 1 in the morning over here). And, come to think of it, KDESC4.5 should hit the repos tomorrow; who knows, maybe upgrading to that will fix it...

Thanks for all your help with this.

Alright. I tried renaming my .kde4 folder (as root from a tty, after logging out); and on logging back in and trying again -- the problem remains. (On logging back out, reverting the change, and logging back in again, I found that 2 plasma widgets had randomly disappeared, but oh well, plasma is plasma...)

So it's nothing to do with any settings I've changed, then. Hm.

I don't suppose it could be a KDE bug that's not appearing for you because OpenSUSE's patched it? I didn't think so, since the behaviour I'm seeing is so clearly incorrect that I can't see upstream not accepting the patch, but maybe it's just a matter of timing, and it'll be fixed in upstream 4.5?

In any case, I'm going to be away from my home computer from the next two weeks; so I'll find out whether it's that in a fortnight's time (by which time 4.5 will be in the Arch repos; it's not yet). Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

SEMW wrote:I don't suppose it could be a KDE bug that's not appearing for you because OpenSUSE's patched it? I didn't think so, since the behaviour I'm seeing is so clearly incorrect that I can't see upstream not accepting the patch, but maybe it's just a matter of timing, and it'll be fixed in upstream 4.5?

I guess it's possible (SUSE does patch things), but in this case I find it extremely unlikely. Partially because of what you say about the clearly incorrect behavior, and partially because the behavior I experience I've seen all the way back to 4.0.4. Mostly on SUSE to be granted, but in Kubuntu and Debian as well.

Sorry I couldn't help you fix it, but right now I'm fresh out of ideas of what could be the problem.

Just checked on Vanilla KDE Trunk, and could not reproduce. Can you reproduce under a new user?

Have now returned from my travels, and updated to KDE 4.5 -- and the problem disappeared; the 4.5 save dialogue works as expected. Many thanks to Kryten2X4B and whatever anonymous KDE contributor silently fixed whatever bug it was.

Simon