This appears to be Chrome specific but it's a KDE issue.

Issue: Google chrome opens but it downloads the chrome executable

Steps to reproduce:

Enable "Show a launcher when not running" for google-chrome, close Chrome and re-open it from the launcher.

Chrome will now open, but it will open and download the file: file:///opt/google/chrome/chrome

I've found the file which references this: ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc in the section [Containments][3][Applets][13][Configuration][DockManager] however I'm unable to make changes to this in Kate as it puts in extra line breaks.

What do I need to change in order to get the normal chrome startup behaviour?

Thanks

I found Chromium behaves better for me than Chrome and I can't replicate your problem using it, would that be acceptable if it fixed the download issue?

Not sure what you mean by "download the file", you mean it repopulates that one file from the web?

what versions of KDE and Chrome are you using?

By download the file I mean that when I click the Google Chrome icon, it correctly runs goolge-chrome but it seems to open it with a URL parameter. As soon as it's open it's as if a URL has been provided, once opened it automatically navigates to: file:///opt/google/chrome/chrome and it will download the chrome executable. It does this whenever I click icon in the launcher.

I can guess what the issue is, if you run directly run
# google-chrome foo/bar

it will open google chrome and navigate to foo/bar. For some reason google-chrome is being given the path to its own executable as its first argument.

I'm using Chrome 31.0 and KDE 4.11 on Linux Mint 15.


This doesn't happen when launching google-chrome from the menu. It also doesn't happen if I add a standard launcher by right clicking chrome in the menu and selecting "Add to panel". However, this is a standalone launcher and I like the merged icon/task manager from Icon Only Task Manager.

re: line breaks try: settings -> configure Kate -> Editor Component -> Open/Save -> Line Length Limit, change to 0 (unlimited)

do you have this issue with other task managers? specifically the default one

Ok I've tested further and discovered:

1) The normal task switcher does the same thing.
2) It isn't only google chrome, mysql-workbench is also affected
3) Chrome opens because it's the default browser and it's a file:/// URI being launched, so when I try to use "Show a launcher when not running" with MySQL Workbench, I click it, it opens Chrome and navigates to the URI file:///usr/lib/mysql-workbench/bin/mysql-workbench-bin (so mysql-workbench-bin never actually runs)
4) Some programs (E.g. Thunderbird and Kate) are fine

This is only an issue with the "Show a launcher when not running" option. Adding a launcher via right clicking items in the menu and choosing "Add to panel" works as expected, however these behave differently.

Edit: Could it be something to do with chrome being associated with file:// URIs? What is the default? And how do I set the association with a URI protocol? (I never changed it, but maybe installing Chrome did?)

edit2: It seems to be the same issue mentioned here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/367118/h ... g-a-in-kde and here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/340040/k ... ing-option

My only difference is that I do have an application associated with file:/// so I get a different issue with the same cause.

I think the issue is that the launcher runs a file:/// URI instead of just running the command. I'll remove the file:/// prefix and see if it fixes it.

URI's? not familiar with them

associations are config'ed in systemsettings -> file associations ->

still think you should try Chromium

Unfortunately using Chromium won't fix it for other applications (such as Zend Studio or MySQL Workbench) which have the same issues.

There doesn't seem to be anything configured specifically for file:/// uris.

this looks appropriate https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=327948, if so suggest you comment and vote

note: bug reporters and you seem to be *buntu based (small sample but ...), could it be a distro specific bug?

Thanks, it does seem to be a bug. I'd actually filed my own report shortly before you posted.

However, after some digging around and trial and error, I discovered a workaround (which seems to work for all applications!)



In the file: ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc

Go to the section:

[Containments][3][Applets][25][Configuration][Launchers]

It has a line for Items=

(If you added chrome there's a looooooong line under that for Chrome=. Delete the entire line)


The items line is a CSV string and will include a section that says:

file:///opt/google/chrome/chrome?wmClass=google-chrome-stable

Replace that with:

file:///usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop?wmClass=Google-chrome-stable




and it fixes it!

Just find the .desktop file (or create one) for the buggy launcher and replace the entry in plasma-desktop-appletsrc