SVG and PNG files "disappears" after editing a copy of it. Endless "Loading" cycling indicator is displayed...

[SebastJava]

 * Nemo version: nemo 4.6.5 at first, now 4.8.4
 * Issue with windowed nemo
 * Distribution: Linux Mint Cinnamon 20 at first, now 20.1
 * GPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
 * Graphics Driver: i915
 * 64 bit architecture

Similar to #2628, #2623, #2621, #1922
Other similar issues on this page. Please scroll down.
Update: I also did some similar steps like the ones listed here, but using the Drawing application to create and modify a PNG file. So this bug is not limited to Inkscape and applies to both SVG and PNG files, and maybe others too.

Issue
I create a simple SVG file and make a copy. Then i edit this copy. Then i open the directory to see it, but my edited copy is apparently lost, and there is a "Loading" cycling image that keeps being displayed.

Steps to reproduce
NOTE 1: MAKE SURE YOU NEVER CLOSE NEMO during all the following steps.
NOTE 2: Please do the following file operations using only Nemo GUI. Think like an artist. Keep it simple.

1. Create a new directory, e.g.: ~/test-XX
2. Create a filled circle using Inkscape. (Version 1.0.1, but version 0.x probably does the same.)
3. Save it into your new test directory (~/test-XX/circle.svg).
4. Using Nemo, duplicate this SVG file: select it, then click Edit > Duplicate.
5. Open your duplicated ~/test-XX/circle (copy).svg in Inkscape. Don’t edit and save yet. WAIT.
6. Make sure the thumbnails were generated in Nemo GUI. You saw the original circle thumbnail and it was okay. You also saw the duplicated circle thumbnail and it was okay.
7. Now, go to the parent directory (just click on the "up" arrow) so you don’t see your duplicated circle in Nemo, you hide it, but without closing Nemo! (OR, alternately, you could have closed the Nemo window, as long as there was another Nemo window opened so you NEVER quit and restart Nemo...)
8. Using Inkscape, change this duplicated circle fill to another color. Save it.
9. Open this test directory. See? Your edited copy disappeared and Nemo looks like being stuck in an endless loading cycle...

Getting out of this directory and then back again solves this. It is solved easily, but this can happen frequently and so it is really bothering.

Expected behaviour
I would expect to see my file with is name and a small thumbnail.

Actual behavior
My file disappeared!

[Jeremy7701]

A comment...
For me, Inkscape produces a file of MimeType=image/svg+xml and this gets a proper thumbnail/icon allocated.

The relevant thumbnailer program would appear to be /usr/share/thumbnailers/librsvg.thumbnailer,
which contains

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Exec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
MimeType=image/svg+xml;image/svg+xml-compressed;

However, I do not have a gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer - so some other mimetype entry + thumbnailer program must be creating my thumbnails...

[SebastJava]

@Jeremy7701
Please check steps 6, 7, 8. Make sure, as soon as you double-clicked this circle.svg copy in the ~/test/inner folder to open it, move to the parent directory so you do not see the circle.svg copy in Nemo. You must do this before changing and saving this circle.svg copy.

I will (try to) check if i got the same

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Exec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
MimeType=image/svg+xml;image/svg+xml-compressed;

as yours.

[SebastJava]

@Jeremy7701
I tried a quick check to see if i have the same tech specs as yours...

1. Right-click > Properties: Type: Image (image/svg+xml) = same as yours, right ?
2. I have this /usr/share/thumbnailers/librsvg.thumbnailer too, and the content is the same as yours:

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Exec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
MimeType=image/svg+xml;image/svg+xml-compressed;

3. I typed gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer --help in the Terminal and i received some helping options, so i guess it means this thing is working here... right?

[SebastJava]

@Jeremy7701
Here i try a lucky guess. I don’t understand much of what follows, and it is probably irrelevant.

I randomly found this little file: /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Here is the whole content:

[Thumbnailer Entry]
TryExec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Exec=/usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
MimeType=image/png;image/bmp;image/x-bmp;image/x-MS-bmp;image/gif;image/x-icon;image/x-ico;image/x-win-bitmap;image/vnd.microsoft.icon;application/ico;image/ico;image/icon;text/ico;application/x-navi-animation;image/jpeg;image/x-portable-anymap;image/x-portable-bitmap;image/x-portable-graymap;image/x-portable-pixmap;image/tiff;image/x-xpixmap;image/x-xbitmap;image/x-tga;image/x-icns;image/x-quicktime;image/qtif;

There are lots of different MimeType listed there, but no svg.
Does this means anything to you?

[SebastJava]

Similar issue with PNG files

I knew it! I did the exact same procedure, all the steps listed here on top, but using this simple Drawing application instead. No Inkscape. No SVG, but a PNG instead. Just a very simple image: a circle and a square. I end up with the exact same result ! So this bug is not limited to Inkscape.

[SebastJava]

Another very similar issue

@Jeremy7701 @cschreib You could also try this strange little variant if you’ve got time...

Issue
I create a simple SVG file using Inkscape. I take a look at the thumbnail in Nemo. Then i edit this SVG file using nano from the Terminal. Then i open the directory again to appreciate the change, but there is apparently nothing there, and there is a "Loading" cycling image that keeps being displayed.

Steps to reproduce
NOTE 1: MAKE SURE YOU NEVER CLOSE NEMO OR ANY NEMO WINDOW during all the following steps.
NOTE 2: (UNNECESSARY?) IF YOU TRY THIS MORE THAN ONCE, maybe you should make sure you never put the same filename. This to avoid any possible cache memory trick? I am not sure this is necessary, but i take the extra precaution to name my new files with the current time, without using spaces or weird characters. Example: circle-21-01-08-15-16.svg

1. Create a new directory, e.g.: ~/test-XX
2. Create a filled circle using Inkscape. (Version 1.0.1, but version 0.x probably does the same.)
3. Save it into your new directory: ~/test-XX/circle-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX.svg. Quit Inkscape.
4. Look at your file’s thumbnail in your test directory. The thumbnail is okay. (Do nothing, just make sure the initial thumbnail got generated just by looking at it...)
5. Move up to the parent directory so your SVG file is not displayed anymore in Nemo, but without closing the window!
6. FROM THE TERMINAL, open this SVG file in NANO. Example: ~/test-015$ nano circle-21-01-08-23-43.svg
7. With NANO, do a simple change to the image, e.g.: change the fill color (line 55). Example, to change from red to orange, replace #ff0000 with #ff8000. Save (^O + [Enter] key). Close (^X).
8. Open this test directory again. See? No file is displayed and Nemo looks like being stuck in an endless loading cycle...

Getting out of this directory and then back again solves this. It is solved easily, but this can happen frequently and so it is really bothering.

You don’t want to mess around with Inkscape? You could try to copy-paste this and Save it to ~/test-001/circle-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX.svg:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<svg
   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
   xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
   xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd"
   xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape"
   inkscape:version="1.0.1 (1.0.1+r74)"
   id="svg8"
   version="1.1"
   viewBox="0 0 285.74999 285.75"
   height="1080"
   width="1080"
   sodipodi:docname="circle-21-01-08-23-43.svg">
  <defs
     id="defs2" />
  <sodipodi:namedview
     units="px"
     showgrid="true"
     inkscape:document-rotation="0"
     inkscape:current-layer="layer1"
     inkscape:document-units="px"
     inkscape:cy="560"
     inkscape:cx="400"
     inkscape:zoom="0.35"
     inkscape:pageshadow="2"
     inkscape:pageopacity="0.0"
     borderopacity="1.0"
     bordercolor="#666666"
     pagecolor="#ffffff"
     id="base">
    <inkscape:grid
       type="xygrid"
       id="grid830" />
  </sodipodi:namedview>
  <metadata
     id="metadata5">
    <rdf:RDF>
      <cc:Work
         rdf:about="">
        <dc:format>image/svg+xml</dc:format>
        <dc:type
           rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" />
        <dc:title></dc:title>
      </cc:Work>
    </rdf:RDF>
  </metadata>
  <g
     id="layer1"
     inkscape:groupmode="layer"
     inkscape:label="Layer 1">
    <circle
       style="fill:#ff0000;stroke-width:0"
       id="path831"
       cx="142.875"
       cy="142.875"
       r="142.875" />
  </g>
</svg>

[Jeremy7701]

It seems my configuration is quite different to yours.
I tried the text editor method and got a svg file - but with a generic SVG thumbnail (a kind of S shape).
Editing the colour gave a proper orange dot and I can't make it go wrong again.

Tried gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer --help and got:-

Command 'gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin

I installed the [small] package and the thumbnailing went into a loop - so I restarted nemo via 'nemo --quit' and all is OK now.
So I now have a fully functional thumbnailer.
I can't make it fail now.

/usr/share/thumbnailers/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer.thumbnailer includes a mimetype entry for image/png files.

[SebastJava]

@Jeremy7701

the thumbnailing went into a loop

Are you saying you finally succeeded in getting the same bug as i am describing above?

Then i open the directory to see it, but there is apparently nothing there, and there is a "Loading" cycling image that keeps being displayed.

(See screenshot on top of this page)
And, of course, you can't make it go wrong again. Yes, i said that before.

Getting out of this directory and then back again solves this. It is solved easily, but this can happen frequently and so it is really bothering.

But, of course you can make it go wrong again, just repeat all the steps, one by one, in correct order, as described above. Don’t forget to use a new, unique filename. There are many variants available. And this is not an edge case. I am trying to clinically, systematically reproduce things so it fails everytime, it fails once and then it is okay, but it will fail again when you do the entire thing again.

Practically, in real life, i was making little coloured squares for colour comparisons. I made many, many different versions. So some files were duplicated. Some files were renamed. Etcetera. All these casual operations led to "crashed" thumbnails. It is quite frustrating to be unsure whether you successfully saved 3 hours of work or not. Especially when this work is about doing some much needed improvements on the Mint-Y theme, which in turn should improve Nemo’s look. But then you see Nemo not being able to display your files and it’s demotivating.

[SebastJava]

@Jeremy7701 The "Steps to reproduce" on the first issue, on top of this page, just got updated to mention you should have seen the thumbnails being properly generated before attempting to change the SVG file. I will re-test this whole procedure again, now.

[SebastJava]

Re-tested again, with the now more detailed instructions on first issue on top of this page. As expected, again, the thumbnail for the ~/test-XXX/inner/circle-YY-MM-DD-HH-MM.svg does not appear, like i apparently lost my file, and there is some sort of endless loop going on, visually speaking...

But, as said before:

Getting out of this directory and then back again solves this. It is solved easily, but this can happen frequently and so it is really bothering.

[Jeremy7701]

I was more careful in followed your instructions this time.
So I was able to reproduce this bug.

Even if the thumbnailer fails, I'd expect to see the filename.

[SebastJava]

I upgraded from Linux Mint Cinnamon 20 to the new 20.1 today.

This bug with the thumbnails is still there.

My computer got totally cleaned a few months ago, had a fresh install with Mint 20, and now got automatically upgraded to Mint 20.1.