For several months now, Dolphin’s behavior when working with two panels has changed for the worse.
I’ve always worked with two panels open. Before, I could right-click on a file in any panel and bring up the context menu. Now, you have to “activate” the panel first, and then you can right-click on an item and bring up the context menu. In other words, it’s no longer intuitive at all; it’s a huge step backward. Furthermore, to “activate” a panel, you have to click on the path (if it’s not in edit mode).
To make matters worse, if you access a path from the left “Places” panel, it doesn’t open in the panel you were browsing in, but in the active panel. And this happens with each new selection in the left panel; it alternates which panel it’s displayed in. What used to be intuitive now requires a trial-and-error learning process that, in my opinion, makes absolutely no sense.
Just tested it in 25.12.3 and that’s definitely not the case, or I didn’t understand the problem correctly. Right clicking a file in the inactive pane opens the context menu instantly for me, anyway.
And I definitely don’t understand this one. How is dolphin supposed to know which panel you’re “browsing” in? Where’s the logic that defines that? Would that not just make one panel “browsable” and the other one static? Browsing in the active one seems like the sensible way I’d expect it to work, but I’ll admit I’m not a heavy multi-panel user.
Ah, it could well be a focus issue - but I’d definitely say it’s your settings… but it could be a lot more.
I see a pattern here, in another thread you stated that the context menu no longer appears (as it does for me) targeting it’s top left corner to the tip of the cursor, but avoiding extending offscreen.
Action!
Test with a fresh user, and then perhaps some troubleshooting with some extra detail.
Legibility Tip
Summary
When posting terminal output, copy the output and paste it here, wrapped in three (3) backticks, before AND after the pasted text. Like this:
```
pasted text
```
Or three (3) tilde signs, like this:
~~~
pasted text
~~~
Alternatively, select all pasted text, and click the </> button on the taskbar - which will indent the whole pasted section with one TAB, causing it to render the same way as described above.
inxi -zv8
journalctl -p3 -xb --no-hostname
Mostly, I would expect it’s likely that a fresh USER could eliminiate 99.0% of your current woes
I’m confused at your description.
I would expect selecting an item from Places should open it in the ACTIVE panel, so it’s important to make sure this is clear enough (as many themes render the difference rather too subtle).
Hitting ⇥ tab switches the active pane.
There is currently a lot of focus (perhaps not the right word in this case) by the KDE Developers on the topic of ‘focus’… that actions should always apply to items or panes that are in focus, or active.
Certainly I found that Dolphin has not degraded, and combined with the F4 terminal popup it is a complete beast of an application.
In the terminal, you can visit a location, and that’s mirrored in the ACTIVE panel.
Try this for size (start with ONE pane) - if you have zoxide installed it’s helpful:
F4conf
Now the .config folder is loaded, close the terminal and activate the second pane… F4F3
So now you can ‘z’ jump (or cd) to ANY location you’ve already visited, and proceed to manage files as you wish.
Remember, TAB switches sides, and from what you’re describing with your current behaviour, I’d say your system is suffering from many issues in your home folder.
Further questions:
Is this a native and clean KDE Plasma install, or do you have other environments installed?
Just what do you have installed anyway?
Do you have snapshots?
Do you have a regular (incremental maybe) backup regime?
Do you like CheezBurgerz? (sorry, couldn’t resist).
Thank you for all the help and information you’ve provided. I’m updating the information I posted earlier. Since I usually upgrade every 1 or 2 weeks, I updated both computers again and tested everything I mentioned—which is what prompted this thread. After the update, it seems everything is working as it did before. I don’t know if it was a regression, a bug… I have no idea, but it’s working as it did before.
I am human, my response is guided by my experience… sadly as I didn’t have experience with you before I lacked the experience necessary to realise it would be wasted effort.
There aren’t any other kinds of people in here - no bots.
But thanks for the heads up, I’ll remember your name as one to ignore.
Legibility Tip
