Kdenlive playhead doesn’t reposition on Linux

Posted on by rcragun

I use Kdenlive for editing videos when I have the occasional need to edit videos.  In recent versions of Kdenlive (e.g., 17.07.70), I have been running into a problem that has been driving me crazy.  The line that runs across the timeline editor, which is called the “playhead,” has been freezing in place.  I could click on a location and that location would show up in the Project Monitor one time, but when I tried to click anywhere else in the editor or move the playhead, it wouldn’t move.  It would stay where it was.  This made Kdenlive unusable.

Here’s a video illustrating the problem:

It took forever to find the solution to the problem, and the solution reveals that this is a bug in this version of kdenlive.  Apparently what is causing the problem is having multiple processor threads turned on in the settings in kdenlive.  Go to Settings -> Configure Kdenlive.  You’ll get this window:

Go to the Environment tab and you’ll see this:

If you’re having this problem, you’ve probably got your Processing threads variable set to something other than 1.  I had mine set to 8, thinking the 8 core cpu I have would speed up the editing process for 4k video.  As it notes in the screenshot, any threads above 1 is experimental.  By experimental, I guess the Kdenlive developers really mean “unusable.”

To solve the playhead not being movable problem, set the Processing threads variable to 1 (I tried other values as well, and only 1 works).  Hit OK.

Then restart Kdenlive. You should now be able to drag your playhead around again and edit videos, like this:

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Linux: Getting “Find” working in Dolphin on KDE (Linux Mint and Kubuntu)

Posted on by rcragun

One of the reasons I switched to KDE from Gnome was Dolphin, the file manager that ships with KDE.  When I made the switch a couple of years ago, the Find feature in KDE worked really well.  But some time in the last couple of years, the two distributions I’ve been using – Kubuntu and Linux Mint KDE – haven’t had the Find feature working from the base install.  I’ve muddled along without that feature for about two years (I don’t always need it, but there have been a few times when I really did need it and it didn’t work).  I finally figured out how to get it working.  It has to be one of the most ridiculously broken elements of Linux I’ve ever discovered as the solution is convoluted and counter-intuitive.

To begin with, from the base install in Dolphin, here is the Find button:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE

If you click it, it will open a find dialogue in the location bar at the top of Dolphin:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

If you try to find something, you’ll get an error message that says, “Invalid protocol” that looks like this:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

Dolphin has done that for the last two or three years or so, which means I haven’t been able to use this very basic feature of the file manager.

If you look around for advice on how to fix this, you’ll get mired in a bunch of forums that suggest different things about “baloo,” the new search program in KDE (that replaced Nepomuk, the failed, processor-hungry semantic search engine that no one really liked).  Here’s the problem with “baloo”: it’s not installed by default in Linux Mint KDE or Kubuntu.  That’s actually fine if you don’t need this search feature.  But, and here’s the convoluted part of this, you don’t actually use baloo for the search function in Dolphin.  However, you have to install it in order to enable the search function in Dolphin to work, but then turn baloo off.  Seriously!  It’s rather absurd and broken at the moment.

Here’s what you have to do.  First, install baloo4 from synaptic:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

If you try the search function now, it still won’t work.  Dolphin won’t give you the error message anymore, but it also won’t find anything.  It just gives you an empty page of results, regardless of what you search for.  But, installing baloo does something that makes enabling the Find feature possible.  If you open up System Settings, you’ll see a new icon that wasn’t there before – Desktop Search:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

We’ll return to that System Setting option in a minute.

Next, go back to Synaptic and install the following packages: kde-baseapps, systemsettings (probably already installed), and kfind (also probably already installed).

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

You can still try searching in Dolphin after you’ve done this, but it won’t work.  There is one more completely counter-intuitive step.  Once you’ve installed kde-baseapps (and the other two packages), go back to the System Settings window and click on the new Desktop Search icon.  There is a check box below the window where you can exclude locations that says “Enable Desktop Search.”  Uncheck it and click “Apply”:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

Now, try searching in Dolphin and, voila, it works:

enabling find function in Dolphin in KDE
(click for full size)

This fix for the Find feature in a basic program in KDE is completely counter-intuitive.  In sum, in order to turn on the “search” feature, you have to install a package that you aren’t going to use, install another package that you are going to use, and then turn off the first package (baloo).  Why?  Why?  Why?

KDE programmers – I love your software!  I really, really, do.  But this makes no sense.  Can you please decide on a file/folder search solution, install it by default, and then make it a simple click of a button to turn it on or off?  This should not be anywhere close to this complicated!

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