Dolphin: forcing keys that the app itself rewrites¶

home/apps/dolphin.nix.

Why an activation script and not a managed file¶

Dolphin REWRITES its KConfig at runtime, so an immutable home-manager symlink would break the other prefs (window size and so on). Instead of managing the file, an activation script forces ONLY the keys we want, idempotently, and leaves the rest mutable.

The same reasoning applies to the Places panel: Dolphin rewrites user-places.xbel at runtime (mounting a disk, adding a place), so a symlink would fight it and freeze your places.

A new place is APPENDED to the list in the module, never inserted, and that is not cosmetic: the KDE <ID> is built from the entry's INDEX, so an entry slipped into the middle would be written with an id that a bookmark already in my xbel is using. The insert itself is guarded by PATH, so the older bookmarks are never rewritten to make room.

Check the icon at 22px before choosing it. In the Win11 theme several folder-* names are SYMLINKS to action icons at that size: folder-library lands on an institution and folder-book on an address book, so both stop looking like folders in the panel. folder-database, which the Context place uses, is a real icon at 22 and in scalable.

"Always Details" is two keys¶

dolphinrc [General] GlobalViewProps=true                      -> the same mode in EVERY folder
view_properties/global/.directory [Dolphin] ViewMode=1        -> 1 = Details

THE VALUE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE MENU ORDER. It was 2 here from 18/07 to 07/08/2026 and the effect was Compact: the pin worked, it just pointed at the wrong mode, and being immutable, switching to Details in the session never stuck.

The enum is DolphinView::Mode (src/views/dolphinview.h): 0 = Icons, 1 = Details, 2 = Compact. The menu lists Icons/Compact/Details (Ctrl+1/2/3), which is a DIFFERENT order, and the kcfg's whatsthis makes it worse by calling 2 "column" (Compact's old name). Check the source header, never the menu and never the kcfg.

Why `ViewMode` goes in immutable¶

As ViewMode[$i]=1, KConfig's kiosk marker. This is not fussiness.

Since 26.04 Dolphin stores the view properties in a directory xattr (user.kde.fm.viewproperties#1) and treats the .directory as legacy, so its save() calls cleanDotDirectoryFile(), which deletes the [Dolphin] and [Settings] groups and then DELETES the file if nothing is left (viewproperties.cpp).

Only the marker survives that: KConfig refuses the removal, the group does not end up empty, and the file stays. And since the .directory takes precedence over the xattr on READ, it is the declarative anchor. Dolphin even copies the [$i] into the xattr on the first save.

The other props (sorting, columns, thumbnails) stay mutable. Changing the mode in the session works, it just does not persist.

The three-branch guard¶

kwriteconfig6 does not know how to write the [$i] marker, so it writes the normal key (which creates and positions the right group) and sed promotes it to immutable. The guard is MANDATORY: over an already immutable key kwriteconfig6 exits 2, and the activation runs with set -e, so it would abort the rest of home-manager. The three cases are: already right, already immutable but with ANOTHER value (the 2 to 1 case, rewritten with sed), and not there yet.

It is a FUNCTION (immutableViewProp group key value) and not inline text, because there are two keys taking this path now and the second one would have been ten lines copied with a name swapped.

Hidden files, always on¶

[Settings] HiddenFilesShown[$i]=true, in the same global .directory. It is a VIEW PROPERTY and not a dolphinrc key (dolphin_directoryviewpropertysettings.kcfg declares it under [Settings]), so with GlobalViewProps=true the global file is what answers for every folder.

IT HAS TO BE IMMUTABLE, for a harder reason than ViewMode's: cleanDotDirectoryFile() deletes [Dolphin] AND [Settings], both named in the group test (viewproperties.cpp), so a mutable HiddenFilesShown would be erased on the first save() and the file would go back to carrying only the ViewMode marker. Ctrl+H still works during the session, it just does not persist, which is exactly what "always on" means.

"Open Terminal Here" opens kitty¶

kdeglobals [General] TerminalApplication=kitty, forced by its own activation because KDE rewrites that file (the same pattern as [Icons] Theme in home/desktop/theme.nix, which is the other writer of the same file, each one owning its own key).

WITH NO KEY THE ACTION IS NOT DEAD, WHICH IS WORSE THAN DEAD. KTerminalLauncherJob walks TerminalService (a desktop id), then TerminalApplication (an exec string), then the org.kde.konsole service, then konsole and finally xterm on PATH (kio/src/gui/kterminallauncherjob.cpp). Konsole is not installed here, so it landed on xterm, and what looked like a broken Dolphin on 19/08/2026 was a WHITE XTERM tiled next to it by Hyprland.

TerminalApplication and not TerminalService: the exec string needs no ksycoca lookup, and a TerminalService that fails to resolve does NOT fall back to TerminalApplication, it drops straight into the konsole/xterm chain, so it would fail the same silent way. THE BARE NAME and never a store path: kdeglobals is mutable and outlives the generation that wrote it, so a pinned /nix/store/... would break on the first GC.

The working directory needs no argument. Dolphin calls setWorkingDirectory() (dolphinmainwindow.cpp, openTerminalJob) and KIO::CommandLauncherJob sets the process cwd, so kitty opens in the folder with no --working-directory. Only konsole gets a --workdir there, and that is why the fallback chain looked like it worked for everyone else.

The F4 TERMINAL PANEL is a different mechanism and this key does not reach it: it embeds a konsolepart (Konsole's KPart), which is not installed, so the panel stays unavailable instead of becoming a second terminal with a second theme.

The icon size, and why it is `PreviewSize`¶

Without setting it, the folders come out as monochrome LINE ART instead of the yellow Windows 11 ones. The Win11 theme only has colored art in places/16 and places/scalable, since places/22 is fill="currentColor", and 22 is precisely the default. Fluent had the same monochrome 22; it just did not show, because the view was Compact, which asks for a big icon and fell into scalable.

THE KEY IS PreviewSize, NOT IconSize, and that cost two wrong attempts. With previews ON (our case, decided 07/08) Dolphin ignores IconSize:

// dolphinitemlistview.cpp:172
const int iconSize = previewsShown() ? settings.previewSize() : settings.iconSize();

Both go to 32 on purpose, so the size does not jump when previews are turned off to dig through /mnt/arch-antigo. 32 is a valid ZoomLevelInfo step (16/22/32/48/…) and the first one that enters the places/scalable range (MinSize=32).

It does NOT go in immutable, so Ctrl+scroll keeps working in the session. A zoom that stops at 22 brings the line art back, which is the price of leaving the zoom free.

Parity with Windows Explorer (07/08/2026)¶

Only the keys where Dolphin's default DIVERGES from Explorer's, and each default was checked in the package's config.kcfg, not guessed. HighlightEntireRow and SortFoldersFirst already come right and stay out.

Key	Why
`DetailsMode/ExpandableFolders=false`	the `▶` markers and tree lines are the most jarring difference; Explorer has no expander in that view
`General/ShowSelectionToggle=false`	the hover selection marker; on Win11 "item check boxes" comes OFF
`General/AlwaysShowTabBar=true`	Win11 Explorer shows the tab strip even with a single tab
`General/ShowFullPath=true`	an address bar with the full path, not just the folder name
`General/ShowStatusBar=FullWidth`	a KConfigXT enum: write the choice's NAME, not the index

The "pixel-perfect" guide that circulates in the community was NOT followed (vrunox-9714/dolphin-win11-theme): it depends on a KWIN RULE to remove the title bar, and here it is Hyprland so there is no KWin, and on a QSS through --stylesheet, which would fight the Kvantum that already draws all of Qt here. What is left applicable from it is toolbar layout, which is dolphinui.rc and not a key.

[KDE] SingleClick=false was TRIED and REMOVED on 07/08/2026. The request is INTERFACE similarity, and clicking is BEHAVIOR, so it does not change a pixel. Worse: it lives in kdeglobals, so it would change every KDE app because of the file manager. Do not reintroduce it.

The Places panel¶

Adding a place is 1 line in the places list. The icon names were checked against breeze-icons 6.26.0 (places/22); a name that does not exist breaks nothing, it just falls back to a generic folder icon. Each bookmark gets its own XBEL file, and KDE's <ID> comes from the list INDEX, so it is unique with no magic number repeated by hand.

The test is PER PLACE and matches by PATH, not against the whole list: with a single guard, a new place would never enter (the file would already have the old one) or the old ones would duplicate. There is no exit in the script on purpose, because home-manager's activation is a single script and an exit would abort everything after it. It also does not hardcode the disk entries, which are hardware specific, so it stays reproducible on any machine.

Two of the places deserve their own note:

Backup (snapshots), /mnt/backup: only has content WITH THE MOUNT UP (backup-browse). Empty means not mounted, and that is information, not a bug. It is a rare lookup, and a permanent mount of the HOME repo would be a stuck lock on top of the repo the daily prune NEEDS to lock by itself. Contrast with /mnt/arch-antigo, which IS permanent since 11/08/2026 because that repo is static and needs no lock; see arch-legacy.md. There, an empty folder is a real SYMPTOM: systemctl --user status arch-antigo-mount.
"Arch antigo" keeps its pt-BR title on purpose. The bookmark is matched by PATH, so renaming it would only affect a NEW insertion and would leave the declared title diverging from the one already in user-places.xbel. It is the same runtime identifier as /mnt/arch-antigo.

The packages¶

dolphin plus the extras that enable features: kio-extras gives SFTP/SMB/MTP (a phone over USB), the thumbnailers give image, pdf and video previews, and ark adds the archive manager plus the "Compress/Extract" servicemenus on right click. The trash (trash:/) is native.