Bug 513358

Summary:	"Run as different user" fails, as it tries to access files from main user
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] frameworks-kio	Reporter:	Guido Schmidt <guido>
Component:	general	Assignee:	KIO Bugs <kio-bugs-null>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, kdelibs-bugs-null, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	regression
Version First Reported In:	6.20.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Guido Schmidt 2025-12-14 12:56:24 UTC

Not sure if Kicker is to blame here, might be the underlying mechanisms.

SUMMARY
For years I have a menu entry that lets me start Firefox as a different user. Recently it stopped working. The error message: "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible."

I logged into that different user via Konsole and tried starting Firefox from there. This worked without problems.

Then I checked the setting "Run in terminal" and started the entry again. After providing the password in the Konsole prompt I see loads of warnings about not being able to open files that belong to the main user (and of course the same Firefox error as above).

I changed the meny to execute Dolphin instead of Firefox, and guess what happens: lots of error messages around not being able to access files that belong to the main user.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20251121
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.17.8-1-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 24 × AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (61.9 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12-Core Processor


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BTW: That different user has an encrypted home directory. However, even when already logged in to that user, the above problems occur.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-12-16 22:44:46 UTC

If you turn off the encryption (or try with a user who has an unencrypted home directory) does it work?

Does the same thing happen if you try to launch Firefox from the custom menu entry accessed from Dolphin, and not Kickoff?

Comment 2 Guido Schmidt 2025-12-19 10:16:12 UTC

1. Tried with an unencrypted user: Same problem
2. "custom menu entry accessed from Dolphin": Did you mean by that to create a .desktop file and start that from within Dolphin? If so, I did that. It results in the same problem.

Comment 3 Guido Schmidt 2025-12-19 15:15:42 UTC

I did the above with the system updated to:

Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20251211
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.18.0-2-default (64-bit)

Comment 4 David Edmundson 2025-12-19 23:01:58 UTC

I would happily drop the "run as user" feature. 

(obviously the reporter won't be happy, but it technically stops this being a bug)
It breaks too many application assumptions so it can never work properly and it's too niche a thing for us to be surfacing in a UI.

Comment 5 Nate Graham 2025-12-22 22:14:42 UTC

I agree; it's another "broken promise" feature.