Version: 4.7 (using KDE 4.7.2) OS: Linux when I try to start dolphin, it takes a long time to startup (about a minute). Debugging the issue, I found errors of this form in the .xsession-errors file: kioslave: ####### CRASH ###### protocol = thumbnail pid = 8851 signal = 11 I tried using the procedure found here: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Debugging/Debugging_IOSlaves to generate and capture a traceback, but when I do, kdeinit4 complains about not be able to communicate with klauncher. I found some info for turning on debug messages. I turned on debug info for kio_thumbnail, and got these, possibly unrelated, messages before the crash: kio_thumbnail(7619) new_creator: videoPreview: new_creator kio_thumbnail(7619) VideoPreview::VideoPreview: videoPreview constructor kio_thumbnail(7619) VideoPreview::create: videopreview svn kio_thumbnail(7619) ServicesFactory::videoBackend: videopreview: backend: 1 kio_thumbnail(7619) ServicesFactory::videoBackend: videopreview: Selected mplayer backend kio_thumbnail(7619) PreviewingFile::isBlacklisted: videopreview: file extension=" "" " kio_thumbnail(7619) MPlayerVideoBackend::findPlayerBin: videopreview: customargs= "" ;;;; ("") kio_thumbnail(7619) MPlayerVideoBackend::findPlayerBin: videopreview: mplayer not found, exiting. Run mplayerthumbsconfig to setup mplayer path manually. I found some older issues, and as a work-around, I turned off all previews Settings -> General -> Previews. This prevents both the slow start and the crash from occuring. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Start dolphin from app widget, media insertion, or command line. Expected Results: Dolphin starts up in a few seconds.
Well, if you enable the "mplayerthumbs" thumbnailer, you should also have "mplayer" installed. Alternatively, you may use the ffmpeg-based video thumbnailer, which is also part of kdemultimedia, but requires compilation with ffmpeg libraries installed.
Ok. I don't know if the slowness is associated with the crash or not. I hadn't changed anything and then dolphin wouldn't start anymore. When I investigated, I found the crashing and turned off all previews. I didn't add anything for mplayer thumbnails. I don't know where that is coming from.
5+ year old bug - unmaintained.