Xfce Forum

adelmonte

Member

Registered: 2025-01-04

Posts: 7

xdg-desktop-portal 1.18.4-2 GDK_DEBUG=portals

I use the xdg-desktop-portal-kde picker system wide. It works perfectly with xdg-desktop-portal 1.16.0.3 using the environment variable

GTK_USE_PORTAL=1

The Arch wiki suggests this variable was changed in 1.18 to

GDK_DEBUG=portals

but neither option works whatsoever on that version. This variable gets it to work, but unfortunately breaks most xfce functions

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE

I've been running on the older version for over a year. Any advice?

EDIT: After coping for 2+ years I found a fix.

If you're using xdg-desktop-portal-kde with a non-KDE desktop environment (like XFCE), the newer versions (1.20.0+) require configuration files instead of environment variables.

1. Create a portal preferences file:
```
mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/
echo "[preferred]
default=kde
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.FileChooser=kde" > ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf
```

2. Create a systemd override to set the desktop environment for the portal service only:
```
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service.d/
echo "[Service]
Environment=\"XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE\"" > ~/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal.service.d/override.conf
```

3. Restart the service:
```
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal.service
```

This keeps the KDE file picker working while not affecting the rest of your XFCE desktop.

Last edited by adelmonte (2025-03-09 01:56:46)