From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

Mint 22.1 Mate. Anyone seen rapidly increasing ~/.xsession-errors file
with this sort of message?
(caja:1616): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL
GFileInfo created without standard::symlink-target

tried to find problem via ChatGPT but no success

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Wed, 8/13/2025 5:32 PM, Russell Gadd wrote:

Mint 22.1 Mate. Anyone seen rapidly increasing ~/.xsession-errors file with this sort of message?
(caja:1616): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL
GFileInfo created without standard::symlink-target

tried to find problem via ChatGPT but no success

You don't need ChatGPT to track things like that down.

The "answer" is sort of available here, but the "disposition",
how do we fix it, is evident by looking at the lineup info
on Distrowatch for the packaging.

"2023-11-26"

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/caja/+bug/2044635

"Seems caja 1.27.2 has fixed that issue; please merge it from master asap"

Something tells me "this will be messy". Getting to that revision
number or later, will be tough. Not even a PPA guarantees a
clean transition, because Clem Customization could be affected
if you change the "package alignment".

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=414780

Here is a picture of my situation in a virtual machine.
You can see in Distrowatch, the sequence of release numbers for
the MATE in LinuxMint, versus the MATE upstream, and it appears
Clem is not "moving fast and breaking things". The API version
is not changing, so he does not have to rebuild all his customization.
The release numbers would have "moved faster" if there was not
a secret reason to be "dragging ones feet" about it. That is my interpretation of the info in Distrowatch.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/yNhDDphd/LM221-MATE-Caja-Is-Old.gif

If it bothers you, you could install another DE than MATE, like a Cinnamon.

If the whole desktop did not rely on that file and its release
number, this would be a LOT easier to fix. Clem could fix it,
but the answers/comments I've seen from Clem before, he deflects
to upstream, and that's not what is required in this case. I get the impression, Clem only wants to update MATE about every five years,
as a forklift change. It's not like magically in LM22.2 this would
be fixed. I would bet the sub-version would not change enough to
achieve any result, let alone the fix you want.

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 8/14/25 3:01 AM, Paul wrote:

On Wed, 8/13/2025 5:32 PM, Russell Gadd wrote:

Mint 22.1 Mate. Anyone seen rapidly increasing ~/.xsession-errors file with this sort of message?
(caja:1616): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL
GFileInfo created without standard::symlink-target

tried to find problem via ChatGPT but no success

You don't need ChatGPT to track things like that down.

The "answer" is sort of available here, but the "disposition",
how do we fix it, is evident by looking at the lineup info
on Distrowatch for the packaging.

"2023-11-26"

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/caja/+bug/2044635

"Seems caja 1.27.2 has fixed that issue; please merge it from master asap"

Something tells me "this will be messy". Getting to that revision
number or later, will be tough. Not even a PPA guarantees a
clean transition, because Clem Customization could be affected
if you change the "package alignment".

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=414780

Here is a picture of my situation in a virtual machine.
You can see in Distrowatch, the sequence of release numbers for
the MATE in LinuxMint, versus the MATE upstream, and it appears
Clem is not "moving fast and breaking things". The API version
is not changing, so he does not have to rebuild all his customization.
The release numbers would have "moved faster" if there was not
a secret reason to be "dragging ones feet" about it. That is my interpretation
of the info in Distrowatch.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/yNhDDphd/LM221-MATE-Caja-Is-Old.gif

If it bothers you, you could install another DE than MATE, like a Cinnamon.

If the whole desktop did not rely on that file and its release
number, this would be a LOT easier to fix. Clem could fix it,
but the answers/comments I've seen from Clem before, he deflects
to upstream, and that's not what is required in this case. I get the impression, Clem only wants to update MATE about every five years,
as a forklift change. It's not like magically in LM22.2 this would
be fixed. I would bet the sub-version would not change enough to
achieve any result, let alone the fix you want.

Paul

Could Nemo be installed as a substitute file manager for a while?
--
Linux Mint 22.1, Thunderbird 128.13.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 141.0.3
Alan K.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 14/08/2025 08:01, Paul wrote: <see above for full post>

Paul - Thanks for your post

..

You don't need ChatGPT to track things like that down.

I didn't want to assume it was a Mint software issue because I only
noticed it when I set up a network bridge for my new Windows 10 VM not
having done it before and knowing very little about networking. ChatGPT
was instrumental in that, so I figure it might solve a problem it
created. It was sort of fun although from your information a lot of
wasted time

...

If it bothers you, you could install another DE than MATE, like a Cinnamon.

I've tried Cinnamon a number of times over the years but I keep coming
back to Mate. I suppose partly because I'm used to it, partly because
Cinnamon seems to like eye-candy whereas I like to keep things basic,
and partly because I found issues. It was quicker to go back to what I
knew. Ultimately I'd prefer to go with the mainstream since I expect if
I have problems more people are around to help. Also the devs will spend
more energy on Cinnamon so it ought to be somehow "better", but by the
same token it might be more likely to get in my way by changes I don't
need. I might try again at the next major release.

If the whole desktop did not rely on that file and its release
number, this would be a LOT easier to fix. Clem could fix it,
...

Yes I appreciate it is bound tightly to Mate. So as I now discover it is
a bug I'll just use a cron script to keep chopping the error messages down.



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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 14/08/2025 12:53, Alan K. wrote: <see post above>

...

Could Nemo be installed as a substitute file manager for a while?

Yes I tried Nemo a while ago for some other reason, but it had drawbacks
not being the expected file manager, although I can't remember why. If I ignore the error messages caja seems to work without problem.

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