Why removing of some symlinks generates input/output error? [SOLVED]

[Feek]

I use quick access to my favourite apps.
It's a directory with symlinked .desktop files (symbolic link relative).
This directory (in root) is dragged onto the desktop, has its icon and a keyboard shortcut (alt+x).

Time to time I add or remove some apps.
Adding is without a problem but removing of some symlinks (not all) generates input/output error.
The orange triangles remain in the directory and I have no idea how to remove them (see the attached picture).
It's just a cosmetic thing but I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong or why it happens.

Would it be a good solution, to remove the whole directory and recreate a new one?

Note: As a savefile I use multisession sfs's.

[amethyst]

Why don't you just setup a selection box widget to select the application to run. Very neat, I use it a lot. See example here: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 813#p57813

[JakeSFR]

Browse to /aufs/pup_multi/root/Desktop_launchers/Quick_apps and look for any whiteouts, e.g. .wh.htop.desktop.
If it's there, removing it should make the actual symlink usable again.

The presence of both file and .wh.file in /aufs/pup_multi is the result of creating that file, saving session, then deleting that file, saving again (what saves the whiteout) and finally creating it again and saving again (maybe with some reboots thrown in between the steps).
And when both are present, weird things tend to happen...

For a savefile/dir, there's this option in /etc/eventmanager, which tells fatdog-merge-layers.sh to delete (every time you save session) all whiteouts from savefile/dir, unless they correspond to actual files in any of the mounted SFSes:

Code: Select all

# If not blank, fatdog-merge-layers.sh will remove whiteouts not covering any SFS files
# Don't set this on multi-session, it makes deleted files re-appear every time.
CLEAR_NON_SFS_WHITEOUT=

but as you can see, it doesn't play along with multisession very well.

Unfortunately, I don't have a solution for this problem; I use savefile exclusively and I'm not really familiar with AUFS on a deeper level...

Greetings!

[Feek]

JakeSFR,
thank you for the explanation. It's more clear to me now.

I browsed to /aufs/pup_multi/root/Desktop_launchers/Quick_apps and there live even more triangles (attachment).

I tried to remove the ".wh." files and it worked as you described but only for the current session.
After saving the session into a new multi .sfs and rebooting the three triangles (rox, htop, lxtask) are there again (the ".wh." files in /aufs/pup_multi_.... are also back).

But it doesn't mind.
Now I know that multi sfs may have certain limitations in some regard and there are other methods of how to launch apps.
Perhaps I also could create another boot entry for Fatdog with a savefolder.

Thanks again

[Feek]

@amethyst
thank you for the tip

[step]

@Feek, you may want to consider Control Panel > Personal > Fatdog64 QuickApps as an alternative. This tool creates a personal "control panel" whose items are symbolic links to .desktop files, similarly to what you're doing now by putting a folder on your Desktop. Access to your personal control panel will consists of an icon labelled QuickApps in your home folder. You could drag the icon to the Desktop. QuickApps doesn't fix the issue about deleted items with multisession that JakeSFR described. However, error messages won't be visible to you because the control-panel window should keep them from view.

[Feek]

step,
actually, I am aware that the QuickApps program is in Fatgog.
When I started using Fatdog, I tried to set it, out of curiosity. At that time I wasn't really impressed because I was dealing with other things.

But today I played with it and found that it fully suits my purposes.
I can set only one tab and then it is almost identical as my previous way with the folder.
The only difference is to start the applications by double-clicking or with the Enter key (in the ROX folder I used simple click, Enter key or middle mouse button). But this is a question of habit.

I'm glad you reminded me of this program. Thanks