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Ever since I installed Xubuntu 16.04.2 I have this weird bug, whenever I try to create an archive from the right-click menu in Thunar I get the following error message:"Failed to create archive. No suitable archive manager found.". When I use the Extract Here option, it works fine, file-roller launches and extracts the archive without a hitch. It seems like file-roller is not linked to the Create Archive in the right click menu of Thunar.

I googled my problem and found some old forum posts with some workarounds but none of them seem to work anymore, at least for me.

I tried:

thunar-archive-plugin not working

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=31871

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=215241

Does anyone know how to re-associate file-roller to the Create Archive right click menu launcher? Or how I can just simply fix it?

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  • Are you sure thunar-archive-plugin is installed? Perhaps it got uninstalled but happened to stay there in the Thunar right-click menu.
    – jbrock
    Apr 20, 2017 at 22:17
  • Thank you for your help, it's much appreciated! Yes, I have the thunar-archive-plugin installed, it seems like I have figured out what the problem was. Apr 24, 2017 at 18:55

4 Answers 4

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This seems to be a Thunar/XFCE specific issue, I managed to track the problem which is related to the menu editor and how apps are linked to it, in particular "File-Roller". Apparently when you edit (change the icon or name) of the second "Archive Manager" launcher in the "Menu Editor" and save it, for some odd reason it dissociates "File-Roller" from the said launcher and it won't work anymore.

In order to fix it, simply delete the second "Archive Manager" launcher and everything is back to normal. Once deleted, you should be able to create archives again from the right click context menu. See images for further clarification:

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I had the same problem, but only one .desktop file (menu entry in LinuxScientist's answer). My solution was in https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=31871

  1. Verify that /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache contains entires to file-roller, like:
    application/x-archive=gnome-file-roller.desktop;org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop;
  2. sudo update-desktop-database to "(re)Build cache database of MIME types handled by desktop files"
  3. thunar -q to quit, then restart Thunar (optional?)

Somehow I ran into the same problem again, this time it was an "extra" org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop file in my home's ~/.local/share/applications/ folder, in addition to the "original" /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop.

First I compared the two files to make sure they were essentially identical

diff -s ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop |less

then I removed ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop and immediately thunar was creating archives again.

(This might be the same root problem as the other answer by LinuxScientist, but they didn't say where the duplicate file was, and with this answer I don't rely on the GUI Menu Editor)

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I had the same issue in Thunar with XFCE as well, though File Roller "Archive Manager" would extract or compress what I liked, as I liked as one would expect (mime types were verified.) I did have a duplicate "Archive Manager" entry (two of the exact same-name files in the same folder, of different size, which I don't understand. One had every associated type that it would support and which I had plugins for, one didn't.)

Regardless, simply right clicking the already associated archive type, going to properties, then selecting what I assume was the "other" Archive Manager entry under "Open With" solved my right click Thunar extraction shenanigans.

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xfce may just need to be refreshed

run:

./update-desktop-database

and restart xfce (logout and back in)

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