Subject: bug#75018: 30.0.93; Dired icon missing in tool-bar

From: john muhl <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:21:06 -0600

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

>> From: john muhl <[email-masked]>
>> Cc: [email-masked]
>> Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2024 17:57:04 -0600
>> 
>> The following gets all the icons working:
>> 
>>   dnf install gdk-pixbuf2-modules-extra
>> 
>> Maybe something to mention PROBLEMS? Feel free to close unless you
>> think there anything else to investigate.
>
> I'm okay with having a PROBLEMS entry about this, but I'd be much
> happier if I understood some more about the problem.  How does
> installing those icons solve the problem?  Is the problem caused by
> absence of some icons, and the strange display is just an indication
> that the file is missing?

The gdk-pixbuf2-modules-extra package doesn’t install any
icons. It installs support for loading additional image formats:

  This package contains modules for loading ANI, BMP, ICNS, ICO,
  PNM, QTIF, TGA, XBM, and XPM images.

What appears to have happened is that the loaders for these
formats were removed from the main GDK packages in Fedora 41 thus
any attempt to load an XPM fails (in Emacs and all other
programs). Why the developers decided to use those strange icons
in case of failure is unclear and probably beyond my investigative
abilities.

Ultimately Fedora needs to fix their Emacs package so that
gdk-pixbuf2-modules-extra is listed among the dependencies. Does
Emacs have any connections there we could reach out to? If not I
can send bug report.

> And what, if anything, should we do with the patch you posted a few
> messages ago? is it also needed?

It is not needed but users of the GTK builds might find it an
improvement as it makes Dired match the style of their system’s
icon theme. Maybe we could try it on master and be ready to revert
if it proves unwelcome. The attached image shows the current
situation on top and the patched version below.

However, a non-exhaustive search of the archives didn’t turn up
any complaints about the current state so maybe everyone is happy
enough as is…or has the tool-bar disabled, doesn’t care and it’s
not even worth the effort to test it on master.

FTR: I do use the tool-bar all the time on GUI frames and find the
mismash of icon styles very mildly annoying.

> If it is not needed after installing
> gdk-pixbuf2-modules-extra, then how did that patch solve the problem
> without the icons?

The patch “fixed” it by mapping etc/images/diropen to a system
icon (part of the stock icons and already available by default)
which meant that it wouldn’t try to fallback on
etc/images/diropen.xpm. Therefore it wouldn’t run into the issue
of the missing XPM loader that is part of the
gdk-pixbuf2-modules-extra package.

The patch does nothing for all the other missing icons I mentioned
(message-mode, Info &c.). Installing the package of extra loaders
fixes all those as they are once again able to load from the
etc/images/*.xpm files.

> IOW, this issue is still some black magic to me, and I'd like the
> mystery be lifted.
>
> Thanks.

I hope that it’s at least a little less mysterious now.