Thunar using no thumbnailers except built in fonts and images

Question

Linux From Scratch SVN-20111010

Beyond Linux From Scratch Version 2011-11-16

Xfce4 4.8.0

I can't get any thumbnails in Thunar beyond fonts and basic images.

After fighting with this I've gone back and recompiled what seems to be the critical bits. In this order...

Tumbler-0.1.22:

$> ./configure --prefix=/usr
  <snip>
  * GdkPixbuf thumbnailer plugin:                     yes
  * FreeType font thumbnailer plugin:                 yes
  * JPEG thumbnailer plugin with EXIF support:        yes
  * Video thumbnailer plugin using ffmpegthumbnailer: yes
  * Video thumbnailer plugin using GStreamer:         yes
  * PDF/PS thumbnailer plugin using poppler:          yes
  * Freedesktop.org cache plugin:                     yes
$> make && make install

thunar-volman-0.6.0:

$> ./configure --prefix=/usr
  <snip>
  * Mount notifications: yes
  * Debug Support:       minimum
$> make && make install

thunar-vfs-1.2.0:

$> ./configure --prefix=/usr
  <snip>
  * Operating system support:  generic
  * D-BUS support:             yes
  * File System Monitor:       none (???)
  * GNOME Thumbnailers:        yes
  * Startup Notification:      yes
  * Volume Manager:            none (???)
  * Debug Support:             minimum
$> make && make install

thunar-thumbnailers-0.4.1:

$> ./configure --prefix=/usr
  <snip>
  config.status: creating eps-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating tex-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating ps-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating raw-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating fig-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating agr-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating ffmpeg-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating ogg-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating svgz-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating pdf-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating dvi-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating odf-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating xcf-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating psd-thumbnailer/Makefile
  config.status: creating mime/Makefile
$> make && make install

Thunar-1.3.0.tar.bz2:

$> ./configure --prefix=/usr
  <snip>
  Build Configuration:
  * D-BUS support:                      yes
  * GIO UNIX features:                  yes
  * Startup Notification:               yes
  * GUDev (required for thunar-volman): yes
  * Mount notification support:         yes
  * Debug Support:                      minimum
  * Documentation:                      yes (in tarball)
  Additional Plugins:
  * Advanced Properties:                yes
  * Simple Builtin Renamers:            yes
  * Trash Panel Applet:                 yes
  * User Customizable Actions:          yes
  * Wallpaper support:                  yes
$> make && make install

REBOOT!

Then I do...

$> rm ~/.cache/Thunar/thumbnailers.cache
$> rm -r ~/.thumbnails
$> Thunar -q
$> /usr/lib/thunar-vfs-1/thunar-vfs-update-thumbnailers-cache-1

The thumbnailers.cache is rebuilt, but still no thumbnails beyond fonts and basic images.

Let's look at GIMP .xcf files...

$> cat /usr/share/thumbnailers/xcf-thumbnailer.desktop 

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=X-Thumbnailer
Name=XCF Thumbnailer
MimeType=image/x-xcf;
X-Thumbnailer-Exec=/usr/libexec/xcf-thumbnailer %i %o %s


$> strings .cache/Thunar/thumbnailers.cache | grep xcf
image/x-xcf
/usr/libexec/xcf-thumbnailer %i %o %s

If I remove the xcf thumbnailer desktop file and rebuild the cache the xcf entries disappear from the thumbnailers cache file, so it is seeing the thumbnailers in /usr/share/thumbnailers.

In a terminal I can call the X-Thumbnailers-Exec line directly...

$> /usr/libexec/xcf-thumbnailer test.xcf test.png 100

...It calls convert, and I get a 100px thumbnail image output into the current directory.

All the pieces seem to be in place, but Thunar doesn't seem interested in using any of the installed thumbnailers, except it's native support for basic images and fonts. What am I missing?

UPDATE 15:15 Nov. 23, 2011: I've made some progress. This is definitely an LFS configuration issue.

Firstly, it seems XDG directories plays a part. Make sure that the XDG user directories are configured and working properly.

Second DBUS sessions need to be working and started properly with SESSION_MANAGER, DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID exported to the environment.

Third, and this is probably specific to my install, I rebuilt tumbler with --disable-gstreamer-thumbnailer. At least in my case this forces tumbler to use the ffmpegthumbnailer. I won't say that this is an issue with tumbler because I know my gstreamer is flaky, and needs further attention.

This is where I'm at... tumbler is working. I'm getting thumbnails for fonts and basic images, plus videos and PDFs, using ffmpegthumbnailer and poppler respectively, I believe. I now need to either get tumbler to recognize the thumbnailers from thunar-thumbnailers, or find out how to otherwise add support for XCF and PSD files to tumbler, since that was what I was initially seeking.