Bug#933612: xfce4: Xfce fails to launch any application ("exo-helper-1: not found")

[Alex Henry <tukkek@gmail.com>]

Package: xfce4
Version: 4.12.5
Severity: important

Hello, since a recent update Xfce is unable to open any items clicked on in the desktop or
through the panel launchers (anything that checks tfor "preferred application", I imagine).
Launching the apps directly through the "Start Menu" works normally, as usual.

The actual error message is something similar to this, as seen on #892010:

  /usr/bin/exo-preferred-applications: 11: exec: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/exo-helper-1: not found

I have managed to work around this issue by making a link between:

  /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-2/exo-helper-2

Which exists in my system and:

  /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/exo-1/exo-helper-1

However this is clearly not ideal unless both commands are fully equivalent.

I have marked this bug as important since being able to launch applications
is indeed a big deal and more casual users may be incapacitated from using
their systems in the offchance this would ever go to a stable release.

This Ask Ubuntu post reports the same issue for Ubuntu 19.04:

  https://askubuntu.com/questions/1136194/xfce-can-not-start-preferred-applications-under-ubuntu-19-04/

The following relevant packages are installed and up-to-date in my system:

  exo-utils/testing,now 0.12.6-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  libexo-1-0/testing,now 0.12.6-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  libexo-2-0/testing,now 0.12.6-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  libexo-common/testing,testing,now 0.12.6-1 all [installed,automatic]
  libexo-helpers/testing,testing,now 0.12.6-1 all [installed,automatic]

Thanks a lot to everyone working to make Xfce on Debian an excellent desktop environment!

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_WARN, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages xfce4 depends on:
ii  gtk2-engines-xfce        3.2.0-4
ii  libxfce4ui-utils         4.12.1-3
ii  thunar                   1.8.7-1
ii  xfce4-appfinder          4.12.0-2+b1
ii  xfce4-panel              4.12.2-1
ii  xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin  0.4.1-1
ii  xfce4-session            4.12.1-6
ii  xfce4-settings           4.12.4-1
ii  xfconf                   4.12.1-1+b1
ii  xfdesktop4               4.12.4-2
ii  xfwm4                    4.12.5-1

Versions of packages xfce4 recommends:
ii  desktop-base      10.0.3
ii  tango-icon-theme  0.8.90-7
ii  thunar-volman     0.9.1-1
ii  xfce4-notifyd     0.4.4-1
ii  xorg              1:7.7+19

Versions of packages xfce4 suggests:
pn  gtk3-engines-xfce    <none>
pn  xfce4-goodies        <none>
pn  xfce4-power-manager  <none>

-- no debconf information