zed-industries
Open folder/add folder not working from UI
Summary
File -> Open Folder does not work on ubuntu. It keeps going inside directory un-till it reaches the file hence it is same as open file. same goes for add folder to project. Can't see a directory in left pane un-till opened with zed -n {path}.
Steps to trigger the problem:
- Click File
- Open Folder... (No option to open/select folder, dialogue doesn't end un-till you select a file)
Actual Behavior: Opens a file, and only single file is visible in left Pane.
Expected Behavior: Should open a Directory/Folder and all its contents should be visible in left pane.
Zed Version and System Specs
zed --version
Zed 0.179.5 363c205ec6eddfd8e5f032391a2cac767ac417f0 – /home/purnendu/.local/zed.app/libexec/zed-editor
cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04.6 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal
lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
system Computer
/0 bus Motherboard
/0/0 memory 31GiB System memory
/0/1 processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
/0/100 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1/0 display NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/1.2 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1.2/0 storage Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
/0/100/1.2/0/0 /dev/nvme0 storage Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB
/0/100/1.2/0/0/1 /dev/nvme0n1 disk NVMe namespace
/0/100/2 display Intel Corporation
/0/100/4 generic Intel Corporation
/0/100/6 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/6/0 storage Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
/0/100/6/0/0 /dev/nvme1 storage Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB
/0/100/6/0/0/1 /dev/nvme1n1 disk NVMe namespace
/0/100/7 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/7.3 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/a generic Intel Corporation
/0/100/d bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/d.3 bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/12 communication Intel Corporation
/0/100/14 bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/14.2 memory RAM memory
/0/100/14.3 wlp0s20f3 network Intel Corporation
/0/100/15 bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/15.1 bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/16 communication Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c/0 generic RTS5260 PCI Express Card Reader
/0/100/1f bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.3 multimedia Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.4 bus Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.5 bus Intel Corporation
/0/2 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/3 system PnP device PNP0b00
/0/4 generic PnP device INT3f0d
/0/5 input PnP device PNP0303
/0/6 generic PnP device DLL0a61
/0/7 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/8 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/9 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/a system PnP device PNP0c02
/1 enx0826ae3d64cc network Ethernet interface
/2 vethaac5f95 network Ethernet interface
/3 veth16304da network Ethernet interface
Are you doing something differently? I can clearly open the folder. Can you attach screenshot?
clicking open, opens the content of folder in same dialogue, and this keep on going un-till I reach the file and then clicking on open, opens the file in zed window.
- Are you using same default file manager (Nautilus) on Ubuntu?
- Are you sure it's "Open Folder" in title bar of file manager and not "Open File"?
using default file Manager using open folder
now clicking open goes inside folder rather than opening folder in zed. it is working same as open file.
although I can open folder from command-line in new zed window using zed /home/user/sampleproject issue only exists in opening from within GUI, either by navigating to:
- file>> open folder or
- ctrl+o
I've the same issue (zed 0.182.11), with the same old Ubuntu 20.04 (and default file manager Nautilus), maybe an issue with old GNOME?
I dug deeper into this, and it looks like the issue is with the XDG portal that Ubuntu 20.04 uses. This has been fixed for later versions of Ubuntu. One way to fix this for Ubuntu 20.04 would be to add a dependency to GTK itself, but given other problems that Zed faces with 20.04, it is going to be poorly supported by Zed as we have already crossed the April 2025 EOL. I would strongly recommend moving to later versions of Ubuntu.
If you cannot do so for some reason, you can use this workaround so that it uses Zed's own prompt:
{
"use_system_path_prompts": false,
}
For more info, check out:
Duplicate Issue: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/17096 Related 20.04 issue with Zed not opening: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/16428#issuecomment-2295322255
I'm closing this as duplicate.