Hi everybody.

I have just installed a Samba server on a Rasberry Pi, connecting Debian 8 machine and a laptop running Windows 10.

I can create, modify and delete shared files on both devices and all works pretty well, but one thing puzzles me:

When I'm on Debian and I try to drag and drop any file from the shared folder to the desktop, instead of copying the file it creates a file which contains only desktop entry, etc. information. Before I can edit any file on shared folder, I have to copy paste it first.

How can I make it so that drag and drop creates a copy? What am I missing?

Which GUI program are you using?

PCManFM file manager on LXDE

show us the content of the .desktop file.

what happens if, instead of drag'n'drop, you right click => copy, and then paste to your desktop?

i think you'll need to explain this. why can't you edit the files directly in their location?

maybe filemanager settings?

Try right click, send to, then select the destination. Or just copy and paste it.

Not really sure what you mean? If I copy the content of a dragged and dropped example file it contains this:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Link
Name=test.odt
Icon=application-vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
URL=smb://raspberrypi/myShare/test.odt

That works as it should.

On Windows I can do that. On Debian it starts opening LibreOffice, then it loads a moment and hangs.

I've looked and tried, but if I force "Default drop action" to copy, then it does that everywhere. "Auto (move if on the same file system, otherwise copy)" doesn't seem to work in this case.

No such option available.

all in all it just seems to be a feature of your desktop environment; i do not know if it's possible to change it, you'll just have to get used to
right click => copy
right click => paste
instead.

except for this:
do you want it to open libreoffice (it would appear to be most suitable for an .odt file)?
can you reproduce similarly erroneous behavior with, say, plain text files?

1 members found this post helpful.

It may quite possibly be so. I might try another file manager later, if that makes any difference.

Text files create the same error. However, images open just fine.

But because I can open any file AFTER copy pasting them to my desktop - then that's good enough, since there is no obvious solution.

I wish to thank you all for helping me.

please be more precise.
are you saying plain text files open in libreoffice?
that shouldn't happen. try installing a plain text editor (e.g. mousepad), then try again.
i would like to ascertain that this is a libreoffice/samba/gvfs/fuse problem.

Sorry for being unclear.
What I mean is: if I drag and drop a text file created with Leafpad from shared folder to desktop, it contains only similar desktop entry information, as the previous test.odt did. However, opening the .txt file inside the shared folder works as it should.

ok.
so all in all, the problem from your op is libreoffice specific?
i did a Quick Search (tm), and it is obvious that my hunch is correct, and you are not alone.
please continue from there.

Since my original question was: How can I make it so that drag and drop creates a copy? This whole thing sidetracked with the LibreOffice issue.

But since my question seems to be related to my choice of desktop environment, there might not be much to do about it.
This LibreOffice issue is interesting and I will look into it further. But as for now this case is closed.

I thank you for your time and effort and for all your help.

yes, but if libreoffice wouldn't misbehave in that situation, you could just edit the files in place and there would be no need to copy them over first.

about your original issue:
a Quick Search (tm) did not reveal anything; maybe you should go over your samba configuration again.