Geeqie e Thunar ambos usam funções que utilizam g_get_home_dir () do glib
do GNOME.
Citações de g_get_home_dir () na referência da API:
Gets the current user's home directory.
As with most UNIX tools, this function will return the value of the HOME
environment variable if it is set to an existing absolute path name, falling
back to the passwd file in the case that it is unset.
If the path given in HOME is non-absolute, does not exist, or is not a
directory, the result is undefined.
Portanto, verifique a variável $HOME
e o arquivo passwd
do seu sistema.