Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

grey · 2008-09-25 12:24:36

I've been inspired by http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=46887 to try and create a meaningful bug report for the issue below. I'm posting this here first in case someone has an idea on how to make the report more helpful / how to investigate further.

The symptom: After starting a gnome session I get a blank desktop. If I start the session via gdm, the color is gdm's background color. If I start from the command line with startx, the color is black. The panels are OK, only the desktop (wallpaper and icons) is missing.

The problem only occurs between reboots, and only if I reboot into another OS in between. Because this takes time I haven't run too many experiments, though.

I can reliably get wallpaper and icons back in at least 3 ways:
1. log out, then login again
2. kill X via Ctrl+Alt+backspace, then startx again
3. kill the nautilus process (ps -A | grep nautilus; sudo kill <pid>). In the latter case I get my desktop plus a file manager window.

The screen messages of a desktop-less session look as follows:

SESSION_MANAGER=local/*:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3162
seahorse nautilus module initialized
** Message: failed to load session from /home/*/.nautilus/saved-session-E5UPHU
Unable to open desktop file evolution.desktop for panel launcher
** (nautilus:3188): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Not supported
** (gnome-panel:3189): WARNING **: Failed to establish a connection with GDM: No such file or directory

For a successful session I get almost the same, though:

SESSION_MANAGER=local/*:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3346
seahorse nautilus module initialized
** Message: failed to load session from /home/*/.nautilus/saved-session-E5UPHU
Unable to open desktop file evolution.desktop for panel launcher
** (gnome-panel:3373): WARNING **: Failed to establish a connection with GDM: No such file or directory
** (nautilus:3372): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Not supported

Any suggestions on what might be the problem?

JGC · 2008-09-25 12:35:20

What filesystem is /tmp and /home running on?

rsambuca · 2008-09-25 13:59:18

This definitely happens to me on occassion as well, but I do not reboot often enough to know the conditions that cause it. I also just run 'killall nautilus" to get them to show up.

Everything in my system is ext3.

grey · 2008-09-25 15:15:55

All of arch sits in one primary partition, with an ext3 filesystem.

Skruf · 2008-09-25 15:37:46

I had the same problem. The temporary fix for me was, as rsambuca suggested, "killall nautilus". The permanent fix was moving over to Openbox.

grey · 2008-09-26 08:31:59

Given that gnome 2.24 just came out, I will wait until it hits the repositories to see if the problem has been fixed already.

clarence · 2008-09-27 03:47:17

i get this sometimes.

i fix it by not moving my mouse until the desktop shows up........

ddoan · 2008-10-01 17:28:53

:-) ... I thought I was the only one here with this behaviour... fixed the problem with using XFCE ;-)

mrunion · 2008-10-01 19:44:23

I had that start happening recently. I drop to a terminal (Alt+F2, gnome-terminal) and run

/etc/rc.d/dbus restart

as root and everything is fine after that.

(Oh, and as of last night I'm on Xfce as well! )

Last edited by mrunion (2008-10-01 19:45:05)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-25 12:24:36

Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#2 2008-09-25 12:35:20

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#3 2008-09-25 13:59:18

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#4 2008-09-25 15:15:55

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#5 2008-09-25 15:37:46

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#6 2008-09-26 08:31:59

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#7 2008-09-27 03:47:17

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#8 2008-10-01 17:28:53

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

#9 2008-10-01 19:44:23

Re: Gnome 2.22 shows blank desktop after reboot

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