GNOME finally broken

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1

Now I cannot ignore it anymore. GNOME got broken for me and I have no idea why or when.

I got used to GNOME because of its simplicity yet some few couple of visual effects. KDE is just too much for me.

First, this exact issue got worse: I open any file with any GNOME application (gedit, the pdf viewer however it’s called, etc) then reboot. This now always causes to generate a new recently-used.xbel.xxxxxx (being the x’s any alphanumeric combination, capitals included) aside previous ones and the original recently-used.xbel. ALWAYS. Open any file -no modifying even needed- then reboot system. That’s all!
For now I left “Usage and History” disabled in Privacy settings then shutdown. I’m no longer at the place until tomorrow.
And don’t give me “change to LXDE” or similar because all of them are GTK+3 based DEs thus using the same infamous recently-used.xbel thing.

Second, prior to realizing the above issue I did a zypper up then rebooted. Did stuff, then shutdown PC. When wanting to shutdown or reboot, in the shutdown menu -with options shutdown, reboot, suspend- now also appears the checkbox “Install pending updates”. How is this possible!? I just did a system update!

And please don’t throw me the “make a new user” stuff because that’s no option for me

2

On Thu, 11 Jan 2018 01:46:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> And please don’t throw me the “make a new user” stuff because that’s no
> option for me

That’s an option for troubleshooting - I’d say give that a try and see if
that user works OK. That helps narrow down whether it’s a software issue
or a config issue.

That’s a useful troubleshooting step, and I’d highly recommend it as a
first step in diagnosing what’s going wrong.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

3

Mother******…

Created a new user, doesn’t happen the problem.

But worse is, even with the History disabled it still happens in my user!

I try to recall it happened since kernel update to 4.4.103?

Any help please?
I already know almost no one cares about GNOME because they have KDE, but hey, there are some of us that still struggle with GNOME!

4

If I logout first before shutting down/rebooting problem doesn’t happen, just the original recently-used.xbel remains. But if I shutdown directly problem happens. This is definitely a wrong behavior that I did not have before.

Also, if creating a new text file instead of opening one, by just opening gedit and not saving anything, problem doesn’t happen.

5

On Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:06:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> Created a new user, doesn’t happen the problem.
>
> But worse is, even with the History disabled it still happens in my
> user!
>
> I try to recall it happened since kernel update to 4.4.103?
>
> Any help please?
> I already know almost no one cares about GNOME because they have KDE,
> but hey, there are some of us that still struggle with GNOME!

I use GNOME, but I don’t have issues, either (but I don’t care about
document history - I find it useful).

But if it doesn’t happen with the new user, then it’s not the kernel
update - it’s something in the user’s GNOME configuration settings. I’d
probably use:

gconftool-2 --dump /

As both users and then compare the outputs to see what’s different.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

6

On Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:56:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> If I logout first before shutting down/rebooting problem doesn’t happen,
> just the original recently-used.xbel remains. But if I shutdown directly
> problem happens. This is definitely a wrong behavior that I did not have
> before.

That sounds like a bug. You should log it at bugzilla.opensuse.org.

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

7

Checked /var/log/zypp/history file. Out of probably concerning updates:

On Dec 8 2017 gnome version got updated from 3.20.1 to 3.20.2.
On Jan 3 2018 kernel got updated from 4.4-92 to 4.4-103, and evince and nautilus-evince got updated as well.
Yesterday kernel got updated to 4.4-104, the meltdown/spectre update.
No gedit updates…

Truth to be told I cannot tell at all whether problem was already there prior to yesterday’s update; I had deleted all recently-used.xbel files and never opened gedit nor evince at all until yesterday after the update. But I can remember I didn’t have the problem during all or almost all December 2017 in general.
Think a kernel update could really influence over GNOME stuff?

@hendersj:
You don’t care about document history, so you probably didn’t actually test. Not complaining, just trying to reason.
Also, created the user but forgot to test intensively. I just posted what I supposed. Already deleted the user.
By the way, do you know why I always ask for others to please file the bugs? Because my user has been banned from bugzilla for a while already. Not going to enter in details.

8

Noticed something else.

Long before the problem, I did see one behavior though: scenario where there are no recently-used.xbel files at all initially. Open a file with gedit or evince. A recently-used.xbel is created. I delete it, then reboot. After reboot the file has appeared again, though if deleting it and rebooting again it does not appear after reboot this time.

Now, starting with same scenario with no initial xbel files, open a file with gedit or evince, xbel file gets generated, I log out then log in back, delete xbel file, reboot, and this time xbel file has not appeared again. I’ll never know if this would have worked as well before…

Still, any help or ideas?

9

On Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:56:01 +0000, F style wrote:

> You don’t care about document history, so you probably didn’t actually
> test. Not complaining, just trying to reason.

You’re right, I didn’t test - I gave you a solid way to determine what
the problem was and how you might go about getting it addressed.

What you do with that information is ultimately up to you. I can use my
decades of experience in troubleshooting problems to guide you, but you
need to do some of the lifting here. You can reproduce the problem at
will - so there’s no need for me to.

A kernel update would not affect GNOME. I’ve suggested how you can get
this addressed - instead of taking random guesses that it’s a kernel
update that’s causing you the problem, follow my suggestions and you’ll
narrow the problem down appropriately.

Root cause analysis - break the problem into smaller parts, identify
which part isn’t working, and divide again if necessary. Taking random
shots at parts of the system that have no relevance isn’t going to get
you to a solution - but it will get you to frustration.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

10

And how can I effectively create a new test user and then delete it after tests the perfect way? I.e., test user leaving absolute no trace after being deleted, as if never had existed.

This **** lap rig may be not exactly mine, but it’s the one that I was assigned and the one I better use at part time job at place. Hope you can understand…

11

yast -> user management
you can add and delete user accounts inc user files worst case scenario if you forgot to delete user files just deleting the temp users directory from /home should remove all traces
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/startup/html/book.opensuse.startup/cha.y2.userman.html

12

Created user “test1”.

Now, back in user1 I notice it’s enough to just log out before shutting down/reboot in order to avoid the multiple .xbels back when booted again.

In test1 this is not necessary since, as I had guessed, test1 doesn’t have the problem. I can freely open text files and pdfs with gedit and evince, then shut down and back at boot there’s just the original xbel, like I expected.

But here’s the bad thing: I ran “gconftool-2 --dump /” as each user and saved each file as txt, before completely deleting test1 afterwards. I then used the diff command on both, and there were absolutely NO differences!!

13

On Fri, 12 Jan 2018 01:46:01 +0000, F style wrote:

> And how can I effectively create a new test user and then delete it
> after tests the perfect way? I.e., test user leaving absolute no trace
> after being deleted, as if never had existed.

You create a test user, dump the settings, and compare to the user you’re
having trouble with. When you delete the user, wipe the home directory
using your tool of choice.

You expect others to reproduce and then troubleshoot your problem for you

  • that’s not how this works. You’re the one with the issue - you need to
    take some ownership of the problem you’re having and help those who are
    trying to provide you with assistance and guidance.

> This **** lap rig may be not exactly mine, but it’s the one that I was
> assigned and the one I better use at part time job at place. Hope you
> can understand…

I hope you can understand that the people helping you here are
volunteers, not your paid staff. If you want paid support, you might
consider purchasing a commercial Linux desktop like the one from SUSE.

Then you can call support and get personalized support like what you’re
looking for.

I also am going to warn you about your language use - cursing and
swearing at people and about the system is not going to get you further
assistance. Calm down, respect the people who are trying to help you,
and follow their (our) instructions rather than arguing with us about the
help we provide you with out of the goodness of our hearts and at no cost
to you.

For that matter, if the system that you’re using is owned by someone
else, you might talk to your IT person about getting support. Most
companies are happy to support the gear they give employees and
contractors (it comes with the territory), and using an unapproved
operating system may well violate their terms of use, data privacy
requirements, and other corporate policies. So you might want to talk to
them about that anyways to make sure you’re complying with their policies
for the use of their equipment for work purposes.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

14

On Fri, 12 Jan 2018 18:16:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> Created user “test1”.
>
> Now, back in user1 I notice it’s enough to just log out before shutting
> down/reboot in order to avoid the multiple .xbels back when booted
> again.
>
> In test1 this is not necessary since, as I had guessed, test1 doesn’t
> have the problem. I can freely open text files and pdfs with gedit and
> evince, then shut down and back at boot there’s just the original xbel,
> like I expected.
>
> But here’s the bad thing: I ran “gconftool-2 --dump /” as each user and
> saved each file as txt, before completely deleting test1 afterwards. I
> then used the diff command on both, and there were absolutely NO
> differences!!

Can you show us the differences, along with the output of:

wc -l <filename>

(replacing <filename> with the file name for each dump)?

Seeing that output will help us understand what you’re seeing.

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

15

I’m sorry, sir. I already deleted the test user back then, and I’m not at the place right now.

However, I do remember what you are asking for. Not going to lie because what good would it bring for me anyways…

The “wc -l” command gave exactly 1723 lines in each of both files.

Regarding the differences, as I mentioned, I used the “diff” command, and though I don’t recall the exact message, I’m 100% sure output was almost empty, if not totally empty. The point is, according to diff command both files were exactly the same line by line and word by word. As far as I just learned (by doing my own tests, yes), a single character in a single line is enough for diff ran with no options to show the line.

EDIT: ok, ok, if needed I could make another test user again, just at least tomorrow or later…

16

So would it be a bug?

17

On Mon, 15 Jan 2018 04:36:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> So would it be a bug?

I’d treat it like that and submit a bug report.

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

18

@hendersj:
So after finally giving accurate data, would you say it could be indeed a bug, which should be reported?

Also, there’s yet another apart issue that I’m not sure whether it’s Gnome: in login screen -thus even before entering Gnome session-, if I choose to shutdown, I’m given the shutdown screen indeed, but now it ALWAYS displays the “install pendant updates” checkbox, even if I just ran zypper up. I’m 100% sure this checkbox now never disappears…

And yes, it happened when creating the test user as well.

19

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:36:02 +0000, F style wrote:

> @hendersj:
> So after finally giving accurate data, would you say it could be indeed
> a bug, which should be reported?

Based on the information I have, yes, I would suggest submitting it as a
bug and see what the developers come back with - they may not see it as a
bug, but may know better what the cause is and how to fix or mitigate it.

Otherwise, I would not have suggested you do that.

> Also, there’s yet another apart issue that I’m not sure whether it’s
> Gnome: in login screen -thus even before entering Gnome session-, if I
> choose to shutdown, I’m given the shutdown screen indeed, but now it
> ALWAYS displays the “install pendant updates” checkbox, even if I just
> ran zypper up. I’m 100% sure this checkbox now never disappears…
>
> And yes, it happened when creating the test user as well.

That sounds like a totally different issue.

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C