Can't close/kill/stop instance of Nautilus File Browser

littlepear · June 10, 2010, 12:30am

I’m running
Opensuse 11.2
Kernel Linux 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop
GNOME 2.28.2

I have an instance of Nautilus File Browser that will not close or be killed, and it always opens to the same directory, kdenlive in my home directory.

I’m a newbie and have already googled. Rebooting, logging out and in as someone else, then logging back in again as myself doesn’t stop it. And, I’m afraid to uninstall Nautilus. I’ve tried Re-installing it to no avail.

:mad: Harumph!

DenverD · June 10, 2010, 8:22am

littlepear wrote:
> I have an instance of Nautilus File Browser that will not close or be
> killed … I’m a newbie … Harumph!

-=welcome=- new poster to openSUSE and our forum!

you don’t say if you are a newbie to Linux (with experience with
(an)other operating sytem(s)), or an openSUSE newbie (with experience
in other Linux systems) or a computer newbie (with no experience with
other operating systems) so i’ll assume you are a Linux newbie:

-shut down all open instances of Nautilus (that you can…leaving only
the troublesome one(s) open

-hold down Alt and press F2

-type in the blank


xterm

-a new terminal window will pop up, if not again hold down Alt and
press F2 and this time type


gnome-terminal

-in the terminal type and enter


ps -e | grep nautilus

-that will return an output looking something like:


3836 ?        00:00:08 nautilus

-using the four digit number from your return (not mine), type


kill 3836

-one of two things will happen

the unwanted nautilus will close (and should not come back after a
reboot–if it does post again) so all left to do is close the terminal
window by type and enter


exit

instead of the bad Nautilus closing, you see in the terminal
window something like this:


bash: kill: (3836) - Operation not permitted

which means you can’t kill that instance of Nautilus because it is a
process not owned by you…it is probably owned by root, and i guess
it was first started when you logged into your Gnome as root (thinking
that is okay…it is NOT, see more on that later down…but first we
kill the bad Nautilus).

NOTE: i have zero idea why you have a root instance of Nautilus
running and open to kdenlive! have you been editing video? do you have
a backup of all your video work? if not, now is a GREAT time to stop
here and backup your work, FIRST! if you already have a backup copy,
proceed:

-in the still open terminal window type and enter


su -

NOTE: do not overlook the single space and dash following su

-the terminal will reply


root's password:

-so, type in root’s password (probably the same as your own, unless
you set it to something else) and enter…NOTE: you will NOT see what
you type but the machine will, type carefully

-the terminal will show you are now root by changing to a red font and
showing the # symbol, type (carefully) using the the same four digit
number from your earlier terminal, and enter


kill 3836

NOW the errant Nautilus should close and not return and the only thing
we MUST do now is close that root powered terminal by typing and entering


exit

-the font will return to black (showing you are once again logged into
that terminal as yourself), then type and enter exit once more and the
window will close…

done…congratulations…(or post again)…now, back to:

you should never log into KDE/Gnome/XFCE or any other *nix-like
graphical user interface desktop environment as root…

doing so 1) opens you up to several different security problems, 2)
too many too easy ways to damage your system no matter how careful
your actions (example: just browsing in your home directory while
logged into KDE/Gnome/etc as root can lock you out later as yourself
due to permissions damage), 3) and, anyway logging into KDE/etc as
root is never required to do any and all administrative duties…

so, always log in as yourself, and “become root” by using a root
powered application (like YaST, File Manager Superuser Mode) or using
“su -”, sudo, kdesu, or gnomesu in a terminal to launch whatever tool
is needed (like Kwrite to edit a config file)…read more on all that
here:

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase-runtime/userguide/root.html
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh

littlepear · June 10, 2010, 7:53pm

Thanks, DenverD,

I wasn’t ever able to kill the window from the terminal window, it would just respawn itself with a new ID number.

But, after numerious logging in/out with different usernames, restarting, cold booting, I was finally able to close the bugger. I’m glad. I tried to minimize and ignore it, but it was making me grumpy.

DenverD · June 10, 2010, 8:17pm

littlepear wrote:
> Thanks, DenverD,
>
> I wasn’t ever able to kill the window from the terminal window, it
> would just respawn itself with a new ID number.
>
> But, after numerious logging in/out with different usernames,
> restarting, cold booting, I was finally able to close the bugger. I’m
> glad. I tried to minimize and ignore it, but it was making me grumpy.
>
>
VERY strange!

was you machine born with this Nautilus open? or was it the result of
something you did?

maybe you have a faulty install, did you:

get your install image from http://software.opensuse.org/112/en ?
(if not, then where?)
check the md5sum of the downloaded iso?
do this http://tinyurl.com/yajm2aq before install attempt?

if you answered “no” (or “don’t know”) to any of those then backup
your data and see the following cites before you start over:
http://en.opensuse.org/Download_Help
http://tinyurl.com/yhf65pv
http://tinyurl.com/ycly3eg

littlepear · June 19, 2010, 10:35pm

Thanks DenverD. Since the window’s closed it hasn’t popped up, but I’m filing your last info for stuff to try if it pops up again.

-LP:)