Nautilus has become impossibly slow. It takes about 15 seconds to initially load and display the /home directory structures. When switching to show file system, it takes maybe 30 seconds to load and display information. When going to a directory like /usr/bin which contains 2500 items, it takes literally 5 minutes to load data. To the point where I think it is locked up but it does eventually load information.
Two CPUS are going alternately at 100 % and other near 0% w/only nautilus open but usage is cycling alternately between the two CPUs.
This behavior seems new and I did not notice it in the past. Using 4pane gives a near instantaneous display and functionality. 4pane does not have all the functionality of nautilus and I’d prefer nautilus.
I have gnome 2.3 desktop, suse 11.4, 32 bit system.
I have seen where nautilus does some detailed checking of dirs and files before opening but this seems excessive.
Per caf4926 suggestion, I logged out and relogged in. There was no change of the characteristics previously noted after the relogin. Times were approximately the same to access various directories.
As a followup, after /usr/bin with 2500 items loaded (approximately 4+ minutes – a trip upstairs to the coffee pot) I noted that it took approximately 1.5 minutes to change back to /home directory.
One question, does nautilus use some file/directory database to load faster and could this database somehow be getting destroyed?
Only change I did detect was that the CPU usage seemed lower during the loading of a directory listing.
Of course a terminal window loads this directories almost instantaneously.
On 11/16/2011 05:46 PM, tckosvic wrote:
> Per caf4926 suggestion, I logged out and relogged in.
he suggested to “test a new user”…and by that he meant for you to use
YaST > Security & Users > User and Group Management to create a new
user (say, for example, named “tester”) and give that new test user a
good strong password (don’t forget it) and then log out, and log back
in as the new test user…
why? because often the problem is due to corruption of some configure
files inside your home…and, logging in as “testers” will avoid your
home’s configure files and instead use a new, default config…
try that, and try Nautilus as the new user…then report back…
I did create a new user and logged in as that user. Nautilus performed fine. It read /usr/bin with 2500 items in it in a matter of 5 seconds or so. I ran nautilus as the new user and also as root and the problem behavior was not there.
I rebooted and logged in as my original user (not the new user) and the problem is still the same.
Now how do I detect which configuration files might be corrupted?
Finding the culprit will be like a needle in a haystack, especially in Gnome.
Here is what I would do.
Boot a live CD (Doesn’t have to be openSUSE) But it needs to be able to copy files. Ubuntu, Mint openSUSE I have used.
Copy the contents of your normal user to the test account you just created. Only copy hidden file and folders you absolutely need. (Even better, put the hidden files on a Flash drive)
Next (If you are sure you have all your files) delete your normal account, including it’s Home.
Next create your normal username account again and copy your files back over.
Eventually, you can delete the test account, when everything is OK and working
On 11/17/2011 01:56 PM, tckosvic wrote:
>
> Now how do I detect which configuration files might be corrupted?
i’m not a gnome user so i’m not sure [maybe one will speak up?!]…but,
i would look in your home for a hidden directory .gnome and then look
inside that directory and hope to find a file named (maybe) nautilus.conf
and if you find such then rename it to (say) nautilus.conf.BAK then
close all instances of nautilus and when you reopen it it will
autogenerate a new, default (like the test user’s) config and your
problem should be gone…
NOW: lets talk about your line “I ran nautilus as the new user and also
as root”, and ask you to tell me how you ran nautilus as root…it might
have a bearing on how your original nautilus.conf (if there is such a
thing) got corrupted in the first place…
Most often I start nautilus as Username. When started in this manner the strip at the top bar of nautilus gives my Username.
I start nautilus as root but starting a terminal window. Then do an su - to switch to root. Then type nautilus on the commandline. The top bar strip of nautilus now says root (superuser). Using nautilus as root allows more gui type functionality when manipulating files and directories owned by root. I find this sometimes more convenient then using commandline processes for manipulation of root owned files.
DenverD, I do like your approach to regenerating a nautilis conf file and I will try that and report back. Give it a whirl.
The approach by caf4926 is more precarious as I can risk losing programs and files in my home directories and probably more trouble then the problem is worth. I can always use 4pane.