file manager stopped working

[quercusrobur]

Hi can anybody advise - I'm using Ubuntu 9.10. For some reason the file manager has stopped working. I was editing some files with Inkscape which crashed. I used the 'force quit' applet to exit this application. After this double clicking on a desktop icon no longer worked, nor could I explore any folders using the 'Places' menu. Have shut down and restarted the laptop twice but no help. When shutting down I got the message that 'File Manager is not working'. Any advice gratefully accepted! Thanks

[prshah]

I got the message that 'File Manager is not working'.

Can you try launching the file manager from a terminal (Applications-Accessories-Terminal)?

If you are using gnome, give the command
nautilus
if you are using KDE (kubuntu), give the command
dolphin
If you are using xfce(Xubuntu), give the command
thunar

Please post back error messages; this can give a clue as to what is wrong and how to fix it.

[quercusrobur]

typed 'nautilus' into a terminal and got this output;

graham@graham-laptop:~$ nautilus

(nautilus:2473): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[quercusrobur]

Finally worked out that a corrupt file on the desktop was causing the problem, but couldn't delete it as everytime I went anywhere near it Nautilus would freeze - eventually dealt with it by installing Thunar and using that to delete it - everything seems to be working fine now!!