GNOME randomly reverts to default theme, then refuses to touch Nautilus

[dpc.ucore.info]

This is so irritating issue. I had it since 10.10. I thought it's related to my Awesome WM setup, but now I see that more people have it and must be some race condition.

What I have noticed is that during booting/logging in time there's still gnome-setting-manager process belonging to gdm user. This one probably collides with newly started session and once it finishes, the theme goes gray. So I force gdm to kill it while still being gdb user:

[mutex:~]% cat /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default
#!/bin/sh
#
# Note: this is a sample and will not be run as is.  Change the name of this
# file to <gdmconfdir>/PostLogin/Default for this script to be run.  This
# script will be run before any setup is run on behalf of the user and is
# useful if you for example need to do some setup to create a home directory
# for the user or something like that.  $HOME, $LOGIN and such will all be
# set appropriately and this script is run as root.

killall gnome-settings-daemon 1>>/tmp/log.1 2>>/tmp/log.2
killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon 1>>/tmp/log.1 2>>/tmp/log.2
[mutex:~]% ls -al !$
ls -al /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 561 2011-05-11 13:57 /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default
[mutex:~]%

So far the problem does not reappear, while previously I had it at every login.

[Kupfer]

I just had the bug appear in Natty after logging out and back in. I have Ubuntu One disabled in the Startup Applications, so yet again a confirmation that it seemingly has nothing to do with it.

If all signs point to GDM as the culprit, I have a question to ponder: Will the planned replacement of GDM with LightDM in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot finally resolve this issue?


@dpc.ucore.info

I would like to try out your fix but your post is not clear to me.
Should I create a file called Default in /etc/gdm/PostLogin/ with the contents you posted as is, or what should I write in the script? Furthermore, should I mark it executable and put it in the Startup Programs or should it just simply reside in /etc/gdm/PostLogin/?

Thanks for your help!

[metallus]

As you can see, the script is already executable. So copy /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default.sample to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default , paste the two lines in it and restart GDM (logout and login) or reboot.

[Kupfer]

As you can see, the script is already executable. So copy /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default.sample to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default , paste the two lines in it and restart GDM (logout and login) or reboot.

Thank You! I implemented the changes, let's see if the bug reappears...

[kjano]

this is probably the same bug that I am having with gnome 3 right now: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1725221&page=3

[Kupfer]

this is probably the same bug that I am having with gnome 3 right now: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1725221&page=3

You could try dpc.ucore.info's solution (see posts 261-264). Would be nice to see if it really does work. I only had this bug appear once since I installed Natty (had it all the time with Maverick), so I only implemented dpc.ucore.info's fix as a kind of security net. The bug did not appear since but I can't verify if this is because it's rare anyway for me these days or dpc.ucore.info really works...

We need a definitive fix for this bug.

[kjano]

I get

> gnome-settings-daemon

** (gnome-settings-daemon:23888): WARNING **: Ignoring unknown module 'org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.gconf'

** (gnome-settings-daemon:23888): WARNING **: Name taken or bus went away - shutting down
Segmentation fault

[bdudek]

My 11.04 amd64 machine started doing this and I loaded lightDM and removed GDM. That fixed it for me.

[pmorch]

My 11.04 amd64 machine started doing this and I loaded lightDM and removed GDM. That fixed it for me.

I just did that too on my 11.04 vmware installation and that worked flawlessly.