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

[STurner31]

Apparently, I spoke too soon. I haven't re-installed the sun-java6-plugin package, nor have I gone back to using Docky, but I just saw my theme revert to the Gnome default.

I was trying to print a pdf to a networked printer (that worked fine this morning) and having a lot of trouble. The job would get added to the queue but then it would never print. After poking around in CUPS, I tried to open System->Administration->Printing and then view the printing queue. That's when the revert happened.

I'm starting to think that this bug is related to available system resources. Since I only see it when several programs are running simultaneously, and it seems to only show itself when one of those programs is closed or when a new program is opened (i.e. an operation that requires even more resources is requested).

My hardware is older, I'm using a 5 year-old Sony Vaio PCG-K45 with a 3.2GHz P4 and 1Gb of RAM. Is anyone else out there using something modern and seeing this bug?

[ubuntwinkel]

Similar issue, I think. My system had been idle for some time while I was at work. On return, Gnome-panel was frozen (which it does fairly regularly, and is related to NFS or SSHFS flakiness, and has never caused, in the past, any reversion to default theme). Interacting with Nautilus to detect which network share was down caused Nautilus to freeze, with a huge spike in overall system load, briefly freezing everything a couple times over about a minute. Gradually the Gnome theme reverted to the default, starting with the system tray, then spreading throughout the system. Gnome panel came back to life. Starting 'Appearance Preferences' restored my chosen theme throughout the system EXCEPT in Nautilus. But only for my user. Nautilus started as root had the chosen theme, not the default, as shown below.


(Nautilus-root is on top with the chosen theme, Nautilus for user joe is beneath with the default theme, and farthest back is the Log File Viewer, again with the chosen theme.

Below is the only untoward event noted in syslog, and it occurred four times, all coinciding with the Nautilus crash:

Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660215] INFO: task nautilus:10277 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660223] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660229] nautilus D ffff88010dc1a4c0 0 10277 2559 0x00000004
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660239] ffff88010fc09bd8 0000000000000082 0000000000015bc0 0000000000015bc0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660249] ffff88010ccc4858 ffff88010fc09fd8 0000000000015bc0 ffff88010ccc44a0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660257] 0000000000015bc0 ffff88010fc09fd8 0000000000015bc0 ffff88010ccc4858
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660265] Call Trace:
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660284] [<ffffffff81542907>] __mutex_lock_slowpath+0xf7/0x180
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660293] [<ffffffff815427eb>] mutex_lock+0x2b/0x50
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660302] [<ffffffff8114ce6e>] real_lookup+0x3e/0x160
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660310] [<ffffffff8114eeb8>] do_lookup+0xb8/0xf0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660317] [<ffffffff8114f42d>] __link_path_walk+0x1ad/0xf80
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660326] [<ffffffff810845b0>] ? wake_bit_function+0x0/0x40
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660334] [<ffffffff81543e0e>] ? _spin_lock+0xe/0x20
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660343] [<ffffffff81135842>] ? __slab_alloc+0x92/0x2d0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660351] [<ffffffff8115047a>] path_walk+0x6a/0xe0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660358] [<ffffffff8115064b>] do_path_lookup+0x5b/0xa0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660366] [<ffffffff81151317>] user_path_at+0x57/0xa0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660374] [<ffffffff8127ec2d>] ? aa_dup_task_context+0x3d/0x70
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660382] [<ffffffff812842c0>] ? apparmor_cred_prepare+0x40/0x60
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660392] [<ffffffff81252626>] ? security_prepare_creds+0x16/0x20
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660400] [<ffffffff81141ea1>] sys_faccessat+0xd1/0x1d0
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660407] [<ffffffff81141fb8>] sys_access+0x18/0x20
Dec 12 01:08:42 blubox kernel: [260640.660416] [<ffffffff810121b2>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b

I haven't restored the chosen theme to Nautilus (for my user), despite many attempts and several restarts of Nautilus. Rebooting will work, I suspect. But rebooting will also eliminate whatever evidence of this bug is extant right now in my system. I will report back any discoveries, but in this thread, more methodical minds than mine have yet to discover the cause, so I doubt I'll be able to.

PS: I recently installed the text editors Kate and Kwrite (because gedit balks way too often, giving 'unknown encoding' errors). And Kate was open at the time of this malfunction (along with OOOcalc, gnome-terminal, Rhythmbox, Chromium, uTorrent, and Thunar). Also, I'm running Compiz, and restarting that didn't help.

[Kupfer]

Same thing started happening to me two days ago on an Asus EeePC with Ubuntu 10.10 desktop edition. The Ambiance and Radiance themes keep randomly reverting to the Gnome default when logging in. When I start the Appearence Preferences, it partly fixes the problem, but my theme is shown as 'Custom'. Whenever I choose Ambiance or Radiance again, after logging in (and the default gnome theme greets me to my annoyance), it always reverts to 'Custom'.
I even reinstalled Ubuntu - had the 64bit edition running with loads of ppas enabled, so I figured maybe some update from an untrusted source is responsible - but the issue just appeared on Ubuntu 32bit with minimal number of ppas enabled.
Good thing I keep my OS and data on separate partitions so I can reinstall happily, because until this is sorted out, I'm going to look for a replacement distro. This bug really annoys the hell out of me. It is the second day this is going on and I'm not happy about it.

This is how my Radiance looks right now:

[bloodorange]

My issues seem to be a bit different from the ones people in this thread are experiencing.

In my case the theme only reverts to gnome default upon boot. The login screen got the correct theme, but as soon as I log in it's the gnome default. This does not happen every time I boot, but only sometimes.

Just to say I'm getting exactly the same problem. It started only a couple of days ago. I'm running 64-bit Maverick.

[holmes102980]

Same problem here too. It seemed to start after I installed updates on my machine. It just randomly reverts to the system theme and icons. Hope there is a fix soon.

[holmes102980]

The updates this morning seem to have fixed the problem so far.

[STurner31]

Thanks to those who replied for confirming that this bug is not simply due to older hardware.

Also, as Holmes pointed out, there is a new update for gnome-settings-daemon. Hopefully, this update includes a fix for the problem, but I'm not expecting too much.

[Kupfer]

I used this bug as an opportunity to repartition my hard drive and I would like to reinstall Maverick if the problem has been solved. So, is anyone still experiencing this rather annoying bug since updating or did it resolve the issue? Thanks for the feedback.

[rookcifer]

Same exact thing is happening to me. I get that ugly grey theme when logging in every time. After I right-click on desktop and hit "change background" (which will lead you to the theme manager) it automatically fixes it, but only partly. The icons on my desktop remain with the ugly grey theme and nautilus itself remains with the grey theme.

Gotta be a bug somewhere. This has happened to me on and of for weeks, but has been doing it every time I log-in lately. I really hope the Gnome team gets this sorted out.

I am going to check for updates right now (been about 2 days since I updated), so we'll see.

I am running 64-bit Maverick and my hardware is not old (X2 Athlon, 2GB RAM, new Nvidia graphics card).


EDIT:

Just checked for updates and there are none. So, this is still an issue as of Dec 16th.

[NonStop]

Same thing started happening to me two days ago on an Asus EeePC with Ubuntu 10.10 desktop edition. The Ambiance and Radiance themes keep randomly reverting to the Gnome default when logging in. When I start the Appearence Preferences, it partly fixes the problem, but my theme is shown as 'Custom'. Whenever I choose Ambiance or Radiance again, after logging in (and the default gnome theme greets me to my annoyance), it always reverts to 'Custom'.
I even reinstalled Ubuntu - had the 64bit edition running with loads of ppas enabled, so I figured maybe some update from an untrusted source is responsible - but the issue just appeared on Ubuntu 32bit with minimal number of ppas enabled.
Good thing I keep my OS and data on separate partitions so I can reinstall happily, because until this is sorted out, I'm going to look for a replacement distro. This bug really annoys the hell out of me. It is the second day this is going on and I'm not happy about it.

This is how my Radiance looks right now:

This is what is happening to me also, exactly the same. Very frustrating.