Newbie. Ubuntu 21.10 Gnome. Nautilus file manager not working right.

[Advait]

The Nautilus icon is on my taskbar. I'm using Gnome with the Dash To Dock plugin.

When I click on the Nautilus icon it opens a file manager window, but there's no orange line under the icon. Also, the "hover over icon" function isn't working. That means, when I hover my mouse over the icon, the open windows don't pop out. These problems started right after I upgraded from 21.04 to 21.10. Anyway to fix this?

I did a google search for this problem but didn't find anything relevant.

When I use the Dolphin file manager, it works properly. But Dolphin doesn't offer the "Other Locations" option which I often use.

[TheFu]

If you are really new to Ubuntu, it is best to stay with the LTS releases. The current LTS is 20.04 and it has 3 more years of standard support unlike the releases you've been running which have 9 months of total support, which typically means 6 months of use.

I don't know that 20.04 Nautilus works as you desire. I barely, if ever, use file managers. This post is more about carefully choosing to run LTS releases, not short-term, "hold my beer" and "lookie here" releases.

[Advait]

I haven't considered LTS releases but they may be a better option for me as a newbie. I'll research. Thx!

[TheFu]

I'm a 25+ yr Linux user, admin and programmer. I only use LTS for anything important.

The non-LTS releases are for seeing what is coming or if my hardware is so bleeding edge that there's no method of HW support other than using a non-LTS release. In general, I wait at least a year before getting something new and even then, I'll research the important things (like the chips used in a NIC) to avoid compatibility issues. I've been burned too many times. I know not to trust "Supports Linux" on a box, since it could easily be a 4 yr old kernel that had the support, but nothing newer. Actually had exactly that issue with a RAID card. The vendor plastered "Linux Supported!" all over the box and it was a well-known, but not high-end, RAID company. The RAID aspects never worked, BTW. Thankfully, the JBOD modes did work fine and I learned why all Linux people say to avoid HW-RAID and use SW-RAID. It is actually a blessing that HW-RAID support didn't work, I've learned. When the RAID card died (all cards die), I didn't lose any data and just connected the array to different ports inside the system. I've also moved the array twice - it is on the 3rd system now, but soon to be moved again to a Ryzen (the 4th system). I wouldn't have been able to do that with HW-RAID without risking new drivers and data access changes (total data loss).

[Autodave]

13 year user here and I learned a long time ago to only use the LTS releases.

[Advait]

1. I have a perhaps irrational desire to have the latest versions of Ubuntu with a newer kernel. My historical experience is that upgrading from one release to the next usually causes only minimal problems. Having the latest versions outweigh the problems (almost always).

2. If problems do arise, that means I learn more about Linux/Ubuntu as I resolve the problems with the help of the wonderful Linux community. That's a plus.

3. I always use Clonezilla to make multiple full images of my system drive right before I upgrade. So if an upgrade goes bad, I just restore from an image. Easy.

Now back to my original question: If anyone can help solve my issue, would be great. Thanks!

[KBar]

Could you post the list of installed GNOME Shell extensions? If you have installed them via apt, you can invoke dpkg:

dpkg --list 'gnome-shell-extension*'

Also, try creating a new user and see if the problem persists.

Are you affected by this bug?

[Dennis N]

there's no orange line under the icon. Also, the "hover over icon" function isn't working.

As to the "hover over icon" function, all you should get by hovering is the name of the application as given in it's .desktop file. If you want to see window previews, right-click the icon and select "All Windows" (see attached image).

The orange line may be the window counter. Mine are white dots. Check the appearance tab in dash to dock preferences and try the various settings.

Realize that the workings of Dash to Dock can change from version to version.

[zebra2]

Nautilus is under active development to keep up with Ubuntu Gnome. I use Ubuntu 22.04 as my primary system and have Nautilus version 41 installed by default. My secondary system runs Ubuntu 21.10 and has Nautilus version 40.2 installed. both of these versions of Nautilus are completely different than the version that I had installed with Ubuntu 9.10 12 years ago. My guess is that your Nautilus is working as designed. I just don't understand why you went from the LTS to 21.10. Why not jump all the way across the stream and use 22.04. Yes, it will also be even more different. I personally have run every development version since I switched to linux back in 2009. The biggest thing I have learned from the experience is tolerance and how to recover from a crash.
So far as what to do about your issue, I would say go back to the LTS. But change will still be on the horizon. Much to do with changes in the underlying dependencies.

[Advait]

Could you post the list of installed GNOME Shell extensions? If you have installed them via apt, you can invoke dpkg:

dpkg --list 'gnome-shell-extension*'

Sure, see below. Anything interesting?

advait@advait-Bravo-15-A4DDR:~$ dpkg --list 'gnome-shell-extension*'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                                     Version       Architecture Description
+++-========================================-=============-============-==================================================================
ii  gnome-shell-extension-appindicator       40-1          all          AppIndicator, KStatusNotifierItem and tray support for GNOME Shell
un  gnome-shell-extension-autohidetopbar     <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-caffeine           <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-panel      <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-dashtodock         <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons      <none>        <none>       (no description available)
ii  gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng   20-0ubuntu3   all          desktop icon support for GNOME Shell
un  gnome-shell-extension-gamemode           <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-multi-monitors     <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-pixelsaver         <none>        <none>       (no description available)
ii  gnome-shell-extension-prefs              40.5-1ubuntu2 amd64        tool to enable / disable GNOME Shell extensions
un  gnome-shell-extension-taskbar            <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extension-top-icons-plus     <none>        <none>       (no description available)
ii  gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock        70~ubuntu3    all          Ubuntu Dock for GNOME Shell
un  gnome-shell-extension-workspaces-to-dock <none>        <none>       (no description available)
un  gnome-shell-extensions                   <none>        <none>       (no description available)
advait@advait-Bravo-15-A4DDR:~$