Bug#860796: nautilus: Nautilus does not lauch it's file browser when a desktop icon is clicked (or double clicked)

[Ben Green]

Package: nautilus
Version: 3.22.3-1
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

This bug is present from boot accross all logins on both the systems I
currently have at 'Stretch'.

After double clicking a folder on the Gnome Desktop with desktop icons enabled,
nothing happens. This began happening after an upgrade.

Nautilus runs as a file browser absolutely fine when:

* Running it from a shell
* Right clicking on a folder icon and selecting "Open With Other Application"
then selecting "Files" in the application chooser.

I does not open when:

* Double clicking a folder on the desktop
* Right clicking a folder and selecting "Open"




-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages nautilus depends on:
ii desktop-file-utils 0.23-1
ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.22.0-1
ii gvfs 1.30.4-1
ii libatk1.0-0 2.22.0-1
ii libc6 2.24-9
ii libcairo-gobject2 1.14.8-1
ii libcairo2 1.14.8-1
ii libexempi3 2.4.1-1
ii libexif12 0.6.21-2+b2
ii libgail-3-0 3.22.11-1
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.36.5-2
ii libglib2.0-0 2.50.3-2
ii libglib2.0-data 2.50.3-2
ii libgnome-autoar-0-0 0.1.1-4+b1
ii libgnome-desktop-3-12 3.22.2-1
ii libgtk-3-0 3.22.11-1
ii libnautilus-extension1a 3.22.3-1
ii libpango-1.0-0 1.40.4-1
ii libselinux1 2.6-3+b1
ii libtracker-sparql-1.0-0 1.10.5-1
ii libx11-6 2:1.6.4-3
ii nautilus-data 3.22.3-1
ii shared-mime-info 1.8-1

Versions of packages nautilus recommends:
ii gnome-sushi 3.21.91-2
ii gvfs-backends 1.30.4-1
ii librsvg2-common 2.40.16-1+b1

Versions of packages nautilus suggests:
ii atril [pdf-viewer] 1.16.1-2
ii brasero 3.12.1-4
ii eog 3.20.5-1+b1
ii evince [pdf-viewer] 3.22.1-3
ii mpg321 [mp3-decoder] 0.3.2-1.1
ii nautilus-sendto 3.8.4-2+b1
ii okular [pdf-viewer] 4:16.08.2-1+b1
ii totem 3.22.1-1
ii tracker 1.10.5-1
ii vlc [mp3-decoder] 1:2.2.4-dmo15
ii xdg-user-dirs 0.15-2+b1

-- no debconf information

[Ben Green]

Desktop icons work fine for me just from selecting "Icons on Desktop" in
gnome-tweak-tool. Do you have any other desktop environments installed,
even if you aren't using them, like KDE, mate, cinnamon, or anything
else in /usr/share/dbus-1/services that provides
org.freedesktop.FileManager1? Do logs (journalctl or syslog) show
anything relevant when you try to double click a folder?

I do have KDE, mate and xfce4 installed. Having removed and purged KDE
from my laptop, which shares the same issue, there's no difference.

There used to be a problem that clicking on a desktop file would
launch dolphin. I've fixed this in the past by removing:

/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.dolphin.FileManager1.service

Though it's presence, tested through reboots, makes no difference to
the current situation.

Here's a listing of /usr/share/dbus-1/services/ FWIW

blueman-applet.service
ca.desrt.dconf-editor.service
ca.desrt.dconf.service
com.intel.dleyna-renderer.service
com.intel.dleyna-server.service
kf5_org.kde.kuiserver.service
org.a11y.Bus.service
org.bluez.obex.service
org.enlightenment.Efreet.service
org.enlightenment.Ethumb.service
org.exaile.Exaile.service
org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.service
org.freedesktop.Akonadi.Control.service
org.freedesktop.ColorHelper.service
org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service
org.freedesktop.Flatpak.service
org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Master.service
org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Providers.Hostip.service
org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Providers.Localnet.service
org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Providers.Manual.service
org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Providers.Nominatim.service
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore.service
org.freedesktop.mate.Notifications.service
org.freedesktop.PackageKit.service
org.freedesktop.portal.Documents.service
org.freedesktop.secrets.service
org.freedesktop.systemd1.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.AccountManager.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.AbiCollab.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Auth.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Call.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.Chat.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Empathy.FileTransfer.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Logger.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Polari.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Vinagre.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Vino.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.gabble.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.haze.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.idle.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.salut.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.ConnectionManager.sofiasip.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Logger.service
org.freedesktop.Telepathy.MissionControl5.service
org.freedesktop.Tracker1.service
org.freedesktop.Tracker1.Writeback.service
org.gna.home.a2jmidid.service
org.gnome.baobab.service
org.gnome.bijiben.SearchProvider.service
org.gnome.Books.service
org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider.service
org.gnome.Calendar.service
org.gnome.Camera.service
org.gnome.Caribou.Antler.service
org.gnome.Caribou.Daemon.service
org.gnome.Characters.BackgroundService.service
org.gnome.Characters.service
org.gnome.Cheese.service
org.gnome.ChromeGnomeShell.service
org.gnome.clocks.service
org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider.service
org.gnome.Contacts.service
org.gnome.ControlCenter.SearchProvider.service
org.gnome.ControlCenter.service
org.gnome.Dictionary.service
org.gnome.DiskUtility.service
org.gnome.Documents.service
org.gnome.evince.Daemon.service
org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.AddressBook.service
org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Calendar.service
org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Sources.service
org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.UserPrompter.service
org.gnome.FileRoller.ArchiveManager1.service
org.gnome.FileRoller.service
org.gnome.font-viewer.service
org.gnome.GConf.service
org.gnome.gedit.service
org.gnome.hamster.service
org.gnome.hamster.Windows.service
org.gnome.Identity.service
org.gnome.keyring.PrivatePrompter.service
org.gnome.keyring.service
org.gnome.keyring.SystemPrompter.service
org.gnome.Logs.service
org.gnome.Maps.service
org.gnome.Nautilus.service
org.gnome.OnlineAccounts.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.Facebook.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.Flickr.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.GData.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.MediaServer.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.Owncloud.service
org.gnome.OnlineMiners.Zpj.service
org.gnome.Photos.service
org.gnome.Polari.service
org.gnome.Rhythmbox3.service
org.gnome.Rygel1.service
org.gnome.Screenshot.service
org.gnome.seahorse.Application.service
org.gnome.seahorse.service
org.gnome.Shell.CalendarServer.service
org.gnome.Shell.HotplugSniffer.service
org.gnome.Shell.PortalHelper.service
org.gnome.Software.service
org.gnome.Sushi.service
org.gnome.taquin.service
org.gnome.Terminal.service
org.gnome.Tomboy.service
org.gnome.Totem.service
org.gnome.Weather.Application.service
org.gnome.Weather.BackgroundService.service
org.gnome.zeitgeist.Engine.service
org.gnome.zeitgeist.SimpleIndexer.service
org.gtk.GLib.PACRunner.service
org.gtk.vfs.AfcVolumeMonitor.service
org.gtk.vfs.Daemon.service
org.gtk.vfs.GoaVolumeMonitor.service
org.gtk.vfs.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor.service
org.gtk.vfs.Metadata.service
org.gtk.vfs.MTPVolumeMonitor.service
org.gtk.vfs.UDisks2VolumeMonitor.service
org.hexchat.service.service
org.jackaudio.service
org.kde.fontinst.service
org.kde.kaccessible.service
org.kde.kcookiejar5.service
org.kde.kdeconnect.service
org.kde.kded5.service
org.kde.kget.service
org.kde.kglobalaccel.service
org.kde.kiod5.service
org.kde.knotify.service
org.kde.kpasswdserver.service
org.kde.krunner.service
org.kde.kscreen.service
org.kde.kssld5.service
org.kde.kuiserver.service
org.kde.kwalletd5.service
org.kde.kwalletd.service
org.kde.Spectacle.service
org.mate.atril.Daemon.service
org.mate.Engrampa.service
org.mate.freedesktop.FileManager1.service
org.mate.panel.applet.AccessxStatusAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.BattstatAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.BrightnessAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.CharpickerAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.ClockAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.CommandAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.CPUFreqAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.DictionaryAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.DriveMountAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.FishAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.GeyesAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.InhibitAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.InvestAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.MateWeatherAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.MultiLoadAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.NetspeedAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.NotificationAreaAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.StickyNotesAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.TimerAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.TrashAppletFactory.service
org.mate.panel.applet.WnckletFactory.service
org.mate.PowerManager.service
org.mate.ScreenSaver.service
org.mate.SettingsDaemon.service
org.xfce.FileManager.service
org.xfce.Thunar.service
org.xfce.Tumbler.Cache1.service
org.xfce.Tumbler.Manager1.service
org.xfce.Tumbler.Thumbnailer1.service
org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service
org.xfce.Xfconf.service

I'll next try removing mate and xfce4 to see if that helps.

Cheers,
Ben

[Jason Crain]

I do have KDE, mate and xfce4 installed. Having removed and purged KDE from
my laptop, which shares the same issue, there's no difference.
There used to be a problem that clicking on a desktop file would launch
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.dolphin.FileManager1.service
Though it's presence, tested through reboots, makes no difference to the
current situation.
Here's a listing of /usr/share/dbus-1/services/ FWIW

[snip]

I'll next try removing mate and xfce4 to see if that helps.

I think that if you remove org.mate.freedesktop.FileManager1.service,
that might fix it. These all provide the org.freedesktop.FileManager1
dbus service and they might be interfering with each other. Ideally KDE
would use dolphin, mate would use caja, and gnome would use nautilus,
but I don't know if there's a way to tell dbus to start different
services for different DEs.

having had a looking journalctl and /var/log/syslog, I note that there is no
output produced when clicking desktop icons.

I'm surprised there's not at least something about dbus not being able
to start the org.freedesktop.FileManager1 service, or nautilus not being
able to show items.

[Michael Biebl]

Post by Jason Crain

I do have KDE, mate and xfce4 installed. Having removed and purged KDE from
my laptop, which shares the same issue, there's no difference.
There used to be a problem that clicking on a desktop file would launch
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.dolphin.FileManager1.service
Though it's presence, tested through reboots, makes no difference to the
current situation.
Here's a listing of /usr/share/dbus-1/services/ FWIW

[snip]

I'll next try removing mate and xfce4 to see if that helps.

I think that if you remove org.mate.freedesktop.FileManager1.service,
that might fix it. These all provide the org.freedesktop.FileManager1
dbus service and they might be interfering with each other. Ideally KDE
would use dolphin, mate would use caja, and gnome would use nautilus,
but I don't know if there's a way to tell dbus to start different
services for different DEs.

Having multiple D-Bus service files provide the same D-Bus name and
relying on D-Bus activation sounds like a recipe for disaster as you
will get unpredictable behavior depending on what's installed.

I wonder if it wouldn't be better if desktop environments started an
implementation of their choice via an XDG autostart file which is
specific to their desktop environment via OnlyShowIn=

[Simon McVittie]

Post by Michael Biebl

Post by Jason Crain
I don't know if there's a way to tell dbus to start different
services for different DEs.

There is not.

The only package that makes the D-Bus name foo.bar.baz activatable, if any,
should be the one that contains
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/foo.bar.baz.desktop.

Nautilus actually sort of gets this right - it provides
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service - but
that can't work if other file managers want to be co-installable with
Nautilus. In Ben's file listing, both XFCE and MATE install a file of
the wrong name for this service.

Recent Lintian will advise maintainers not to do this:
https://lintian.debian.org/tags/dbus-session-service-wrong-name.html

It would be better if all the file managers followed rules like these:

* none of them install a .service file with Name=org.freedesktop.FileManager1
(so sending messages to that name never starts a file manager, only
communicates with an existing file manager)
* none of them fail to start up if a different file manager already owns
the org.freedesktop.FileManager1 name (they can either replace it, if it
will let them, or quietly stay out of its way)
* they can be service-activatable if they want to, but only via their
implementation-specific names like org.gnome.Nautilus

Nautilus gets very close to this - it uses org.gnome.Nautilus for its
GApplication, and treats inability to acquire the
org.freedesktop.FileManager1 name as non-fatal. However, it does install
a D-Bus session .service file for it, which I think is not a good idea.

I think the actual root cause of this bug is that
nautilus-desktop/nautilus-desktop-application.c (the part of Nautilus
that draws files on the desktop) uses org.freedesktop.FileManager1 to
communicate with Nautilus. This means that if you double-click on a
folder on the desktop while Nautilus and some other file manager are
installed, but neither is currently running, service-activation will
pick a random file manager to run. This is clearly not very helpful.

I speculate that in Ben's case, dbus-daemon might be selecting a file
manager that is broken in some way, such that it silently fails to
start up. Running "dbus-monitor --session" while reproducing this bug
might provide evidence for or against this.

I think it would be better for nautilus-desktop-application to use
the org.gnome.Nautilus bus name, so it always launches specifically
Nautilus.

The down side of this is that if for some reason you are using Nautilus
to display folders on your desktop, but you are also actively running
some other desktop's file manager for some reason (let's say Caja), and you
double-click on the Foo folder on your desktop, arguably you might prefer
it if ~/Desktop/Foo was opened in Caja rather than Nautilus. But that seems
rather a contrived setup...

Post by Michael Biebl
Having multiple D-Bus service files provide the same D-Bus name and
relying on D-Bus activation sounds like a recipe for disaster as you
will get unpredictable behavior depending on what's installed.

Yes. Don't do this. dbus-daemon has no concept of priority for files
in the same directory: if you try to autostart org.freedesktop.FileManager1
while multiple .service files with that Name exist in the same directory
(and none in a higher-priority directory like ~/.local/share), you will get
a randomly chosen implementation dependent on readdir() order.

Post by Michael Biebl
I wonder if it wouldn't be better if desktop environments started an
implementation of their choice via an XDG autostart file which is
specific to their desktop environment via OnlyShowIn=

Yes, probably.

I'd also be happy to review designs and patches from any desktop
environment maintainers who want to define a way for this to work,
perhaps something like this:

# /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.Nautilus.service

[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.gnome.Nautilus
Exec=/usr/bin/nautilus --gapplication-service

[Implements org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service]
ConditionDesktop=GNOME;Unity;

However, I'm unlikely to get round to writing a formal specification for
that, or implementing it.

S

[Ben Green]

Post by Simon McVittie
I speculate that in Ben's case, dbus-daemon might be selecting a file
manager that is broken in some way, such that it silently fails to
start up. Running "dbus-monitor --session" while reproducing this bug
might provide evidence for or against this.

Well there's no shortage of output from that:


Double click
------------

method call time=1493204662.101319 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=264
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204662.101383 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=163 reply_serial=264
uint32 2
method call time=1493204662.102035 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=265
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204662.102091 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=164 reply_serial=265
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204662.102533 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=266 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204662.103356 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=266
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204662.104163 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=267
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204662.104245 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=165 reply_serial=267
uint32 2
method call time=1493204662.104744 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=268
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204662.104772 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=166 reply_serial=268
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204662.105365 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=269 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204662.106035 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=269
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204662.107095 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=270
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204662.107145 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=167 reply_serial=270
uint32 2
method call time=1493204662.107708 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=271
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204662.107751 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=168 reply_serial=271
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204662.108247 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=272 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204662.108955 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=272
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204662.109835 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=273
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204662.109899 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=169 reply_serial=273
uint32 2
method call time=1493204662.110337 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=274
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204662.110365 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=170 reply_serial=274
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204662.110899 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=275 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204662.111550 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=275
string "The specified location is not supported"




Single Click
------------

method call time=1493204700.591887 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=276
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204700.591966 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=171 reply_serial=276
uint32 2
method call time=1493204700.592425 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=277
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204700.592454 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=172 reply_serial=277
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204700.593016 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=278 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204700.593759 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=278
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204700.594617 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=279
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204700.594685 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=173 reply_serial=279
uint32 2
method call time=1493204700.594945 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=280
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204700.594973 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=174 reply_serial=280
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204700.595357 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=281 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204700.595903 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=281
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204700.596776 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=282
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204700.596814 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=175 reply_serial=282
uint32 2
method call time=1493204700.597112 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=283
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204700.597128 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=176 reply_serial=283
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204700.597520 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=284 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204700.597975 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=284
string "The specified location is not supported"
method call time=1493204700.598704 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=285
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=StartServiceByName
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
uint32 0
method return time=1493204700.598742 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=177 reply_serial=285
uint32 2
method call time=1493204700.598962 sender=:1.46 ->
destination=org.freedesktop.DBus serial=286
path=/org/freedesktop/DBus; interface=org.freedesktop.DBus;
member=GetNameOwner
string "org.gtk.vfs.Daemon"
method return time=1493204700.598977 sender=org.freedesktop.DBus ->
destination=:1.46 serial=178 reply_serial=286
string ":1.7"
method call time=1493204700.599258 sender=:1.46 -> destination=:1.7
serial=287 path=/org/gtk/vfs/mounttracker;
interface=org.gtk.vfs.MountTracker; member=LookupMount
struct {
array of bytes "/" + \0
array [
dict entry(
string "type"
variant array of bytes "x-nautilus-desktop" + \0
)
]
}
error time=1493204700.599697 sender=:1.7 -> destination=:1.46
error_name=org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code15
reply_serial=287
string "The specified location is not supported"



Cheers,
Ben

[Simon McVittie]

Post by Ben Green

Post by Simon McVittie
I speculate that in Ben's case, dbus-daemon might be selecting a file
manager that is broken in some way, such that it silently fails to
start up. Running "dbus-monitor --session" while reproducing this bug
might provide evidence for or against this.

Well there's no shortage of output from that

Huh. There is indeed no shortage of output, but it all seems to be gvfs:
none of it is an attempt to send messages to Nautilus. I was expecting
to see a message trying to start Nautilus (or more precisely
org.freedesktop.FileManager1) and perhaps an error reply.

Perhaps it would be more informative if you dbus-monitor'd the first
attempt to reproduce this bug after a reboot? Or if not that, then sorry,
I've run out of ideas.

S

[Ben Green]

Post by Simon McVittie

Post by Ben Green

Post by Simon McVittie
I speculate that in Ben's case, dbus-daemon might be selecting a file
manager that is broken in some way, such that it silently fails to
start up. Running "dbus-monitor --session" while reproducing this bug
might provide evidence for or against this.

Well there's no shortage of output from that

none of it is an attempt to send messages to Nautilus. I was expecting
to see a message trying to start Nautilus (or more precisely
org.freedesktop.FileManager1) and perhaps an error reply.
Perhaps it would be more informative if you dbus-monitor'd the first
attempt to reproduce this bug after a reboot? Or if not that, then sorry,
I've run out of ideas.
S

I've just tried, the output when running straight after a reboot is identical.

Also it appears that /usr/bin/nautilus --gapplication-service does not
in itself mean that desktop icons work. I have the service running in
a session and still clicking icons does nothing.

This might be missing core functionality for a whole load of users I
think. I'd really like to know who else is experiencing this. My only
two desktop based devices on Stretch have the issue. With my
incredibly small sample size this is looking catastrophic for a
Stretch roll out. If there's anything I can do to progress this
further please let me know.

Cheers,
Ben

[Ben Green]

Hi,

Some further observations. Here are two procedures on my system. I run
these via the gnome-terminal:


Procedure 1
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus &
nautilus-desktop &



Procedure 2
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus-desktop &


The following results are produced consistently:

Results of Procedure 1
======================
So with Procedure 1, I get a working desktop, with clickable folders
opening out in new nautilus windows. I note also that the launching of
nautilus-desktop is very fast, almost instant in most cases.

Of course with this procedure I also get nautilus launched with an
open home folder too due to having run nautilus. The desktops icons
are fully clickable though. If I close all the nautilus windows, the
clickability of desktop icons is lost.


Results of Procedure 2
======================
With Procedure 2 I get a desktop, but the icons are not clickable at
all, they will highlight but never open into nautilus folder displays.
Even if I then run 'nautilus' icons are not clickable.





Having had a look at this I can do:

Procedure 3
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus --gapplication-service &
nautilus-desktop &

Results of Procedure 3
======================
I get a desktop with clickable links _until_ 'nautilus
--gapplication-service' terminates (not sure why, it appears to exit
cleanly).



So, I'm back to thinking that I should have 'nautilus
--gapplication-service' running, but somehow managing not to
terminate, and that that is all the problem is.




Cheers,
Ben

[Jason Crain]

Post by Ben Green
So, I'm back to thinking that I should have 'nautilus
--gapplication-service' running, but somehow managing not to terminate, and
that that is all the problem is.

That's not the problem because 'nautilus --gapplication-service' is
supposed to exit after a while. nautilus-desktop contacts nautilus over
D-Bus, D-Bus runs 'nautilus --gapplication-service' if it's not already
running, and then nautilius exits after a short time if it's not being
used.

[Marcel Lautenbach]

Interesting, I had the same experience today and can confirm that
nautilus-desktop works if nautilus is started but does not without
nautilus running, too.

What strikes me odd is the fact, that it only happens on my cloned
systems. That is: I have an Intel NUC running just fine. I cloned the
system to my older laptop and there I experienced this "phenomena". Then
I cloned the NUC system on a virutal disk and ran VirtualBox. Same thing
there. Without running only nautilus-desktop does not allow me to double
click any folders on my desktop. Other icons like text files work just fine.

Post by Ben Green
Hi,
Some further observations. Here are two procedures on my system. I run
Procedure 1
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus &
nautilus-desktop &
Procedure 2
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus-desktop &
Results of Procedure 1
======================
So with Procedure 1, I get a working desktop, with clickable folders
opening out in new nautilus windows. I note also that the launching of
nautilus-desktop is very fast, almost instant in most cases.
Of course with this procedure I also get nautilus launched with an
open home folder too due to having run nautilus. The desktops icons
are fully clickable though. If I close all the nautilus windows, the
clickability of desktop icons is lost.
Results of Procedure 2
======================
With Procedure 2 I get a desktop, but the icons are not clickable at
all, they will highlight but never open into nautilus folder displays.
Even if I then run 'nautilus' icons are not clickable.
Procedure 3
===========
killall -SIGKILL nautilus
killall -SIGKILL nautilus-desktop
ps -ef | grep naut #confirm that no nautilus processes exist for the
current session
nautilus --gapplication-service &
nautilus-desktop &