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I keep having this problem with GNOME Shell. The errors below are logged into the journal (viewed with journalctl -f). The only solution I've found is to log out of the GNOME session and start again.

Searching Google and this site produces lists of reports, but I cannot find any summary of (1) why does this happen? nor (2) What can be done to work-around or prevent the problem?

Also note that when it happens, UI responsiveness drops, often to the point of being barely usable.

JS ERROR: TypeError: windowActor is null _addWindowEffect@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/closeDialog.js:90:28 vfunc_show@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/closeDialog.js:162:14

P.S. Does JS mean Javascript, and if so, why is there Javascript in GNOME Shell?

--- update ---

Here is a pastebin of grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog*: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/MmNnRVQrzG/

Output of ls -al ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions:

ls: cannot access '<snip>/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions': No such file or directory

Output of ls -al /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/:

total 20
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Apr 23  2020 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 18 06:47 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 15 22:12 desktop-icons@csoriano
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 29 11:57 ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 29 11:58 ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com

--- another update --- https://extensions.gnome.org/local/

extensions.gnome.org screen shot

BeastOfCaerbannog
  • 16,703
ash
  • 213

2 Answers2

4

Learning stuff

Almost all gnome-shell errors are due to faulty gnome-shell extensions.

Good thing is that you don't have many of these extensions.

If you redo my grep, slightly modified, to:

grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog* | grep -i extensions

You'll come up with a lot of hits that contain similar to this snippet:

/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano

Guess which gnome-shell extension is suspect?

Do the work

So we'll move this extension out of the way and replace it with a substitute. I'll abbreviate my instructions, as you're terminal savvy.

cd /usr/share/gnome-shell

sudo mkdir extensions.HOLD

sudo mv extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano extensions.HOLD/desktop-icons@csoriano.OLD

restart gnome-shell

go to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/2087/desktop-icons-ng-ding/ and install this extension.

restart gnome-shell

right-click on the Desktop and select "Settings" to set prefs.

Monitor system for gnome-shell errors AFTER the current time:

grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog*
heynnema
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1

Follow-Up

Anyone finding this question and prior answer, I have an update that may help.

I later tracked the responsiveness problems down to notification spamming, so probably not related to the windowActor is null error.

Running "back in time" with a large number of file complaints (due to running out of disk space), it was sending a very large number of notifications, but "do-not-disturb" mode was enabled, so I didn't see them. The notification spam overwhelmed the gnome shell.

The solution for the responsiveness problem was to fix the disk-space problem, and thus eliminate the source of notification spamming.

ash
  • 213