Debian 9 Gnome desktop icons not working [SOLVED]

[silvaf6]

Good afternoon.

I installed Debian Testing (Stretch) with gnome and activated the desktop in gnome tweak tool. But whenever I double click my "home" shortcut nothing will happen. However, if I open nautilus by any other method it will open multiple the number of times i clicked my "home" from the Desktop.
No records appear in my syslog while I'm opening nautilus from the Desktop.
Also, the Desktop icons take about 10 sec long to appear after booting.

Any ideas? Should I wait for the full release of Debian Stretch?
Thanks !!

Here is a "grep nautilus /var/log/syslog" after starting a new session:

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Jun 12 18:59:27 Commando-Linux org.gnome.Nautilus[1319]: Initializing nautilus-dropbox 2015.10.28
Jun 12 18:59:27 Commando-Linux nautilus[2352]: Could not establish a connection to Tracker: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Tracker1 was not provided by any .service files
Jun 12 18:59:27 Commando-Linux nautilus[2352]: Could not establish a connection to Tracker: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Tracker1 was not provided by any .service files
Jun 12 19:14:55 Commando-Linux nautilus-autostart.desktop[4312]: Initializing nautilus-dropbox 2015.10.28
Jun 12 19:15:20 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4312]: Unable to create File Manager freedesktop proxy: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.FileManager1: Timeout was reached
Jun 12 19:15:20 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4312]: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS
Jun 12 19:15:20 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4312]: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS
Jun 12 19:15:20 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4312]: Can not get _NET_WORKAREA
Jun 12 19:15:20 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4312]: Can not determine workarea, guessing at layout
Jun 12 19:16:31 Commando-Linux nautilus-autostart.desktop[4894]: Initializing nautilus-dropbox 2015.10.28
Jun 12 19:16:55 Commando-Linux nautilus-deskto[4894]: Unable to create File Manager freedesktop proxy: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.FileManager1: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1': timed out

EDIT: Disabling and enabling "Icons on Desktop" on gnome tweak tool seems to fix it temporarily

[phenest]

What about desktop launchers you add yourself? Do they work correctly?

[silvaf6]

I only got the "home" and "trash" in the Desktop. Everything works fine on cinnamon...

[phenest]

Can you be certain that nothing happens? What if you click on the Home folder and then press the Super key for the Overview? Or maybe have a terminal open with top running to see if anything happens?
Maybe it does work, but just doesn't show for some reason.

We need no know the difference between 'not launching' and 'not appearing'.

[silvaf6]

There is nothing when i press the super key.
A process named "nautilus-d+" shows up in the terminal when I open my "home" from the Desktop.

...

Dammit Debian, I installed you again because you used to be rock solid

EDIT: The issue is only with nautilus. I can open anything else from the desktop just fine.

[silvaf6]

I kinda found where is the problem. Nautilus.ink files aren't opening with Nautilus... i gotta right click > open with another application > Files. Can't set it as preferred.
inode/directory=org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop is set in my gnome-mimeapps.list

[phenest]

What is a nautilus.ink file?

[silvaf6]

What is a nautilus.ink file?

Sorry , i read it wrong. when I choose open my "home" with another application it says "opening Nautilus link files", then i have to select files.

[phenest]

How did you create the Home shortcut?

[silvaf6]

How did you create the Home shortcut?

gnome-tweak-tool > Desktop > "check" home.
I created a testing folder in the Desktop and it doesn't open as well. Doesn't open any folders... dammit xD

[silvaf6]

Found the issue on debian bugs or whatever: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=860796

So, should I run this:

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apt-get --purge remove `apt-show-versions  | grep -v uptodate$ | grep  
-v "not installed$" | awk -F: '{print $1}'`

apt-get --purge remove `deborphan`
apt-get --purge autoremove

I'm, trying to figure out what those command do

[furquan]

I'm on Debian Sid so I cannot confirm this but when activating desktop icons from the tweak tool, they work perfectly fine on my desktop (though they look ugly: http://imgur.com/a/blaQx).

Found the issue on debian bugs or whatever: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=860796

So, should I run this:

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apt-get --purge remove `apt-show-versions  | grep -v uptodate$ | grep  
-v "not installed$" | awk -F: '{print $1}'`

apt-get --purge remove `deborphan`
apt-get --purge autoremove

I'm, trying to figure out what those command do

I'm not really sure what those commands do (because I've not installed apt-show-versions or deborphan). Installing and running the first command (in the backticks) lists a couple of packages for which updates are no longer available (insecure checksum policy, unavailable repo, etc.) but are working completely fine for all other purposes.

The package description for apt-show-versions states:

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$ apt show apt-show-versions 
Package: apt-show-versions
Version: 0.22.7
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Maintainer: Christoph Martin <christoph.martin@uni-mainz.de>
Installed-Size: 162 kB
Depends: perl | perl-5.005 | perl-5.004, apt, libapt-pkg-perl (>= 0.1.21), libstorable-perl
Homepage: http://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-asv/
Tag: admin::package-management, implemented-in::perl, interface::commandline,
 role::program, scope::utility, suite::debian, use::checking,
 works-with::software:package
Download-Size: 34.3 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://ftp.tw.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
Description: lists available package versions with distribution
 apt-show-versions parses the dpkg status file and the APT lists for
 the installed and available package versions and distribution and
 shows upgrade options within the specific distribution of the selected
 package.
 .
 This is really useful if you have a mixed stable/testing environment
 and want to list all packages which are from testing and can be
 upgraded in testing.

deborphan is a tool which finds packages upon which no packages depend. Not sure how removing them would affect Nautilus but I guess less cruft is always good. Installing and running it on my system (which is working completely fine for the most part) lists a couple of packages which are mostly left-over cruft which I've forgot to remove.

You might want to run these commands to see if they work but know what packages are going to be removed otherwise you might regret it later.

Early in the bug report the user stated:

having investigated further, it appears that "nautilus
--gapplication-service" needs to be running in the users session for
desktop icons to be responsive.
...

I can get my icons to work by manually executing "nautilus
--gapplication-service" through a shell or via the ALT+F2 dialogue.

Have you tried this? If this works then you might run this command at startup for a temporary workaround.

I don't know if I might have overlooked something but you haven't really said what desktop-environment you're using. And do tell what other desktop-environments you have.

I don't think you're using GNOME (GNOME-shell that is) because you say:

There is nothing when i press the super key.

Dammit Debian, I installed you again because you used to be rock solid

Debian is rock-stable. There's no denying that. But Testing and Sid isn't. Testing is, as the name says, for Testing purposes, it's not supposed to be stable, nor does it get security-fixes on a regular basis. If you want the latest software you'll be better off with something like Fedora or even Ubuntu. If you want stability, use stable and with the backports repo, you'll get sensibly latest versions of software.

[silvaf6]

"nautilus --gapplication-service" does nothing. :p

Im using gnome classic. Regular gnome has the same problem. But I also installed cinnamon on the side.

"There is nothing when i press the super key." By this I meant there is no new file manager windows open.

I installed testing because stretch is around the corner and I thought it was stable enough. From what I read when Stretch is released i just have to do an apt-get upgrade or maybe an apt-get dist-upgrade because the sources are the same. I don't think there will be much of a difference from the version I have installed to the full stable release which is saturday (or something), but I might be totally wrong... Should I reinstall debian when stretch is released?

[phenest]

Lots of users are running Stretch with Gnome without the issue you're experiencing. I'm one of them. And I don't think the advice you found in that bug report is of any use. If you don't know what a command does, don't use it.

One thing about Gnome that is different to other DE's is that Gnome needs video hardware acceleration. Is could be possible that a combination of your video card and the driver you're using is causing problems.

What is the output of:

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lspci -k | grep -iEA3 "display|3d|vga"

[silvaf6]

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01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] (rev a2)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidia

Damn you Gnome. I will be using good old fashion cinnamon for the mean time
BTW, the mouse sensitivity slider on cinnamon doesn't seem to work xD Just had to increased a little bit the acceleration.

[phenest]

You know, I'm desperately trying to make Gnome reproduce the problem you have. But to no avail. I can't imagine what is stopping Nautilus windows from appearing after using desktop icon launchers.

[silvaf6]

Hey man, don't worry

[furquan]

I only got the "home" and "trash" in the Desktop. Everything works fine on cinnamon...

IIRC, Cinnamon uses it's own file-manager (Nemo) to put the icons on the desktop so it's unrelated to Nautilus.

What happens when you run GNOME in a Wayland session (select GNOME on Wayland from the login-screen)?

EDIT: Disabling and enabling "Icons on Desktop" on gnome tweak tool seems to fix it temporarily

What do you mean by this? Does repeatedly enabling and disabling the icons-on-desktop from the tweak-tool fixes it?

Have you tried enabling the icons-on-desktop through an alternative method (dconf-editor for example: http://imgur.com/a/OdiEB)?

At this point, you have three options:
a) Use GNOME without the icons on desktop
b) Don't use GNOME and use an alternative DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce) which I'd do if the desktop icons were important for me.
c) Do a clean install of Stretch

You know, I'm desperately trying to make Gnome reproduce the problem you have. But to no avail. I can't imagine what is stopping Nautilus windows from appearing after using desktop icon launchers.

Yeah. I'm wondering the same too. The advice in the bug-report is non sequitur and is not really related to Nautilus. It's just generic commands to clean up orphaned and outdated packages, unrelated to Nautilus or this problem.

BTW, the mouse sensitivity slider on cinnamon doesn't seem to work xD Just had to increased a little bit the acceleration.

You can use xset to set the mouse-acceleration from the command-line. GNOME doesn't provide any way to do this through a GUI.

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xset m acceleration threshold

[phenest]

BTW, the mouse sensitivity slider on cinnamon doesn't seem to work xD Just had to increased a little bit the acceleration.

You can use xset to set the mouse-acceleration from the command-line. GNOME doesn't provide any way to do this through a GUI.

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xset m acceleration threshold

Yes it does. Gnome Settings > Mouse & Touchpad

[silvaf6]

What happens when you run GNOME in a Wayland session (select GNOME on Wayland from the login-screen)?

I'll try it when i get home. (A fresh install doesn't come with wayland i think)

What do you mean by this? Does repeatedly enabling and disabling the icons-on-desktop from the tweak-tool fixes it?

yes

Have you tried enabling the icons-on-desktop through an alternative method (dconf-editor for example: http://imgur.com/a/OdiEB)?

yes

At this point, you have three options:
a) Use GNOME without the icons on desktop
b) Don't use GNOME and use an alternative DE (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce) which I'd do if the desktop icons were important for me.
c) Do a clean install of Stretch

Ye, I'm using cinnamon now Everything works fine except I can't make a script run on startup for some reason xD

Thank you for all the atention!