Using MATE 1.9.0 on slackware 14.1 (built using the MSB slackbuilds)
However, i don't think it's related to slackware and is a general bug or problem within MATE. I recently had a linux mint box using the MATE desktop which experienced the same behaviour at times.
The problem is, sometimes, when logging out or shutting down via the "system" menu. The icons and gtk theme will seem to be unset, and the desktop takes anywhere from 20-40 seconds to finally switch back to the display manager, or proceed to shutdown the system.
I can't seem to find out what causes this. I've tested one thing, booting up the machine and running one instance of firefox for a few minutes, and then rebooting from the menu. Sometimes, the theme/icons will dissapear and it takes a while to finally shutdown, and other times the desktop will close immediately. It seems to be happening randomly.
Grabbed a screenshot after clicking shutdown, before it actually shutdown 30 seconds later.
http://i.imgur.com/GBwpYVs.png
One thing that might be relevant, for people who used to use GNOME 2.X, i actually remember this happening a few times to me on ubuntu 8.10. Could it be a strange bug inherited from GNOME?
Does anyone have any ideas how to stop this behaviour? It only becomes annoying when i wish to switch the user through gdm (having to wait almost a minute each time).
Thanks..