Gnome Desktop Icons disappear

vidar · 01-22-2009, 11:37 AM

Hello out there,

Ive got Ubuntu 8.04 with latest updates installed using Gnome 2.22.3 (latest version from the Ubuntu repository). approximately every third time I log in to Gnome, the icons on the desktop wont show, from time to time even the beckground image does not appear and the desktop remains black - the menus and everything else works fine, its just the icons right on the desktop itself (and maybe the background image). When this happens, ps -ax wont show me any zombie thread or something similar. Ive searched the net for this issue for quite a while now but could not find anything similar. There seem to be indeed quite a bunch of situations where the icons go away, but in my case restarting the x server will restore them and it happens accidentally and not every time someone logs in.
right now I dont know which information to provide further on as it seems to me to be a problem within Gnome. Has anyone suggestions how this misbehavior could be abolished or, which kind of additional information is needed?

Thanks a lot!
Michael

{BBI}Nexus{BBI} · 01-22-2009, 11:57 AM

Check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for video errors.

vidar · 01-23-2009, 03:13 AM

The problem is, that this error doesnt appear regularely. Right now I restarted the xserver for quite a lot of times but was not able to reproduce the error. Unless the icons go away again, it wont make much sense to post the log file, will it?

Greetings
Michael

tredegar · 01-23-2009, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Right now I restarted the xserver... [snip] ...it wont make much sense to post the log file, will it?

Please don't try to post the whole log -it's very long.
But please do read the log(s). New logs are appended to the older ones, so you should be able to read back through the log(s) until you find the entries with errors. We'll be interested in those errors.

vidar · 01-24-2009, 02:38 AM

Hello once more,
as the icons are gone for one more time now, I am able to provide the Xorg.log:

Code:

Server Extension : 0.3
	X.Org Font Renderer : 0.5
(II) Loader running on linux
(II) LoadModule: "pcidata"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libpcidata.so
(II) Module pcidata: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
	compiled for 1.4.0.90, module version = 1.0.0
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 2.0
(++) using VT number 7

Scan results follow, then some modules are loaded.
Here the only warning/error reported occurs:

Code:

(II) Loading extension X-Resource
(II) LoadModule: "type1"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module type1
(II) UnloadModule: "type1"
(EE) Failed to load module "type1" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) LoadModule: "freetype"

The graphics card works fine:

Code:

(II) Loading extension NV-GLX
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized
(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture
(==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store disabled
(==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled
(**) Option "dpms"
(**) NVIDIA(0): DPMS enabled
(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM

And so it goes one and on until

Code:

(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Keyboard0" (type: KEYBOARD)
(--) Mouse0: PnP-detected protocol: "ExplorerPS/2"
(II) Mouse0: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded
AUDIT: Sat Jan 24 09:25:17 2009: 6092 X: client 4 rejected from local host (uid 0)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1280x1024"
SetClientVersion: 0 9

I myself could not figure out any difference in the logs when that icon disaster occures and a usual Gnome start, but I have hardly any experience.
There appears only one error reporting that a modul "type1" could not be loaded because it does not exist - this happens every time X is started and thus I am sceptic whether this has influence of the icons' disappearing...

Can somebody guess why the icons wont show from time to time?

Thank you
Michael