Donator's Auto-update breaks Pop!OS 20.10 desktop

Posts: 13 · dynosire 7 Mar 2021, 15:30

Good day,

I'm experiencing a very weird and serious problem when using Linux's version auto-update feature. It's the second time I experience this issue, the first time while auto-updating to 11.7 and just now, to 11.8.

The context:

• PopOS 20.10 (based on Ubuntu 20.10 aka Groovy which is in turn based on Debian 11 aka Bullseye)
• Gnome Extensions that are also affected:
---> • ArcMenu
---> • DashToPanel
---> • Desktop Icons NG

Steps to reproduce:

• I open FreeFileSync
• A modal window prompt me to update to the latest version
• It downloads successfully
• The script prompts me for my password
• The terminal window closes shortly after so I presume there is no error message

The problem:

• The desktop disappears
• The wallpaper goes solid white
• The panel's icon disappear (I can still hover over their placeholder but there is no image)
• I can't open Gnome apps (Gnome Terminal, Gnome Calculator etc)

What fixes it:

Although I'm not sure what exactly is fixing it because I have tried so many things, I seem to have isolated it to this procedure:

• Open a terminal session by pressing CTRL+ALT+F3
• Force reinstallation of the these packages:

sudo apt install --reinstall software-properties-common software-properties-gtk gir1.2-gtk-3.0

• Go back to your GUI by pressing CTRL+ALT+F2
• Open the "Run a command" prompt by pressing ALT+F2
• Reload the Gnome Shell by pressing the lowercase letter "r" and then the "Enter" key

And I get my desktop, menu and panel icons back.

Side note:

For the FreeFileSync and RealTimeSync entries to appear in the Gnome menu after getting my desktop back, I also need to fix the installation directory permissions:

sudo chmod 755 /opt/FreeFileSync

The directory belongs to root:root and I can't remember if its 750 of 754 but it lacks the other -> execute permission so 755 fixes it.

Thank you for looking into this. I know my way around Linux a bit and I was a bit distressed by this problem so I can't help but to feel for someone who'd be new and would stumble upon this.

Otherwise, keep up the great work!

Denis

Posts: 7050 · Zenju 9 Mar 2021, 20:26

I think this might be a umask problem. I just updated the Linux installer for 11.8. Can you download again and retry?

Posts: 13 · dynosire 13 Mar 2021, 00:24

@Zenju, just tried it with the current linux installer and I experienced the same desktop & icon problem. The /opt/FreeFileSync folder permissions are fixed though.

sudo apt install --reinstall software-properties-common software-properties-gtk gir1.2-gtk-3.0

The above commands finishes by running the following:

Processing triggers for dbus (1.12.20-1ubuntu1) ...

Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (2.0-1) ...

Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu4) ...

Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...

Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...

Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...

Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:amd64 (2.66.1-2ubuntu0.1) ...

Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:i386 (2.66.1-2ubuntu0.1) ...

Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.3-2) ...

Could it be that the installation process affects something that is repaired by those? Thinking of mime-support and shared-mime since the extensions are registered? Or maybe gnome-menu or something to do with the theme?

Thanks again for the help!

Denis

Posts: 7050 · Zenju 14 Mar 2021, 12:56

The FreeFileSync installer also runs these two command, but I don't see how this could create problems:

update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications

Posts: 13 · dynosire 15 Mar 2021, 00:23

I tried to isolate a few errors in /var/log/syslog after trying the 11.8 .run installer again:

Mar 14 18:52:15 pop-os gnome-shell[3250]: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.#012This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.

Mar 14 18:52:15 pop-os gnome-shell[3250]: Can't update stage views actor StWidget is on because it needs an allocation.

Mar 14 18:52:15 pop-os gnome-shell[3250]: Can't update stage views actor StWidget is on because it needs an allocation.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os gnome-terminal-[268037]: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.#012This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os gnome-terminal-server[268037]: **

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os gnome-terminal-server[268037]: Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Pop/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Unrecognized image file format (gdk-pixbu

f-error-quark, 3)

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os gnome-terminal-server[268037]: Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Pop/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Unrecognized image file format 

(gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 3)

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os systemd[2842]: gnome-terminal-server.service: Main process exited, code=dumped, status=6/ABRT

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os systemd[2842]: gnome-terminal-server.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os systemd[2842]: vte-spawn-0a2907a0-1cbf-40ba-a3c3-f335ac6efd7a.scope: Succeeded.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os systemd[2842]: app-gnome-x\x2dterminal\x2demulator-268811.scope: Succeeded.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os systemd[2842]: vte-spawn-4b356c2e-6b5d-4b3c-914a-eb74271f2a7e.scope: Succeeded.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os nautilus[9320]: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.#012This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os org.gnome.Nautilus[9320]: **

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os org.gnome.Nautilus[9320]: Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Pop/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Unrecognized image file format (gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 3)

Mar 14 18:52:26 pop-os org.gnome.Nautilus[9320]: Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../../../../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:494:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Pop/16x16/status/image-missing.png: Unrecognized image file format (gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 3)



Mar 14 18:52:31 pop-os ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com[3250]: indicator-solaar, Impossible to read image info from path '/usr/share/icons/Pop/16x16/devices/battery.png': GdkPixbuf.PixbufError: Failed to recognize image format

Mar 14 18:52:31 pop-os ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com[3250]: unable to update icon for indicator-solaar

Mar 14 18:52:31 pop-os ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com[3250]: AutoKey, Impossible to read image info from path '/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/autokey-status.svg': GdkPixbuf.PixbufError: Failed to recognize image format

Mar 14 18:52:31 pop-os ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com[3250]: unable to update icon for AutoKey

Posts: 13 · dynosire 15 Mar 2021, 00:27

Actually, running the command below by itself breaks it:

sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

and it would seems that running it as root it removes the read permission of "others" for files within /usr/share/mime:

Permissions before:

4.0K drwxr-xr-x  15 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 .

 12K drwxr-xr-x 361 root root  12K Mar 13 17:46 ..

 12K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  11K Mar 14 20:21 aliases

 24K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  24K Mar 14 20:21 application

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 audio

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 font

 20K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  18K Mar 14 20:21 generic-icons

 36K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  36K Mar 14 20:21 globs

 40K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  39K Mar 14 20:21 globs2

4.0K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  374 Mar 14 20:21 icons

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 image

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 inode

 32K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  32K Mar 14 20:21 magic

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 message

152K -rw-r--r--   1 root root 149K Mar 14 20:21 mime.cache

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 model

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 multipart

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 packages

 20K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  18K Mar 14 20:21 subclasses

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 text

4.0K -rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.2K Mar 14 20:21 treemagic

 20K -rw-r--r--   1 root root  20K Mar 14 20:21 types

4.0K -rw-r--r--   1 root root    4 Mar 14 20:21 version

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 video

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 x-content

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 x-epoc

4.0K -rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.9K Mar 14 20:21 XMLnamespaces

Permissions after:

4.0K drwxr-xr-x  15 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 .

 12K drwxr-xr-x 361 root root  12K Mar 13 17:46 ..

 12K -rw-r-----   1 root root  11K Mar 14 20:21 aliases

 24K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  24K Mar 14 20:21 application

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 audio

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 font

 20K -rw-r-----   1 root root  18K Mar 14 20:21 generic-icons

 36K -rw-r-----   1 root root  36K Mar 14 20:21 globs

 40K -rw-r-----   1 root root  39K Mar 14 20:21 globs2

4.0K -rw-r-----   1 root root  374 Mar 14 20:21 icons

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 image

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 inode

 32K -rw-r-----   1 root root  32K Mar 14 20:21 magic

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 message

152K -rw-r-----   1 root root 149K Mar 14 20:21 mime.cache

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 model

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 multipart

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:18 packages

 20K -rw-r-----   1 root root  18K Mar 14 20:21 subclasses

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 text

4.0K -rw-r-----   1 root root 1.2K Mar 14 20:21 treemagic

 20K -rw-r-----   1 root root  20K Mar 14 20:21 types

4.0K -rw-r-----   1 root root    4 Mar 14 20:21 version

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 video

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 x-content

4.0K drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 14 20:21 x-epoc

4.0K -rw-r-----   1 root root 1.9K Mar 14 20:21 XMLnamespaces

I also isolated the package reinstallation that fixes it to this one:

sudo apt install --reinstall software-properties-gtk

I think we are closing in!

Posts: 13 · dynosire 4 Apr 2021, 22:15

@Zenju, same problem happened with latest 11.9 auto-update

Posts: 7050 · Zenju 20 Apr 2021, 08:34

and it would seems that running it as root it removes the read permission of "others" for files within /usr/share/mime: dynosire, 15 Mar 2021, 00:27

Apparently this is a known bug!? https://askubuntu.com/a/1090101

Does the following hack do as a work around?

chmod -R o+r /usr/share/mime

Posts: 7050 · Zenju 20 Apr 2021, 08:39

This seems to be a better fix, can you try this one? https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/505068

And if this works, what was your umask before that?

Posts: 7050 · Zenju 20 Apr 2021, 09:21

I've integrated the "umask(0022)" fix for the next FFS version:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bhrajx0iymbypeg/FreeFileSync_11.10_beta_Linux.tar.gz

Posts: 13 · dynosire 21 Apr 2021, 03:03

@Zenju: I won't be able to test the beta for another week as I am away from home and thus from my workstation but the fix seems to make a lot of sense and I'm be eager to give it a shot as soon as I'm home. Thanks for working this out. Much appreciated!

Posts: 13 · dynosire 8 May 2021, 02:21

Pardon the delay, I'm finally home and I am happy to report that 11.10 beta fixes it :)

Thanks once more M. Zenju

#resolved