Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite
1

Something's wrong with nautilus. When I boot my computer and it logs in, Gnome shows, things are running, I can run programs and everything, but my desktop has no icons. I have to open a terminal and run killall nautilus and then suddenly everything works fine.

How can I diagnose and fix this? Or, as a last resort, how might I create a script that runs at startup to automatically kill and restart nautilus?

share|improve this question
Are you running GNOME? Are there any messages in $HOME/.xsession-errors? – qbi Aug 16 '10 at 19:38

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

This is a known bug in GNOME affecting many distributions.

See this bug report for details and workarounds.

share|improve this answer
That's perfect, thanks! I'll be trying those things when I get home tonight. – Ricket Aug 18 '10 at 14:45
up vote 2 down vote 
#!/bin/bash
killall nautilus

Would be your script. make sure you make it executable

chmod +x nameofscript.sh

all you would have to do is place the script in the start up sequence using.

Systems > Preferences > Startup Applications.

I would first wait on your next restart maybe it just take a bit longer.

share|improve this answer
Unfortunately it's not a matter of waiting, I've already given it all possible amounts of time. I've ignored it and just used the computer, and then gone back hours later to find my desktop is still not loaded; but after running killall nautilus, it takes a few seconds for the icons to appear. Even opening folders doesn't make the desktop appear, so nautilus acts fine in all other ways except for the desktop. It's a mystery! – Ricket Aug 16 '10 at 19:02
That is only a workaround, but does not resolve the problem. – qbi Aug 16 '10 at 19:36
1  
@qbi I understand that he asked for a work around if i couldn't help. so that what i provided. – myusuf3 Aug 16 '10 at 19:54
I had the same problem when I upgraded to Lucid. I didn't fix it, I just started using Debian and was hoping to install Lucid side-by-side of Debian next month. If the problem still occurs, I'll report it then. – Umang Aug 17 '10 at 13:34

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.