Use of more than one desktop crashes panel on boot

[LostIntheWoods]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

On Ubuntu 7.04, if I right click on desktop on lower panel and select 3 or 4 desktops, about 50 % of the the time on reboot, if I select one of the desktops, other than the default, then I lose the panel. Sometimes I even lose the icons on the desktop. Sometimes I even lose the upper panel. Sometimes--often--even if I have the upper panel, when I click on any of the buttons nothing happens. If I do a re log in, nothing happens--I'm still in the same position, even with other problems because of other bugs (!). If I reboot, I have a 50-50 chance of being able to click on, say, desktop three without the above sequelae. In the circumstances that I lose function on the desktop, I am obliged to hard power off. Always--repeat, always--I immediately get the message log which has stopped at 'running boot scripts'. This makes me wonder if there isn't a problem connected with the boot scripts. In any event, although it's a hard power off, there are a few more messages before the actual power off. Is this bug a security vulnerability? I don't know.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for your bug report. Please try to obtain a backtrace http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and attach the file to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[LostIntheWoods (areallypuzzlingproblem)]

Dear M. Bacher:

I have done as much as I can with installing the gdb
software, but have run into some problems.

Here is the last output from Konsole:

(gdb) lostinthewoods@reallyconfused:~$ gdb 2>&1 | tee
gdb-gnome-panel.txt
GNU gdb 6.6-debian
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General
Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it
under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show
warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu".
(gdb) (gdb) handle SIG33 pass nostop noprint
Undefined command: "". Try "help".
(gdb) (gdb) set pagination 0
Undefined command: "". Try "help".
(gdb) (gdb) attach 5176 (gdb) continue
Undefined command: "". Try "help".
(gdb)

The problems I have are this:

1. I don't know if I have correctly attached gdb to
gnome-panel based on the above output. Please advise.

2. The bug occurs only on boot. That is, I have just
set the number of desktops to 3, and I can switch
without a problem. But as often as not, when I boot
and switch to one of the desktops, the gnome-panel
program crashes. This suggests to me that I have to
install some code to run gdb attached to gnome-panel
from boot time, but I don't know how to do this. You
will have to give the the code to run. I am a newbie
to Linux, so you have to give me the exact code, just
as in the instructions for installing gdb. After the
crash, the only thing I can do is reboot, so you will
have to give me code that will feed the trace to a log
file that I will retrieve on the next boot and send to
you.

If you have any questions, please advise.

A R P Problem

--- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> Thanks for your bug report. Please try to obtain a
> backtrace
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and
> attach the file to the
> bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking
> down your problem.
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-panel (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
> --
> Use of more than one desktop crashes panel on boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/119694
> You received this bug notification because you are a
> direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

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[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Your bug description is not clear. The gdb usage is not correct, you should not copy the "(gdb)" on the command line, they just indications of what is already displayed there

[LostIntheWoods (areallypuzzlingproblem)]

M. Bacher:

Je m'excuse.

To clarify the bug. Let's suppose that we have
installed Ubuntu 7.04 and have booted. We now want to
have three desktops instead of one. We right-click on
the desktop in the lower left hand corner and then
click on preferences. On the menu that comes up, we
change 'number of desktops' to three. We then close
the menu and do some other things without bothering to
change desktops--by default we are on the first
desktop and now have two more.

We close the computer down and then reboot.

We now click on desktop three as the first thing we
do. The gnome-panel about 50% of the time crashes: we
no longer have the lower panel--no desktops, no
nothing. Often we even lose the icons on the desktop
area. The desktop area is blank. On the upper panel,
when we click on 'system' nothing happens. When we
click on the upper right hand corner (upper panel) to
power down gracefully and restart, nothing happens.
Sometimes we even lose the upper panel completely. We
are obliged to hard power down the computer (power
on/off button) and then reboot. When we do the hard
power off, the screen we immediately see before the
power off is a log that says that the computer is
running the boot-time scripts. I really don't know
enough to know if that is significant. Sometimes,
however, the whole thing works properly.

The problem I have with doing a backtrace and sending
the log is how to attach the gdb module to the
gnome-panel in such a way that it is automatically
attached once the computer is booted, so that I can
then replicate the sequence of events that lead to the
crash; and how I can be certain to find the log
because as soon as the gnome-panel crashes the
computer is completely unusable and must be rebooted.

Thanks very much.

Lost In The Woods

--- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> Your bug description is not clear. The gdb usage is
> not correct, you
> should not copy the "(gdb)" on the command line,
> they just indications
> of what is already displayed there
>
> --
> Use of more than one desktop crashes panel on boot
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/119694
> You received this bug notification because you are a
> direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

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[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

You might get a crash file in /var/crash

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.

[LostIntheWoods (areallypuzzlingproblem)]

It's just as well that you closed it: when I installed all the updates up to August 1 as a block, including the new kernel etc, then the problem seemingly stopped. I say seemingly because I have no real proof: I have been using multiple desktops since and have had no crash, however.