gnome-shell crashed with SIGABRT in g_assertion_message() from g_assertion_message_expr() from st_bin_dispose() [st/st-bin.c:186:st_bin_dispose: assertion failed: (priv->child == NULL)]

[dino99]

https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/1d6c91eeba6b3ca9574a52f10de3f6b92d2d1310

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Such crash has already happened several times after validating the greeter's password to open a gnome-shell session.
This does not happen each time, but always, after the password validation, it looks like the system have some difficulties to load X : that takes too much time, the background goes grey, and 5 or 10 seconds later, the session is opened, or i get such a crash.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.18.2-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-2.16-generic 4.4.0
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-2-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Fri Jan 29 14:08:52 2016
DisplayManager: lightdm
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-shell
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/gnome-shell
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Signal: 6
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
StacktraceTop:
 g_assertion_message () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
 g_assertion_message_expr () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
 ?? () from /usr/lib/gnome-shell/libgnome-shell.so
 g_object_run_dispose () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
 clutter_actor_destroy () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-1.0.so.0
Title: gnome-shell crashed with SIGABRT in g_assertion_message()
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
XsessionLog:
 openConnection: connect: No such file or directory
 cannot connect to brltty at :0
 Could not connect to D-Bus server: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoServer: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-M92EaZdecj: Connection refused
 upstart: upstart-event-bridge main process (1801) terminated with status 1
 upstart: upstart-event-bridge main process ended, respawning

[dino99 (9d9)]

Logged into journalctl

[Apport retracing service (apport)]

StacktraceTop:
 g_assertion_message () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_xT8ytk/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
 g_assertion_message_expr () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_xT8ytk/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
 st_bin_dispose () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_xT8ytk/usr/lib/gnome-shell/libgnome-shell.so
 g_object_run_dispose () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_xT8ytk/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgobject-2.0.so.0
 clutter_actor_destroy () from /tmp/apport_sandbox_xT8ytk/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-1.0.so.0

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[dino99 (9d9)]

Happens randomly, not so often

[Žarko Bodroški (zarkobodroski)]

Happens every time when the screen was locked before login to shell.

[Christopher (soft-kristal)]

Please check if you have the extension Taskbar installed. In 17.10, each and every time I load it the shell would not start if Taskbar was enabled. It may be responsible for the random crashes of the shell as well.

It's a great plugin, but may be buggy.

[dino99 (9d9)]

This report was made on Xenial; that error is well seen since ages, but sadly its a too generic error to get it fixed.
Myself, actually using Zesty & a gnome-shell session, had not that issue since months.
You might need to clean your system (autoremove/gtkorphan/bleachbit as root but carefully choose options) or doing a fresh install.
I suspect the system being disturbed by old settings left behind; and when removing a package, always do a complete removal, aka purging.

note: i have several gnome extensions on my system (installed from the ubuntu archive only to avoid conflicts: ubuntu install under /usr/ but extensions.gnome.org install into .local). That said taskbar cant be blamed.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Tracking in:
https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/1d6c91eeba6b3ca9574a52f10de3f6b92d2d1310

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Fix released (zero crashes reported after 17.10)