Nautilus Loads Processor when there is an icons folder in the home directory

[StewPedassle]

Binary package hint: nautilus

I have a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5870 with an Athlon QL-60. From startup Nautilus loads >90% of one core and holds onto it for a considerable length of time. It will sometimes randomly let go of it in as little as 20 minutes. Most of the time it holds onto the core for hours. If I stop nautilus and restart it, it will take over the core again. When I try to actually use the file browser it will take anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes to load a folder's contents. It seems to have little dependence on the number of files in the folder, but I haven't put this to any sort of test.

I am using Intrepid, but the same thing occurred in Hardy. The only difference in Hardy was that it would bounce the full load back and forth between each core.

Nautilus 1:2.24.1-0ubuntu1

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

I kept it running for a few minutes with this backtrace. If it would help i could let it run until nautilus releases the processor, but that could be a very large file (hours).

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

I found that once the problem stops, i can restart nautilus and the problem will come back but only persist for a few minutes. Attached is a backtrace where the problem stopped a minute or two before the end.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

StewPedassle

Your backtraces contain absolutely no debug symbols. Please install at least "nautilus-dbg", "libgtk2.0-0-dbg", "libglib2.0-0-dbg", "libatk1.0-dbg", and "libatspi-dbg", and run the debugger again.

Make sure it is not the same as bug #159042, which is caused by the Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface, "at-spi".

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

I checked system > preferences > assistive technologies and it said that it was disabled as well as not having at-spi anywhere on my processes.

I downloaded all of those libraries and ran it again. The hogging seems to die off more quickly since an update a couple of weeks ago (can't tell you a better date or package). If I need to grab anything else tell me.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

StewPedassle

It seems to me that while you are in the debugger you hit Ctrl+C after nautilus has finished hogging your system. This is not good because it gives the backtrace of a "sleeping" process, which is not interesting.
You should interrupt nautilus while it is actively using the CPU.

I suggest running the debugger several times; each time you hit Ctrl+C nautilus will be stopped at a different time and different backtraces will be obtained. You can even do this in a single gdb run.

Instead of quiting gdb, continue and repeat the interrupting and backtrace.

(gdb) continue
<Ctrl+C again>
(gdb) backtrace full
... etc.

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

I am sorry to keep doing things improperly. I just started using Ubuntu in September so please bear with me.

The last break was after it had dropped the proc.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

StewPedassle

While reading your logs, it seems like you have some images in "Themes/Icons/..." located in your home folder. Please try removing those folders, and disabling the preview feature of nautilus.

Since I cannot reproduce this bug, I don't know what else to suggest.

Try reproducing this bug in several conditions. Try the different views: list, compact, icon; disable and enable compiz; check for hidden files; check file names with special characters.

Also check "top" or "htop" for any suspicious process. Are you running any KDE program that could conflict with nautilus?

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

I am sorry for that. I deleted the icon folders and that fixed it. I had heard that icons could mess it up, but I thought I had disabled everything. Again, sorry for wasting your time.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

StewPedassle

It's good news that the probable cause of this bug has been determined!
However, it is still a bug, you should not forget about that.

Try placing the directory back where it was and confirm that the bug is reproducible every time.
I hope you haven't completely obliterated those files from your system!
It's specially important for others to be able to reproduce the bug. See if it only occurs with certain files, like *.png, *.svg, etc.
You may attach the files that trigger this bug as a compressed archive, "Themes.tar.gz", for instance.

This information is valuable to determine if it's a duplicate of another bug, or if it's already know by the developers.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

The cause of the bug may be determined more accurately now.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Does removing the "Amora" theme makes things going better? it seems that's the one causing the issue, would be nice as well if you could attach that theme folder to the report, thanks.

[StewPedassle (anthonie-moll+bugs)]

Sorry, I got a little antsy and deleted them all permanently.

I removed all of the files to the trash at once (all four folders and all four tarballs) and the problem stopped. I restored them all and the problem returned. After that I deleted them all because I don't use them. Unfortunately I have forgotten exactly what I downloaded. I re-downloaded Amora to test what Pedro said. The tarball alone has no effect on my system. When I unpack it, the folder causes nautilus to creep up and max out the proc for about 8-10 seconds then drops completely off. I move the folder to the trash and the problem ceases.

I wish I hadn't deleted all of them because I don't have the time to play around right now. I won't be able to play around again until the summer (I have a mock trial, appellate brief, and finals all due over the next couple of months so I have zero free time). I am looking at two options and will do whatever is the most helpful.

1) I can re-download all of the files (the only two I can see are Amora and Snowish, so if anyone can see the others please tell me) and report which packs cause which problems before I upgrade to jaunty.

or

2) I can upgrade to jaunty and try to recreate the problem.

Remember, it'll be the middle of May before I can do either of these. Let me know what's best and I'll do it. Thank you all for your help and sorry for being a fool.

[vocx (eliudcabrera)]

Well, I tried installing a few themes and I haven't been able to reproduce this bug.

I installed the icon themes
    Amora-0.4.1.tar.gz
    SnowIsh-1.0.tar.gz (SVG)
    SnowIsh-1.0_PNG.tar.bz

and the Gtk+ meta-theme
    SnowIsh-Theme.tar.gz

I didn't want to attach the SnowIsh icon archives because of their sizes (6 MB and 9 MB), but they are found easily on the web.

----------------------------------------------------------------

StewPedassle

It seems weird to me that the bug is caused by files that are in the particular folder "$HOME/Theme/Icons"
I suppose you created this folder to keep your downloaded themes organized.
But I also suppose that you know that themes are "installed" either manually or automatically (through the "Appearance Preferences" interface in System > Preference > Appearance > Install) by extracting the compressed archive in the "$HOME/.icons" and "$HOME/.themes" directories, for icons and themes respectively.

That is, the "$HOME/Theme/Icons" folder should have no effect, it shouldn't be searched. Maybe it is searched by something else? An indexing service perhaps (trackerd)? A nautilus script? I don't know.

What I may suggest is to list the contents of "$HOME/.icons" and "$HOME/.themes" just to know what other themes there are. Maybe one of these other themes is causing the problem. Then you may backup these directories and delete them.
    tar cvzf Themes-Backup.tar.gz $HOME/.icons $HOME/.themes
    rm -rf $HOME/.icons/* $HOME/.themes/*

Then, without unpacking the tarballs, install the themes through the interface as mentioned above.

1. If all goes well, you can now use the themes, and you don't have to worry about unpacking anything in "$HOME/Theme/Icons"
2. Even if everything went well, you may unpack the archives in that folder and try to reproduce the bug. Then you can "play" with it and see if you can pinpoint the problem. Delete *.png files, leave the *.svg, etc.
3. You should get other people to reproduce this bug. Otherwise it can't be confirmed, and can't be called a real "bug". Maybe it is something very specific to your current setup.
4. I suggest you try this on the newer Ubuntu 9.04.

Chances are that this is magically solved by upgrading or by something silly like removing the "$HOME/.icons" folder and reinstalling the themes.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May you please try the same with Jaunty or Karmic and comment back? Thanks in advance.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to New. Thanks again!.