Gnome settings manager error to start desktop

[Lucas Arruda]

I don`t know if it`s a HAL problem, or a daemon problem from gnome-settings-daemon.

When I log into gdm, GNOME takes a long time to start, and then starts with a error:

"An error has occurred while initiating the Settings Manager.

Some settings, like theme, sounds or wallpaper may not work properly.

The error message was:

Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

GNOME will try to load settings manager in the next time it starts."

(Just the core message "Did not receive a reply...." is in it`s correct english form, the rest I translated from Portuguese to English)

What I did is to put gnome-settings-daemon in the Session menu, and then I get my default theme and wallpaper, but the error still occurs.

I noticed, though, when I start GNOME without plugging any device, like Synaptics Touchpad (disabling it), usb Mice, ethernet cable and wifi (disabling it), the error doesn`t occurs or it`s not frequent.

So, in short, the error appear most times, but not always, and in some special cases, like with unplugging devices, I generally don`t get the error and GNOME starts as fast as before.

Technical info:
Ubuntu 6.10
Acer Aspire 5672 WMLi, with Ati x1400 (using 8.28.8 drivers, newer ones doesn`t seems to work well)

Thanks in advance.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for your bug report. Could you please add the output of 'lspci -vv', 'lspci -vvn', 'lsusb' and 'dmesg' to your bug report as attachments? Thanks in advance.

[Lucas Arruda (lucasarruda)]

Sorry for tooking so long, but I didn`t have time to boot here, and I was using Feisty Fawn in another partition, which by the way is working great.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

not marking confirmed, there is not enough information and there is no other user who confirmed having the bug

[D B (eburner)]

Here's the real culprit.
 *ping localhost

This command wasn't working. Seems when I upgraded to Feisty and when I was setting a static IP, I commented EVERYTHING in /etc/network/interfaces. This is not good as the 'lo' or loopback device is needed. I uncommented auto lo and the iface line for lo, ran ;sudo ifup lo', and I was back with a fast Gnome and no gray screen in the corner.

Hope this helps some of you out there. Thanks to seb for the tip.

[robertgray (robertgray86)]

Greetings, Derek:

I haven't upgraded to Feisty yet; and my "ping localhost" works. My
loopback device is fine. Yet, my system still "hangs" when I try to
access the GNOME Menu on occasion.

Thanks; and regards,

Robert

On 4/11/07, DerekBuranen <email address hidden> wrote:
> Here's the real culprit.
> *ping localhost
>
> This command wasn't working. Seems when I upgraded to Feisty and when I
> was setting a static IP, I commented EVERYTHING in
> /etc/network/interfaces. This is not good as the 'lo' or loopback
> device is needed. I uncommented auto lo and the iface line for lo, ran
> ;sudo ifup lo', and I was back with a fast Gnome and no gray screen in
> the corner.
>
> Hope this helps some of you out there. Thanks to seb for the tip.
>
> --
> Gnome settings manager error to start desktop
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/84876
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

[Sohum (sohumb)]

I can confirm that this bug occurs for me as well, except I do get my theme and background etc. I still have the long load time for gnome, and the same gnome-settings message. I haven't tried disabling by touchpad, however.

Attached is the output of the commands requested above.

[Sohum (sohumb)]

Also, trimming my /etc/network/interfaces to
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
does not make a difference.

[Sohum (sohumb)]

bug has been confirmed

[Sohum (sohumb)]

Oh, oops. Forgot to run sudo ifup lo. Once that's done, my session is back to normal. Possibly gnome-settings-daemon seems to use it for communication; thus, a possible solution is to let NetworkManager manage lo.

Just my $0.02

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

you need to have a working loopack, that's not a GNOME bug

[albamayo (tzarinakaterina1)]

hi everybody. I report the same behaviour with my laptop and desktop computers with Ubuntu 6.10, with and without internet conection. I haven't try derek's solution yet but I'll report about it.

[DrSketch (adam-thayer)]

I'm having the same problem on a fresh install of Feisty. When I tried sudo ifup lo (like Shum), it reported that interface lo already configured. Pinging my localhost did not return any errors either. I have attached the requested information. Ignore the Microcode errors in dmesg, as I have been encountering them since Dapper and haven't had a chance to fix them (they don't seem to affect anything).
In addition, when I try running gnome-settings-daemon, it returns this text:

The program 'gnome-settings-daemon' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 1948 error_code 2 request_code 144 minor_code 29)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
[1177278971,000,xklavier.c:xkl_engine_start_listen/] The backend does not require manual layout management - but it is provided by the applicationadam@adam-laptop:~$ gnome-settings-daemon > gsd.txt
The program 'gnome-settings-daemon' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 2410 error_code 2 request_code 144 minor_code 29)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[Pausanias (pausanias)]

I seem to be having a similar problem on an updated install of Feisty, except that my GNOME is never slow to load---it loads with about the same speed as in Edgy.

Here is what happens. If I login normally after booting, all is fine. But say I boot up the computer and leave gdm running for a while. If I do so, there is like a 20% chance that I when I do login, I will get this error ("there was an error starting the gnome settings daemon"). GNOME comes up at a lower screen resolution, and the Ubuntu theme is gone (it uses the default GNOME theme).

Killing X with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace and re-loggin in fixes the problem.

I have also had this same error message come up when I've booted the live CD. But only the first time! All the other times the live CD has booted fine.

It seems strange that this problem should be non-reproducible with a live CD.

[Jack Knight (jfk)]

Same problem here, Ubu Feisty.

/etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
---

fk@tony:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0461:4d03 Primax Electronics, Ltd Kensington Mouse-in-a-box
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

lsusb

        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at b0118000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

lspci -vvn

[Jack Knight (jfk)]

Same problem here, Ubu Feisty.

/etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
---

fk@tony:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0461:4d03 Primax Electronics, Ltd Kensington Mouse-in-a-box
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

lsusb

        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at b0118000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

lspci -vvn

[jetole (jetole)]

I was having this same problem as well on a friends computer I was setting up with ubuntu Feisty on x86_64. This had happened over to installs and usually after I had just installed a pile of software so I did not know what was causing the problem however I was getting the Original qoute that started this message. I started reading this and then it occured to me, yes I had to have loop back installed, but what I had forgotten when setting up his firewall was to allow all traffic on lo to be accepted (on draconian rules.) If you are getting the original qouted error that started this message and you cannot ping localhost then you may have a firewall issue or loopback device just may not be setup. If it is a firewall issue (and this command is harmless even if it isn't) try typing => sudo iptables -I INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT <= (and yes case sensitivity is important) and it may fix your problem. if it does not fix your problem the command will still not hurt your system in any way. If it does fix your problem you will need to find a way to make that command permenant. I don't know if Ubuntu has any rules for firewall specifications but I typically use => iptables-save > /etc/iptables.conf <= and then have it loaded at boot each time by adding the following line to /etc/rc.local, just before "exit 0" => /sbin/iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.conf <= I hope this at least helps some people with the problem.

Cheers
Joseph Tole
Joseph.Tole [at] gmail.com
www.joetune.com

[Jaguar_fr (toolinux-ubuntu)]

I guess my solution is similar to j. Tole,
In my case, I had this error because my firewall guarddog doesn't keep its settings at boot, and was filtering that.
You can verify it with "iptables -L". To reload the rules at startup, I had to add in /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

if [ -x /etc/rc.firewall ]; then
/etc/rc.firewall
fi

Tech info: Kubuntu 7.04 & Ubuntu desktop / Guarddog

[Andrew Conkling (andrewski)]

Also, see bug #140469.

[Bjonnh_ (bjonnh)]

Got the same problem on two computers...

* Laptop ACER Aspire 3104 (lspcis attached)
* A desktop computer (homemade)

This problem seems to occurs randomly.
Restarting X corrects the problem.

Nothing new about this bug ?

TGZ file with (lspcis, dmesg, lsusb, uname, lsb_release...).

Best regards.

Jonathan

[The Marauder (arn-epsilon)]

I'had the same problem (I think) 2 time for 5 Gnome doesn't start properly. It's totaly random. We talk about this problem in a thread at the francophone ubuntu forum. http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=172109

The message :

"Il y a eu une erreur lors du démarrage du démon des préférences GNOME.

Certaines fonctionnalités, comme les thèmes, les sons ou les fonds d'écran peuvent ne pas fonctionner correctement.

Le dernier message d'erreur était :

Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

GNOME essaiera de redémarrer le démon des préférences la prochaine fois que vous vous connecterez.

Impossible d'utiliser Nautilus maintenant à cause d'une erreur inattendue.

Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error from Bonobo when attempting to locate the factory. Killing bonobo-activation-server and restarting Nautilus may help fix the problem."

This problem is here since about nearly 2 month.

[Andrea Ratto (andrearatto)]

Allright, I have this very same problem on three different machines.
Lots of people have it.
It's not a showstopper, but it's a scary thing to have in a stable release for this many months.
Let's raise the priority, let's look into this.

Looks like a synchronization problem to me. Did anyone have this on a single core machine?

Also found a dupe:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/155164

[Andrew Conkling (andrewski)]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 5:03 AM, Andrea Ratto <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Looks like a synchronization problem to me. Did anyone have this on a
> single core machine?

Yeah.

Also found a dupe:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/155164
>

Thanks, I marked it as such.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug has a collection of different issues, the message just state that it doesn't start as expected, everybody having the issue on hardy should open new bugs so we triage those properly and figure what the issue are there

[nadavkav (nadavkav)]

i have reported similar bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-tools/+bug/233980

please see if it is duplicate or not ?

[robertgray (robertgray86)]

Don't know, nadavkav:

I've not used Ubuntu for awhile.

Regards,

Robert

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 9:52 AM, nadavkav <email address hidden> wrote:
> i have reported similar bug:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-tools/+bug/233980
>
> please see if it is duplicate or not ?
>
> --
> Gnome settings manager error to start desktop
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/84876
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

[Ivan Razumov (iarspider)]

If anyone still interested: I got this error recently (15 min ago), and by now have managed to resolve it.

The problem was in my /etc/hosts file - it was missing "127.0.0.1 localhost" line. It was removed by "Network Settings" applet when I tried to add an alias "127.0.0.1 testhost" for my apache virtual host.

[Grizzly (sven-witterstein)]

I have this (or something simila) on intrepid when trying to start nautilus remotely via ssh with X-forwarding.
Don't know if it is a seperate bug (as it is on ibex) but anyhow I _have_ localhost set in my host file correctly.

[aasen (mahaba)]

I got the same error message because ~/.dbus/ and its contents were for some reason owned by root. Changing the owner resolved the problem.

[tinkerer (phx9)]

aasen, i am a newbie. could you please tell me the commands i need to use to change the owner? much appreciated.

tinkerer

[aasen (mahaba)]

okidoke, can do. from the command line (assuming you are in your home directory), do:

sudo chown -R your_username_here .dbus

[tinkerer (phx9)]

aasen, thanks for the tip. unfortunately, changing owner did not fix my problem.

i am trying to connect to a public wifi access point. i can connect using my other laptop running vista. i used to be able to connect with my laptop (asus eeepc, running ubuntu 8.10) until a few days ago when it suddenly ceased to work.

using networkmanager 0.7.0