[workaround] Application lens is empty since the update to 5.8.0

Bug #964146 reported by Lorenzo Villani
54
This bug affects 10 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
libzeitgeist
Fix Released
Medium
Michal Hruby
unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

The application lens is seemingly unable to list and find installed applications since the update to unity-lens-applications-5.8.0-0ubuntu1 (precise).

Alt+F2 works properly though.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity-lens-applications 5.8.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-20.32-generic 3.2.12
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-20-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 1.95-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Mar 24 21:51:11 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120209)
SourcePackage: unity-lens-applications
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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Revision history for this message
Lorenzo Villani (lvillani) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Lorenzo Villani (lvillani) wrote :
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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Chris Johnston (cjohnston) wrote :

moving ~/.local/share/zeitgeist to ~/.local/share/zeitgeist.bak then running:

kill -s TERM `pidof /usr/lib/unity-lens-applications/unity-applications-daemon`

fixed my problem.

summary: - Application lens is empty since the update to 5.8.0
+ [workaround] Application lens is empty since the update to 5.8.0
Revision history for this message
Lorenzo Villani (lvillani) wrote :

Short story:

I think unity-lens-applications should Depend (not Recommend or Suggest) zeitgeist OR zeitgeist-core for installation. On some system the zeitgeist daemon may not be installed, thus causing the lens to malfunction.

Long story:

I have configured APT to prevent installation of soft-dependencies (Recommended and Suggested dependencies) like this:

APT::Install-Recommends "0";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
Apt::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant "0";
Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant "0";

Now, unity-lens-applications depends on libzeitgeist which in turn Recommends zeitgeist OR zeitgeist-core. Since it is a Recommended package it is not installed on my system, thus the zeitgeist daemon is not started.

I had to manually install at least zeitgeist-core, then restart unity-applications-daemon to have it spawn the zeitgeist daemon. After that, the lens worked as before.

Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
Revision history for this message
Lorenzo Villani (lvillani) wrote :

By the way, this issue also affects unity-lens-files, which also depends on libzeitgeist but doesn't bring in the zeitgeist daemon in case installation of weak-dependencies is disabled.

Revision history for this message
Andrea Amoroso (heiko81) wrote :

This three steps to make it work, as said in the comment 4:
1 - mv ~/.local/share/zeitgeist ~/.local/share/zeitgeist.bak
2 - kill -s TERM `pidof /usr/lib/unity-lens-applications/unity-applications-daemon`
3 - logout or restart Ubuntu
At the log back, the Dash goes again in search of applications.

Revision history for this message
Lorenzo Villani (lvillani) wrote :

I would like to point out that the original bug I reported was due to zeitgeist not being installed because the lens does not hard-depend on zeitgeist-core.

The issue reported by Chris Johnston (comment #4) is about zeitgeist-daemon unable to start due to a corrupted Zeitgeist database.

The outcome is the same (i.e.: the lens does not work because zeitgeist-daemon is not running) but the premise is different (i.e.: zeitgeist-daemon not running because it isn't installed vs. zeitgeist-daemon is unable to start).

My opinion is that we should treat these issues separately.

Revision history for this message
Jeremy Bícha (jbicha) wrote :

According to Debian policy, recommends should be installed "in all but unusual installations."
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html

Don't install recommends and you'll miss out on all sorts of expected functionality.

Revision history for this message
Michal Hruby (mhr3) wrote :

Affecting libzeitgeist which didn't behave properly if Zeitgeist is not installed.

Changed in libzeitgeist:
status: New → Fix Released
assignee: nobody → Michal Hruby (mhr3)
importance: Undecided → Medium
Michal Hruby (mhr3)
Changed in libzeitgeist:
milestone: none → 0.3.18
Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
oliver hazard perry (cmp914) wrote :

The workaround hasn't worked for me. When I run the kill command i get this result:

kill: usage: kill [-s sigspec | -n signum | -sigspec] pid | jobspec ... or kill -l [sigspec]

I tried to find the pid using ps -aef and dont see anything like /usr/lib/unity-lens-applications

Revision history for this message
Marco Westerink (mopringles) wrote :

A simple workaround I found was the command

unity --reset

I tried it as root, but I am not sure if that's necessary. It ended up with my lenses filled up.

Revision history for this message
Junaid Qadir (junaidqadir) wrote :

@mopringles

Yea this works but untill you reboot the system.

Any permanent solution please?

Revision history for this message
Tuomas Lähteenmäki (lahtis) wrote :

i have a same proplem. Im update 10.04 lucid to unity. all updates are installed.

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