Timely Logouts, Restarts, and Shutdowns with Unity Desktop

[Lonnie Lee Best]

Why does it take so long to logout (or restart or shutdown) from the Unity desktop?

I have the xfce and lxde desktops installed along with unity:
sudo apt-get install xfce4 lxde

When I logout (restart or shutdown) with those desktops, it happens very quickly. When I shutdown with LXDE, it is almost as if someone yanked the battery out of my laptop it is so fast.

So, what is the Unity desktop doing, during logout (restart and shutdown), that is so time-consuming?

What can we do to make it more immediate (by default) in future updates and releases?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: unity 6.8.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Sat Nov 3 16:51:07 2012
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 bcmwl, 5.100.82.112+bdcom, 3.5.0-17-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 4.1.18: added
DpkgLog:

GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:02a0]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:02a0]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-19 (15 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio 1737
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-17-generic root=UUID=c61a0f60-f1c2-4c39-b22b-70af976dd426 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/26/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A04
dmi.board.name: 0P792H
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A04
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A04
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA04:bd11/26/2008:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1737:pvrA04:rvnDellInc.:rn0P792H:rvrA04:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA04:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1737
dmi.product.version: A04
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.4-0ubuntu3
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

If I restart from the command-line, the Unity desktop goes away immediately:
sudo reboot

However, if I restart from the "Gear Icon Menu", the Unity Desktop hangs for quite a while before exiting the Unity Desktop.

Also, if I logout using this command, the Unity Desktop takes a while to exit too:
gnome-session-quit

So, is it the gnome-session related commands that take so long? If so, how can they be made to be much faster?

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

Also, GNOME3 logs out quickly. I have solid state hard drive, and during these long logout times, it is barely being accessed. Surely it isn't processor intensive to logout, right? So what accounts for Unity's long logout times? Can anyone reveal this (when compared to all other desktops that can be installed onto Ubuntu)?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

This issue remains in Ubuntu 13.04 beta. Other desktops logout quickly, but Unity seems to hang for 20 to 30 seconds after initiating a log-out or upon restarting your computer.

[Stephen M. Webb (bregma)]

It's certainly worth investigating the source of lag during shutdown and startup. Restarting Unity from the command line is generally fairly fast, so it's likely something session-related, but without numbers there is no way to definitively pinpoint the cause.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

How do you investigate something like this?

I mean, after initiating a logout (or a reboot), I have no clue what the Unity desktop is doing during that lag. How do I get feedback during that time?

I can clearly see that the hard drive isn't being accessed much during the lag. It is probably not the processor working hard either.

It feels like a programmatic timeout is preventing the Unity logout from occurring as fast as the computer is capable.

[GregL (greg-lumpkin)]

I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04 on a Dell Latitude laptop and am experiencing this same issue. I did find instructions on the Internet to run the following command:

sudo nano /etc/default/speech-dispatcher

And change RUN=no to RUN=yes to start system wide Speech Dispatcher.

This seemed to work, but it blew away my audio devices and substituted a Dummy entry. No sound afterwards.

I changed the value back to RUN=no, rebooted and my audio card came back. But, the shutdown/reboot lag came back as well.

Opening terminal and typing in sudo shutdown -r now or sudo shutdown now works great.

Would really like to get this fixed so I can move on with setting up this system.

I also have a Dell Dimension 4700 desktop with Ubuntu 13.04 installed on it and that system does not have this issue.

Greg

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

So far, for me, Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 alpha are not slow to logout, shutdown, and reboot.

For me this bug was specific to 13.04.

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

Sorry folks, but as part of the bug clean up ahead of 16.04 I'm marking this as invalid because it affects an Ubuntu release which is now unsupported. If you can still recreate this bug in a supported release please do open a new bug and we can triage it for consideration in the 16.04 development cycle.