gnome-session not shutting down cleanly

[Tim Lunn]

[Impact]
We have had reports going back to 13.10 that gnome-shell extensions are disabled after restart (LP: #1236749), this has probably been our #1 unresolved bug for the last few cycles. While this is the main user visible bug probably other bugs caused by this for example (BGO: #745707)

The cause was tracked down to gnome-session not shutting down cleanly under upstart. Although the underlying issue seems to be the order in which upstart takes down the various components in a user session, the side-effects themselves appear to be caused by gnome-session continuing to run when it should in fact be shutdown

The fix updates the 103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch to force shutdown of gnome-session. This is inline with the fix upstream for (BGO: #745707) also.

[ Test Case ]
Note: This is only reproducible under upstart init.
1. Load gdm
2. Login to gnome-shell using GNOME from the session list
3. enable some extensions
4. reboot system from user menu.
5. login again to find extensions disabled.

[ Regression Potential ]
Very low, the fail whale is meant to be fatal. The upstream dialog that is disabled in ubuntu does in fact cause gnome-session to get shutdown.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Pietro Gagliardi (andlabs/pietro10) (andlabs)]

I don't know how much this comment would contribute to this bug but I can at least confirm that the behavior described here is a possible reason why this is going on, as judged by my comment to bug 1236749 here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1236749/comments/77 Specifically, for me the bug only occurred if I rebooted cleanly, but not if I forced the machine off.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

we disable the fail whale dialog on ubuntu, but then just return back into the code, without telling gnome-session to die which is causing some problems. the fail whale should be fatal and the disabled dialog, would normally tell gnome-session to quit.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

reassigning to gnome-session, although the issue seems to be triggered by upstart pulling down things in the wrong order, most of the damage seems to come from a buggy ubuntu patch in gnome-session.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

marking importance as High, since I have a strong suspicion this is also causing many reported black screen deadlocks, and quite possibly failed software rendering fallback under gdm.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.14.0-2ubuntu4

---------------
gnome-session (3.14.0-2ubuntu4) vivid; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Import upstream
    patch to add a --disable_acceleration_check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Mar 2015 09:35:59 +0300

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Tim, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-session into utopic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Tim, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-session into trusty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

tested on trusty and utopic, both are working as expected and enabled extensions, stay enabled after restart.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1

---------------
gnome-session (3.9.90-0ubuntu12.1) trusty; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Backport
    upstream patch to add a --disable-acceleration-check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:49:36 +0300

[Chris J Arges (arges)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-session has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1

---------------
gnome-session (3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1) utopic; urgency=medium

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * debian/patches/103_kill_the_fail_whale.patch: fix logic gnome-session
    should die at this point. This will fix LP: #1236749,
    LP: #1385572 and possibly various other strange bugs

  [ Ryan Tandy ]
  * debian/patches/git_add_disable_acceleration_option.patch: Backport
    upstream patch to add a --disable-acceleration-check command-line option.
    (LP: #1251281)
  * debian/gnome-session-bin.user-session.upstart: Disable acceleration check
    when launching a GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session.
 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Sat, 21 Mar 2015 15:49:36 +0300

[Andreas Ritter (eddie8)]

Dear all, are you sure the bug is fixed? Or are there any other bugs wich lead to this behavior (extensions disabled after login)? I switched back to KDE because of this bug, but with ubuntu 15.10 I began using gnome, again. The last month, the extensions were only about once a week disabled, for now since a few days on every startup.

Ubuntu 15.10, default gnome.

[kylea (kylea)]

Still present in 15.10. This is definitely not fixed

[Miner (assassinking)]

Affects Ubuntu 16.04 setup with Dell Inspiron 3537 laptop and external HDMI monitor. Tends to happen when closing a lid and then unplugging HDMI cord.

THIS IS NOT FIXED AND IT MAKES ME PULL OUT MY HAIRS.

[Miner (assassinking)]

Also happens when resetting the session with "pkill -u <username>", for example when system froze, and you need to Ctrl+Alt+FX to unfreeze it.

[Jerther (jerther)]

Kind of late, and lost some hair too, but I found that if the extentions are enabled via "Gnome Tweak Tool", they stay on.

[Justo (jtorres1825)]

Hi, I run gnome 16.04 on a lenovo yoga 910 and I still get the disabled extensions after reboot and after wake from suspend. I employed this workaround "https://scognito.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/fix-gnome-shell-3-12-extensions-being-disabled-at-every-startup/", but the bug is not fixed. So far, the workaround works. Will try to disable and re-enable via gnome-tweak-tool in comment #20 and see if it solves it (without the workaround).

Thanks!

[Jeremy Bicha (jbicha)]

Justo, this bug is closed. You'll need to open a new bug for whatever issue you are experiencing.

[Francewhoa (francewhoa)]

Done. I opened a new bug. Find new ticket at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1697229

As you know this bug #1385572 was fixed in the package gnome-session - 3.9.90-0ubuntu16.1 per comment #15 above at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1385572/comments/15

So this ticket #1385572 is closed. But somehow this bug is back. Maybe a regression? Maybe a zombie-bug, LOL ;)

Steps to reproduce in that new ticket at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1697229

[Steve Silvi (delta1071)]

I can confirm that this bug still exists in Ubuntu 19.10 with Gnome 3.34.1. Last night, after restarting the PC to change from my Windows 10 OS to Ubuntu, all previously enabled extensions were disabled. After visiting the Gnome Extensions website and re-enabling them and then re-enabling them again in Tweaks, they are working again.

[Nash (thenash)]

In 10 days this bug will be 5 years old. Steve did you try the above fix by Brian, it didn't work for me a few years ago, but not so sure now as I no longer use Ubuntu, might work for you.