Crash of gnome shell potentially from "JS ERROR: too much recursion" from app indicators

[Andrew Hayzen]

What Happened:
1) Have gnome-shell-extensions-appindicator enabled
2) The only running app using the indicator was charmtimetracker ( https://github.com/KDAB/Charm )
3) At some point usually within 1-2 days of office usage gnome shell crashes
4) Notice "JS ERROR: too much recursion" and then a stacktrace coming from appindicator extension in journalctl

What I expected to happen:
For gnome-shell not to crash :-)

Full logs:
  - Recursion warnings - https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/hfKMmH4Dpx/
  - Stack trace - https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/2TC6WFVcsG/

Short Summary of Logs:
=== First sign of incoming crash ===

Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: JS ERROR: too much recursion
                                                  set active@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:199:29
                                                  _init@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:104:18
                                                  _init@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:273:15
                                                  createItem@/<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:498:29
                                                  createItem@/<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:520:60

=== This continues many times, last instance is like this ===

Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: JS ERROR: Exception in callback for signal: child-added: too much recursion
                                                  PopupSubMenu@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:1017:9
                                                  _init@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js:1201:21
                                                  createItem@/<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:494:29
                                                  createItem@/<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:520:60

=== Then there is a stacktrace (shortened repeats) ===

Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: Attempting to call back into JSAPI during the sweeping phase of GC. This is most likely caused by not destroying a Clutter actor or Gtk+ widget with ::destroy signals connected, but can also be caused by using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked and the JS callback not invoked.
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: The offending signal was notify on StLabel 0x5615bd3eee80.
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: == Stack trace for context 0x56159bbee930 ==
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #0 7ffca7535bb0 b /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:620 (1c7e392cc2e0 @ 100)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #1 7ffca7535c80 b /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:510 (1c7e392cae98 @ 357)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #2 5615a5c69340 i /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:771 (1c7e392cc880 @ 41)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #3 7ffca7536b70 b self-hosted:1013 (264b03e13e20 @ 492)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #4 7ffca7536c60 b self-hosted:1013 (264b03e13e20 @ 492)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #5 7ffca7536d70 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/_signals.js:133 (1c7e392a84c0 @ 427)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #6 5615a5c69290 i /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:134 (1c7e392c5c40 @ 74)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #7 7ffca7537c80 b /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:365 (1c7e392ca718 @ 837)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #8 5615a5c690d0 i /<email address hidden>/dbusMenu.js:326 (1c7e392ca6a0 @ 423)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #9 7ffca7538970 b self-hosted:1013 (264b03e13e20 @ 492)
Jan 05 17:59:01 MACHINE-NAME gnome-shell[3315]: #10 5615a5c69018 i resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:132 (2784371926a0 @ 312)

Versions:
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release: 20.04
$ apt policy gnome-shell mutter gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.36.4-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
  Candidate: 3.36.4-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
  Version table:
 *** 3.36.4-1ubuntu1~20.04.2 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.36.1-5ubuntu1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
mutter:
  Installed: 3.36.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Candidate: 3.36.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.2
  Version table:
 *** 3.36.6-1ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.36.1-3ubuntu3 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
gnome-shell-extension-appindicator:
  Installed: 33.1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1
  Candidate: 33.1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 33.1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     33-1 500
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main i386 Packages

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I'm guessing this was fixed at some point between extension v33 (focal) and v42 (jammy). Not sure where though.