Desktop view flashes every time ~/Desktop changes

[Jonathan Kamens]

All of the icons on my desktop visibly flash every time I change anything in the folder ~/Desktop, even if the change is not something that is visible on my desktop.

For example, "touch ~/Desktop/.#foo".

I mean, the icons that haven't changed should never flash at all, even if a change is made that _does_ affect the visible display -- only the things that are actually new or different should change their appearance, and everything else should remain the same and not flash. But at the very least, there should be no flash when there are no visible changes.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: nautilus 1:3.30.5-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-13.14-generic 4.18.17
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-13-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu19
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Jan 22 11:38:30 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-01-02 (20 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Release amd64 (20181017.3)
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-01-21 (0 days ago)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The desktop is not handled by nautilus anymore, reassigning

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could someone report it upstream on https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/ ?

[Jonathan Kamens (jik)]

https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/issues/86

[Jonathan Kamens (jik)]

Actually, correction, I shouldn't have reported, it, it's already reported upstream as https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/issues/58.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Right, sorry about that, thx for looking upstream though!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Several duplicates of this bug mention:

gnome-shell[2958]: JS ERROR: TypeError: fileItem is null
                   _updateDesktopIfChanged@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/deskt
                   _monitorDesktopFolder/<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/deskt

but see also:

gnome-shell[2958]: JS ERROR: TypeError: fileItem is null
                   _layoutChildren@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons
                   _resetGridsAndScheduleLayout/this._layoutChildrenId<@/usr/share

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please also note; if you experience prolonged high CPU when making desktop changes then most likely that is bug 1815550.

[Roger James (rogerjames99)]

I worked round this issue by uninstalling gnome-shell-extension-appindicator. This fixed this issue and also a number of high cpu usage issues I was seeing. The cpu issues were sometimes severe enough to also expose weaknesses in the compositor.

I suggest that anyone who is getting problems with gnome shell tries this work around and reports the results back here along with the a quick summary of the problem they were seeing.

[Roger James (rogerjames99)]

I think this bug may well be a duplicate of #1825623. Would anyone object if I marked it as such.

[Jonathan Kamens (jik)]

I hardly think enough research into this has been done for it to be obvious that this is a duplicate.

There are literally eight app indicator icons in my system tray right now that disappear when I uninstall gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Synology Drive, Google Hangouts, Google Chrome, Dropbox, Yubico Authenticator, Slack, Zoom, Flameshot), and I use them all the time. Uninstalling that extension simply is not an option.

[Roger James (rogerjames99)]

Hi Jonathon,

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I really only meant the uninstall as a temporary
test, to provide more information on what issues this extension was
causing. For me it also solved a number of seemingly unrelated issues
mostly to do with excessive cpu usage.

Roger

On 19 August 2019 20:35:40 Jonathan Kamens <email address hidden> wrote:

> I hardly think enough research into this has been done for it to be
> obvious that this is a duplicate.
>
>
> There are literally eight app indicator icons in my system tray right
> now that disappear when I uninstall gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
> (Synology Drive, Google Hangouts, Google Chrome, Dropbox, Yubico
> Authenticator, Slack, Zoom, Flameshot), and I use them all the time.
> Uninstalling that extension simply is not an option.
>
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1812883
>
>
> Title:
> Desktop view flashes every time ~/Desktop changes
>
>
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons:
> New
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
>
>
> Bug description:
> All of the icons on my desktop visibly flash every time I change
> anything in the folder ~/Desktop, even if the change is not something
> that is visible on my desktop.
>
>
> For example, "touch ~/Desktop/.#foo".
>
>
> I mean, the icons that haven't changed should never flash at all, even
> if a change is made that _does_ affect the visible display -- only the
> things that are actually new or different should change their
> appearance, and everything else should remain the same and not flash.
> But at the very least, there should be no flash when there are no
> visible changes.
>
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
> Package: nautilus 1:3.30.5-1ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-13.14-generic 4.18.17
> Uname: Linux 4.18.0-13-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
> ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu19
> Architecture: amd64
> CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
> Date: Tue Jan 22 11:38:30 2019
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-01-02 (20 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Release amd64
> (20181017.3)
> SourcePackage: nautilus
> UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-01-21 (0 days ago)
>
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons/+bug/1812883/+subscriptions

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for pointing out that test. I will remember to suggest it to people in future in other CPU-related bugs.

[Roger James (rogerjames99)]

The extension is only fully removed if you purge it and reboot your system.

[thebravoman (thebravoman)]

I removed desktop icons. Clean a nice desktop and no more 5 seconds save on every file.

Ubuntu 19.04

cd /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/
sudo tar -czvf <email address hidden> desktop-icons@csoriano/
sudo rm desktop-icons@csoriano -r

[Jonathan Kamens (jik)]

"Just get rid of the desktop icons" is not a good response to "The desktop icons flash every time I change anything that affects the desktop."

I want the desktop icons. I just don't want them to flash. And they didn't flash before the GNOME developers thought it was a good idea to strip them out of Nautilus.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This issue is in progress with the upstream developers. If you would like to contribute then the page is:

  https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/ShellExtensions/desktop-icons/issues/58

[Roger James (rogerjames99)]

This bug is still present in Focal. It seems to have lost focus in upstream. In Focal it is much harder to remove the extension as it is even more tightly linked in as a mandatory dependency for a number of major system components. The only way to remove it is by deleting or renaming its files.

It seems to me that this extension is responsible for numerous performance issues. A number of bugs have been raised on different symptoms, but all have a common factor of impacting performance and involving this extension.

May I suggest that an umbrella bug is created and named something like "Unacceptable Gnome shell perfomance" and marked as critical. The first priority is to make this extension optional and disabled by default. The process of enabling should warn of potential performance issues.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think bug 1872796 and bug 1832812 cover the performance issues already. If there are any more then please open new bugs for them.

[Ryo Wakatabe (wakataberyo)]

I experienced this issue when I upgraded 18.04 -> 20.04 as well. In my case, any file updates to any locations regardless of ~/Desktop will blink all file icons in Desktop. Also, any updates to a file will have some latency to update a file.

Just for letting you know my workaround: disable desktop icons. This will make you unable to see icons of course, but you will not see annoying blinking anymore.

$ gnome-shell-extension-prefs # Disable "Desktop icons"

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also note that Ubuntu stopped using gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons years ago. It is only still used in 20.04.

We recommend Ubuntu 22.04 instead: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop