Nvidia TwinView Crashes Gnome Desktop

[Cerin]

When using the Nvidia monitor configuration tool to configure a second monitor in "TwinView", the Gnome desktop will periodically crash and/or become corrupted making it unusable until an Xorg restart.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open the "Nvidia X Server Settings".
2. Select "X Server Display Configuration"
3. Press "Detect Displays" button and then select the second monitor from the Layout section.
4. Under Configuration, select "TwinView", then press Apply, and then Quit.
5. Use Gnome.
6. Re-open "Nvidia X Server Settings", select "X Server Display Configuration", then select the second monitor from the Layout section.
7. Under Configuration, select "Disabled", then press Apply, and then Quit.
8. The desktop background is now askew and all desktop icons are missing. Note, this doesn't always happen, and may take a few more uses of the Nvidia dialog before it happens.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.4.1-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 29 10:26:32 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64+mac (20111012)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-10 (18 days ago)

[Cerin (chrisspen)]

The reason why I believe this is a gnome-shell bug and not an Nvidia bug is because this problem did not occur for me under Ubuntu 10.10, and only began after I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04, while the Nvidia dialog appears to be largely unchanged.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

Can you test this with the 304 series drivers (nvidia-current-updates), they now support XrandR and no longer use Twinview, so hopefully will resolve this issue.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS reached End of Life in April. See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Please upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and re-test. If the bug is still reproducible, increase the verbosity of the steps to recreate it so we can try again.

I apologize that we are not always to respond to bug reports promptly. Do feel free to report any other bugs you may find.