gnome-shell[2503]: Object Meta.Background (0x561c9af53600), has been already deallocated - impossible to access to it

[chris pollock]

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/501

---

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release: 18.04

apt-cache policy gnome-shell
gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.28.2-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
  Candidate: 3.28.2-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.28.2-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500

Since upgrading from 16.04.5LTS to 18.04.1LTS last Thursday my syslog has been filling with the below:

Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost gnome-shell[2503]: Object Meta.Background (0x7febd401a470), has been already deallocated - impossible to access to it. This might be caused by the fact that the object has been destroyed from C code using something such as destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: == Stack trace for context 0x561c9a54e330 ==
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #0 0x561c9a9edbd8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/background.js:718 (0x7febd000f450 @ 22)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #1 0x561c9a9edb50 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:113 (0x7febd02c7e68 @ 37)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #2 0x7fff0e3e36e0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:208 (0x7febd02d3b38 @ 54)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #3 0x7fff0e3e3830 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:337 (0x7febd02d3bc0 @ 1626)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #4 0x7fff0e3e38e0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:350 (0x7febd02d3c48 @ 100)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #5 0x7fff0e3e3970 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:365 (0x7febd02d3cd0 @ 10)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #6 0x7fff0e3e3a60 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/signals.js:128 (0x7febd02d3230 @ 386)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #7 0x7fff0e3e3b10 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:245 (0x7febd02cf808 @ 159)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #8 0x7fff0e3e3be0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/_legacy.js:82 (0x7febd02b5de0 @ 71)
Aug 19 11:34:11 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2503]: #9 0x7fff0e3e3c80 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:220 (0x7febd02cf780 @ 15)

Following suggestions in previous bug reports about this I went through and removed all of my shell extensions:

chris@localhost:~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions$ ls -l
total 0
chris@localhost:~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions$
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
DisplayManager: gdm3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-10-24 (1395 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
Package: gnome-shell 3.28.2-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-32.35-generic 4.15.18
Tags: bionic
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-32-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-08-17 (3 days ago)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip kvm libvirt libvirtd lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1787822

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

apport information

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

apport information

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

apport information

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

I reinstalled two of the Gnome Extensions, Freon and Window List since removing all extensions had no effect.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please also try removing the other extensions. There's more than two:

b'org.gnome.shell' b'enabled-extensions' b"['<email address hidden>', 'freon@Veske', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>', '<email address hidden>']"

If the problem persists with no extensions (and after rebooting) then please run:

  journalctl -b > journal.txt

and attach the resulting journal.txt here.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Completely removed the extensions in /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions and restarted. Output still present:

Aug 20 06:51:04 localhost gnome-shell[2425]: Object Meta.Background (0x563bb2426370), has been already deallocated - impossible to access to it. This might be caused by the fact that the object has been destroyed from C code using something such as destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: == Stack trace for context 0x563bb076d330 ==
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #0 0x563bb0c0cbd8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/background.js:718 (0x7ff39830f450 @ 22)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #1 0x563bb0c0cb50 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:113 (0x7ff3a40c7e68 @ 37)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #2 0x7ffd0a40b320 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:208 (0x7ff3a40d3b38 @ 54)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #3 0x7ffd0a40b470 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:337 (0x7ff3a40d3bc0 @ 1626)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #4 0x7ffd0a40b520 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:350 (0x7ff3a40d3c48 @ 100)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #5 0x7ffd0a40b5b0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:365 (0x7ff3a40d3cd0 @ 10)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #6 0x7ffd0a40b6a0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/signals.js:128 (0x7ff3a40d3230 @ 386)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #7 0x7ffd0a40b750 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:245 (0x7ff3a40cf808 @ 159)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #8 0x7ffd0a40b7b0 I resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/_legacy.js:82 (0x7ff3a40b5de0 @ 71)
Aug 20 06:51:05 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2425]: #9 0x7ffd0a40b850 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:220 (0x7ff3a40cf780 @ 15)

Have run journalctl -b > journal.txt and attached output.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks.

Is anything obviously broken or are you just reporting the error message?

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

On Tue, 2018-08-21 at 01:55 +0000, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
> Thanks.
>
> Is anything obviously broken or are you just reporting the error
> message?
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
No, nothing is obviously broken, at least to me, but something isn't
right. However it's an annoyance to have my syslog filled up with these
being written every 10 minutes.

--
Chris
KeyID 0xE372A7DA98E6705C
31.11972; -97.90167 (Elev. 1092 ft)
21:23:54 up 8:26, 1 user, load average: 1.35, 1.20, 1.98
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS, kernel 4.15.0-32-generic

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It appears I can reproduce the message by changing wallpapers.

Maybe your system is set to automatically change wallpaper every 10 minutes or so, so you will keep getting the message.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Yes, I run a Snap called 'Wallpaperdownloader' that besides downloading wallpapers will also cycle them within a set time limit. I stopped it running at 6:38 this morning and have yet to see the issue resurface.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

I'd like to note that I went here - https://bitbucket.org/eloy_garcia_pca/wallpaperdownloader/issues/34/ubuntu-1804-object-metabackground and opened an issue on the current version of the WallpaperDownloader snap.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks, but I don't think that bug report will help. You can probably close that one.

Instead, I have reported the bug to the Gnome developers here:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/501

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

There was a large software update this morning including Gnome-Shell and others. Gnome-Shell was updated to

apt-cache policy gnome-shell
gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.28.3-0ubuntu0.18.04.2
  Candidate: 3.28.3-0ubuntu0.18.04.2
  Version table:

was this supposed to fix the issue I reported above? If so, it didn't. I stopped and restarted the WallPaperDownloader snap:

Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost gnome-shell[2506]: Object Meta.Background (0x55b32097d720), has been already deallocated - impossible to access to it. This might be caused by the fact that the object has been destroyed from C code using something such as destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: == Stack trace for context 0x55b31f0c8330 ==
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #0 0x55b31f5660f8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/background.js:718 (0x7f6e1430f450 @ 22)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #1 0x55b31f566070 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:112 (0x7f6e200c8e68 @ 37)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #2 0x7ffd2e233e00 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:208 (0x7f6e200d2b38 @ 54)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #3 0x7ffd2e233f50 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:337 (0x7f6e200d2bc0 @ 1626)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #4 0x7ffd2e234000 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:350 (0x7f6e200d2c48 @ 100)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #5 0x7ffd2e234090 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/tweener/tweener.js:365 (0x7f6e200d2cd0 @ 10)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #6 0x7ffd2e234180 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/signals.js:128 (0x7f6e200d2230 @ 386)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #7 0x7ffd2e234230 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:244 (0x7f6e200cf808 @ 159)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #8 0x7ffd2e234300 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/_legacy.js:82 (0x7f6e200b5de0 @ 71)
Aug 23 10:43:03 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2506]: #9 0x7ffd2e2343a0 b resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/tweener.js:219 (0x7f6e200cf780 @ 15)

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

I forgot to mention that I also did a system restart because of a new kernel install so gnome-shell was completely restarted.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Additional note. When I maximize then minimize the WallPaperDownloader snap this is written to syslog

Aug 31 17:05:23 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2638]: Window manager warning: Received a NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP message from a broken (outdated) client who sent a 0 timestamp
Aug 31 17:05:23 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2638]: Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x2600004 (WallpaperD)
Aug 31 17:08:35 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2638]: Window manager warning: Received a NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP message from a broken (outdated) client who sent a 0 timestamp
Aug 31 17:08:35 localhost org.gnome.Shell.desktop[2638]: Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x2600004 (WallpaperD)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

No the issue is not fixed yet. Please put any relevant comments in the upstream bug where the developers will see them:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/501

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Will do Daniel.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Ref bug #1886110, I submitted this because after almost 2yrs this issue is still valid, at least on my Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I'm commenting here because I was asked to on my other report. According to comments made here - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/501, the last one by Marco Trevisan a commit was made a year ago to fix this issue - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/commit/a9234f7631f2228184d027419cab1350666ffdc1 therefore I'm wondering why it's not been fixed, at least in my case.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It appears the fix is in Ubuntu 20.04 but not 18.04. So I will mark this to request a fix in 18.04.

[chris pollock (cpollock)]

Thank you Daniel, hopefully by sometime next month 20.04.1LTS will be released and I'll upgrade.