Ubuntu Dock is missing after unlocking screen

[Daniel Told]

After locking the screen, unlocking it again does not return me to a properly working gnome-shell. I can see the desktop background and the top panel (which is responsive). However I cannot access the activities overview, and the Ubuntu dock is missing.

One time I noticed that the search field from the activities overview was visible, and it was possible to search for an application. The search did return results, and it was possible to start applications, but they did not show up on the screen.

In some cases I could run gnome-shell -r, but this would end the whole session and return me to the login screen.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: gnome-shell 3.30.0-3ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-8.9-generic 4.18.7
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Oct 5 12:44:13 2018
DisplayManager: gdm3
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-07-03 (458 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to cosmic on 2018-10-05 (0 days ago)

[Daniel Told (daniel-told)]

Addon: This seems to affect only the X11 version, the Wayland session appears to lock and unlock just fine, so I'm switching to that for now.

[Daniel Told (daniel-told)]

Another addition: The Wayland session turns out to be affected as well, but I wasn't able to figure out the precise reason why this is happening yet.

I have a number of extensions installed, and I could -- for the moment -- fix the problem by switching them all off, except the ubuntu-dock. Then I brought them back one by one, but so far it didn't break again.

When the problem is affecting my system, the lock screen also behaves very strangely. Hitting Super-L first brings me to a screen where I can see my background and the top panel (responsive). Hitting Super-L a second time makes the top panel transparent (I can still see the date and time).

Hitting it a third time brings me to a pure purple screen where I can enter my password. That brings me back to my background and top panel, but without the ubuntu-dock. I have Guake running, but it won't open, neither can I open a gnome terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T. I can do Alt+F2 and try something like gnome-shell -r, but as described before that will end the session (X) or do nothing (Wayland).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Oops. I forgot the first rule of gnome-shell bugs: disable extensions. And you do have a lot:

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

Please disable them (the non-Ubuntu ones) and let us know if the problem reoccurs. Please also let us know if you find a single extension that is to blame.

If you have any problems with the lock screen then please open a new bug for that.

[Daniel Told (daniel-told)]

Actually, only about half of them were actually switched on -- the rest I had tried at some point, but since there is no "remove" option in Gnome Tweak they were still in the list. For now I had to roll back to 18.04 because of another problem, but I'll come back to 18.10 in a while and check on this issue again. Apparently no one else seems to be affected, so it may really be just an unfortunate combination of extensions.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Lots of people are affected by extension bugs. But at least in the past few months word has been getting around that lots of bugs are caused by extensions so I guess people don't feel the need to log as many bugs when they already know extensions are to blame.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-shell (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[pureblood (freeseek)]

I have what looks like the same issue. When I lock my screen with "Super+L" the first time it goes into a flickering screen and the second time it locks the session. Then I login again, one of my shell extensions does not work anymore (PutWindows), and to make it work again I have to uninstall and install it again. I also have the issue that the Ubuntu dock does not auto-hide anymore unless I restart the session. I am not sure whether these problems are all connected. I use Xorg on Ubuntu 18.10. All these problems arose after updating from Ubuntu 18.04.

[Ray Nichols (ray-rdnichols)]

I think I have a similar problem. It started on 24-JAN-2019 I think.

When I return to my PC after a while I hit Escape to get rid of the shield as normal (I don't have a password lock) and return to my desktop but with all my previous running applications missing. The left hand bar is present and I can click on it but nothing happens.

If I use Ctrl-Alt-F1 and enter my password again I am returned to my desktop with everything as I left it and can resume work. I am having to do this every time I return to my PC.

I have no custom Gnome extensions.

[prasanna (prasanna)]

I have exactly the same issue. Started recently. All my gnome extensions including the lock symbol disappear after returning from an unlock.

[prasanna (prasanna)]

Another odd behavior. If I unlock the screen using a <CR> on the keyboard, things come back fine. But if I click on the screen with the mouse, then the desktop does not return to its normal settings.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This bug is closed. If you have any problems then please open a new bug by running:

  ubuntu-bug gnome-shell