keyboard backlight slider and automatic brightness causes gnome-shell to freeze (mostly on MacBooks)

[Jesús Soto]

Ubuntu 23.10
Gnome Shell 45.0
I expect gdm and the shell to be responsive but they freeze forcing me to reboot. Sometimes I'm able to use them but it takes some time to load.

After taking a look at the journal, I see lots of messages like this:
#0 564c4df768c8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/init.js:21 (1c387d470ba0 @ 48)
nov 07 09:18:55 perseus gnome-shell[3600]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
                                           The offending callback was AsyncReadyCallback().
                                           == Stack trace for context 0x564c4deaab90 ==
                                           #0 564c4df768c8 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/init.js:21 (1c387d470ba0 @ 48)
nov 07 09:18:55 perseus gnome-shell[3600]: 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.
                                           The offending signal was g-properties-changed on GDBusProxy 0x564c4fec8670.
                                           == Stack trace for context 0x564c4deaab90 ==

On successful boots this seems to auto resolve, being followed by this message:
nov 07 09:21:56 perseus dbus-daemon[1758]: [session uid=1000 pid=1758] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.gnome'
nov 07 09:21:56 perseus systemd[1722]: Started xdg-desktop-portal-gnome.service - Portal service (GNOME implementation).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report. Next time it happens please reboot immediately and then run:

  journalctl -b-1 > prevboot.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

[Jesús Soto (jssotomdz)]

Here it is

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The first one was backlight. I don't know how significant that is but it would explain why the bug is machine-specific:

nov 07 09:14:06 perseus gnome-shell[1255]: 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.
                                           The offending signal was notify on Gjs_status_backlight_SliderItem 0x5620201502b0.
                                           == Stack trace for context 0x56201e19fe50 ==
                                           #0 7ffccf769190 I resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/status/backlight.js:57 (16688c028e70 @ 131)
                                           #1 7ffccf769ce0 b resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/GObject.js:687 (374b8fd9bec0 @ 25)
                                           #2 7ffccf769d20 I resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/status/backlight.js:197 (16688c02c420 @ 199)
                                           #3 7ffccf769d50 I resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/status/backlight.js:157 (16688c02c2e0 @ 12)
                                           #4 56201e26c108 i resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/init.js:21 (374b8fd70ba0 @ 48)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Now waiting to hear if deleting all local extensions has helped.

[Jesús Soto (jssotomdz)]

Nope, same issues

[Jesús Soto (jssotomdz)]

Disabling extensions seems to avoid permanent freezing but it still takes some time for the shell to respond.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Try breaking into the gnome-shell process in gdb and calling 'gjs_dumpstack'. That's assuming it doesn't already reveal where it's hung when you attach.

[Pierrick (dynek)]

I'm having a similar issue, mentioned as duplicate of this bug report.

Whenever I go beyond 50% brightness it freezes with:

The offending signal was notify on Gjs_status_backlight_SliderItem 0x5566a1978a70.

Same happens when booting if the value is above 50%.