Reduce animation setting gets forgotten on every reboot

[Alistair Cunningham]

After upgrading to Ubuntu 24.04, every time I reboot, the Accessibility -> Reduce animations setting gets forgotten, and I have to turn it back on again manually.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: ubuntu-settings 24.04.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-22.22-generic 6.8.1
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.0-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Apr 14 08:33:34 2024
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-07-14 (1370 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-settings
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2024-04-11 (3 days ago)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please check the setting has been saved:

  gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations

both after quitting the Settings app, and after rebooting.

[Alistair Cunningham (acunningham)]

After applying the latest updates today, this now appears to be working correctly. Feel free to close this ticket.

[Alistair Cunningham (acunningham)]

I think I've figured out why this is happening. If I restart directly into Ubuntu, then it works correctly and the setting is remembered. However, if I restart into Unity, then back into Ubuntu, the setting is forgotten. Perhaps Unity is overwriting the setting?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Not sure. Please check /var/crash in case something is crashing before the new setting can be saved.

[Alistair Cunningham (acunningham)]

I don't see anything in /var/crash around the time I tested this.

[Alistair Cunningham (acunningham)]

After re-installing my laptop, this problem is back. This time it happens after every reboot. I now have auto login enabled, and am booting directly into the default Ubuntu desktop environment every time, so the problem can't be caused by loading another desktop environment such as Unity.

Any suggestions on how to debug this?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I have seen evidence in other bugs that autologin causes problems with some settings, so try without autologin.

[Alistair Cunningham (acunningham)]

I turned autologin off, and rebooted, but the problem happened again.