Unity Application Lens slow to load

[R Sun]

WHAT HAPPENS
----------------------
Log into the system
Launch the dash with the 'window' key
Start typing 'chr'...

I see my files appearing in the search results
The application lens results appear ~10 - 15 seconds later

WHAT IS DESIRABLE
---------------------------
The application lens results appear immediately

Most users would login into the system and launch a web browser
Optimal unity experience demands that their browser or mail client shows up in the dash instantaneously

Also this behaviour has worsened recently (after upgrade to 12.04)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.16.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-31.50-generic-pae 3.2.28
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-31-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu13
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,decor,resize,commands,place,regex,move,grid,session,snap,vpswitch,imgpng,gnomecompat,mousepoll,put,animation,compiztoolbox,expo,wall,ezoom,workarounds,unitymtgrabhandles,fade,scale,unityshell]
Date: Fri Oct 5 01:13:34 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta i386 (20120328)
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alen Masic (alenn-masic)]

I have this problem in raring too, but this occurs only when I click on application lens then it takes around 10 seconds for applications to appear. But when I search Dash then applications appear with no problems.

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

I've had this problem in Precise, in Quantal, and now in Raring, and I've had it on totally four Ubuntu machines in the household. The rest of the Dash is also very slowly populated but the Applications lens loads slower than anything else.

It's been worse in 12.10 than in 12.04 and I had high hopes for 13.04 after playing with the daily builds from USB sticks, but it's not any better now. I think it was quite fast after a clean install but got worse after running through the usual things-to-do-after-installing-Ubuntu guides, which I usually do to get things like Opera, Ubuntu Tweak, restricted extras etc. Maybe Ubuntu is only meant to be snappy on "standard" installations?

Lots of people seem to have this problem but so far, I haven't seen a solultion.

[Stephen M. Webb (bregma)]

This is an acknowledged problem. We're hoping it is relieved by an architectural change in 13.10: I'm not sure if it's possible to back port to earlier releases of Ubuntu.

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

According to bug #919801, the problem can be eased by cleaning the Zeitgeist SQlite database. I'll be trying that on the one of my machines that is worst off. On the laptop I'm using now, I'm down to a couple of seconds for the dash to populate the first time after login. Not perfect but a clear improvement.

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

Trying the sqlite3 vacuum command on my worst behaving machine didn't work all that well even though I think it helped a little. It got even slightly better by deleting everything in the ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/ directory but still, Dash is quite slow to polulate the first time after login.

Now, the results of the files lens pop up after a couple of seconds and the applications results come after about five. The rotating magnifying glass in the search field indicates that there's still something pending, however, but I can't figure out what it is.

After having been used once, the Dash is fast and responsive. It's only a problem the first time after login, and I believe it's worst on the first login after reboot. I hope Stephen is right that this will be better in 13.10. It's just sad if we have to wait until October, though.

[Alen Masic (alenn-masic)]

I think best solution for this would be to automatically populate application lens after login, but in background, so when user wants to use dash he will have full list of applications, loaded for him. I have feeling, when I click on application lens, then it starts to search for applications on my computer.

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

This has been a major problem for me in 13.10.

I managed to solve it by turning off the record search activity option under provacy settings. It seems that the circling icon next to the magnifying glass is the process recording, or calling, previous searches.

If i turn if off (dash --> Security and privacy --> Files and applications --- Turn off: 'Record file and application usage'), my applications come up really quickly in the dash.

j

[Kanariezwart (kanariezwart)]

I tried the suggestion @Morrissey suggested, that seems to work for now

[Bruno Nova (brunonova)]

This is still a problem in 14.04.
It takes a long time for the applications to appear in the dash, when it should be instantaneous.

I have noticed that, after login, if I open the Alt+F2 scope (commands scope?), it seem that the applications/commands appear faster there.
After that, opening the Dash with the Super key is fast.

According to "ps aux", the command that is executed when the Alt+F2 scope is opened appears to be:
    /usr/bin/unity-scope-loader applications/applications.scope applications/scopes.scope commands.scope
If I execute this command in a terminal after login, then wait some seconds and open the Dash, the applications show a lot faster (under 2 seconds if the hard drive is not busy).

So, a workaround could be to add that command to the startup applications.
I'm using this now (I added a delay of 30 seconds), and it seems to work.
It crashed after the first reboot, though, but it didn't happen again.

As said in #8, I think the applications lens (and the other local ones?) should be preloaded at startup (in a way that doesn't slow down the boot/login process).

[Bruno Nova (brunonova)]

For those still facing this issue, here is the workaround that I'm using.
It's based on my previous comment:

I've added the command "/usr/bin/unity-scope-loader applications/applications.scope applications/scopes.scope commands.scope" to the auto-start programs, with a delay (30 seconds in my case).
The applications scope used to take 10+ seconds to load for me, now it takes 3-5 seconds.

I've attached a ".desktop" file.
If you want to use this workaround, download the file and move it to "~/.config/autostart".
The command starts after a delay of 20 seconds by default (after login). If you want to change it, open the file with the text editor (open the text editor, then drag the file into the editor) and change the "X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay" field.
You may also want to open the auto-start configuration program from the Dash to check if it was really added and is enabled.

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

Thanks, Bruno.

I tried your earlier proposal from July by making a startup entry like this:

sh -c "sleep 15s ;/usr/bin/unity-scope-loader applications/applications.scope applications/"

That didn't seem to make any difference, but now I've been using your last workaround for about a week and it seems it cuts my Dash loading time to two-three seconds. I'm not sure why or if there's been some intermediate Unity update that hijacks the results. It seems to me that the difference since last time is that now, you're loading two more scopes:

/usr/bin/unity-scope-loader applications/applications.scope applications/scopes.scope commands.scope

Care to explain why you made these changes?

[Bruno Nova (brunonova)]

Your startup entry ended in "applications/"? That's probably why it wasn't working.

The command I wrote in comment #1 was cut in two lines automatically by Launchpad. The "scopes.scope commands.scope" line was also part of the command.
That command corresponds to the "Exec=" line in the .desktop file.

So, the last workaround is not loading more scopes, you just didn't understand that the other line in my previous comment was also part of the command, which is totally understandable. Thanks Launchpad! :)

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

Noobs mistake on my account, in other words.

Thanks, Bruno. I've been coping with this bug since 12.04 and your tip is the first to have made a difference.

[Seth Johnson (sethj)]

As part of the big bug review for 16.04 LTS I have tested this on 15.10 and the bug is still there.

[Lars Ola Liavåg (l-liavag)]

16.04 still using Unity 7?

[Rodrigo Lledó (rodhos-hp)]

I can confirm the bug was present on vivid but it seems fixed for me on wily.

[Rodrigo Lledó (rodhos-hp)]

@Lars Run the Unity 8 preview and you will see why.