[launcher] Some Home Pane launchers don't work when using Unity2D

[EliCoten]

For some reason, quite a few launchers on the Unity Dash don't work after upgrading to Oneiric 11.10. They worked fine in Natty 11.04. Some launchers do work, but a lot don't. After doing unity --replace in a terminal, I notice the following error appears every time I click a launcher that fails to work:
WARN 2011-10-23 23:26:06 glib <unknown>:0 Unable to fetch children: Method "Children" with signature "" on interface "org.ayatana.bamf.view" doesn't exist

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity-services 4.22.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: ad9a15703e19217cb3448f881e125f6a
CheckboxSystem: abc83e3988b72e7c3a9b3aa684cb92fd
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,grid,regex,mousepoll,imgpng,move,splash,gnomecompat,wall,thumbnail,unitymtgrabhandles,animation,resize,annotate,place,wobbly,expo,workarounds,session,fade,ezoom,scale,unityshell,bench]
Date: Wed Oct 26 22:56:58 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/unity/unity-panel-service
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-25 (1 days ago)
XsessionErrors:
 (nautilus:4061): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_action_set_visible: assertion `GTK_IS_ACTION (action)' failed
 (nautilus:4061): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_action_set_visible: assertion `GTK_IS_ACTION (action)' failed
---
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: ad9a15703e19217cb3448f881e125f6a
CheckboxSystem: abc83e3988b72e7c3a9b3aa684cb92fd
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity-2d 4.12.0-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Tags: oneiric running-unity unity-2d
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-25 (2 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev sambashare scanner tape video
---
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: ad9a15703e19217cb3448f881e125f6a
CheckboxSystem: abc83e3988b72e7c3a9b3aa684cb92fd
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity-2d 4.12.0-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Tags: oneiric running-unity unity-2d
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-25 (6 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev sambashare scanner tape video

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

This is a bug in unity-2d, but it was originally reported against unity. I am changing the package to unity-2d. Please provide information specific to unity-2d on your system, by opening a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T) and running the command "apport-collect 882300" (without the quotes). Then check back here to make sure the information was attached and the apport-collected tag was automatically added (please do not manually add this tag yourself). Assuming everything appears in order, it would then be appropriate for you to change this bug's status back from Incomplete to New.

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

apport information

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

apport information

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Requested apport-collect information has been attached, so changing back from Incomplete to New.

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

Hey,
sorry but I am a little confused about exactly what this bug is. Could you please give us step-by-step instructions on how you get this bug? When we can reproduce, we can fix it.

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

1. From Unity2D, click the top button (I don't know exactly what it's called - the one that brings up the search panel, which has all the applications in it
2. Select an application* (e.g. VLC Media Player)
3. Nothing happens (Expected VLC Media Player to open)

*A few applications seem to be ok, but this bug applies to most of them.

I hope this is clear

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

(By select an application - I mean click on it)

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

Thanks for the step-by-step, I see what you mean. However I cannot reproduce it on my machine. Can I please ask you to perform the following (you had better close all applications, as you'll need to log out at the end):

1. Open a Terminal
2. Enter the following commands individually and press return:
     cat /usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop
     killall unity-2d-places
     unity-2d-places &
3. Now click the so-called "BFB" button at the top of the launcher, to open the Dash.
4. Find and click VLC.

All this time you'll have output appearing in your terminal screen. Could you please copy & paste it to this bug report?

It's probably best for you to log out after this procedure, to get back to a properly usable system.
Many thanks!

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

Ok see below. NB I don't know if it's related but the unity launcher bar going up the side sometimes disappears. To get it back, I go to a terminal and type unity-2d-launcher &
The next time it disappears, a message appears in the terminal about unity-2d-launcher Segmentation Fault.
Thanks
==================================================================================================

user@machine:/usr/lib$ cat /usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=VLC media player
Comment=Read, capture, broadcast your multimedia streams
Name[bn]=VLC মিডিয়া প্লেয়ার
Comment[bn]=আপনার মাল্টিমিডিয়া স্ট্রীম পড়ুন, ধরে রাখুন এবং ছড়িয়ে দিন
Name[ca]=Reproductor multimèdia VLC
Comment[ca]=Reproduïu, captureu i difoneu fluxos multimèdia
Name[de]=VLC Media Player
Comment[de]=Wiedergabe, Aufnahme und Verbreitung Ihrer Multimedia-Streams
Name[es]=Reproductor multimedia VLC
Comment[es]=Lea, capture y emita sus contenidos multimedia
Name[et]=VLC meediaesitaja
Comment[et]=Multimeediafailide taasesitamine, lindistamine ja edastamine
Name[fi]=VLC-mediasoitin
Comment[fi]=Toista, tallenna ja lähetä multimediaa
Name[fr]=Lecteur multimédia VLC
Comment[fr]=Lire, capturer, diffuser vos flux multimedia
Name[gl]=Reprodutor multimedia VLC
Comment[gl]=Lea, capture e emita os seus fluxos multimedia
Name[hu]=VLC médialejátszó
Comment[hu]=Multimédiás adatfolyamok olvasása, mentése, szórása
Name[it]=Lettore multimediale VLC
Comment[it]=Legge, acquisisce e trasmette i tuoi flussi multimediali
Name[km]=កម្មវិធី​ចាក់​មេឌៀ VLC
Comment[km]=អាន ចាប់យក ប្រកាស​ស្ទ្រីម​ពហុមេឌៀ​របស់​អ្នក
Name[nl]=VLC Mediaspeler
Comment[nl]=Uw multimediastreams afspelen, opnemen en uitzenden
Name[nn]=VLC mediespelar
Comment[nn]=Spel av, ta opp og send ut multimedia
Name[pa]=VLC ਮੀਡਿਆ ਪਲੇਅਰ
Comment[pa]=ਆਪਣੀ ਮਲਟੀਮੀਡਿਆ ਸਟਰੀਮ ਪੜ੍ਹੋ, ਕੈਪਚਰ ਤੇ ਬਰਾਡਕਾਸਟ ਕਰੋ
Name[pt_BR]=Reprodutor de Mídias VLC
Comment[pt_BR]=Reproduza, capture e transmita os seus fluxos multimídia
Name[sv]=Mediaspelaren VLC
Comment[sv]=Allmän uppspelare av film och musik
Name[sk]=VLC media player
Comment[sk]=Naèítavajte, zaznamenávajte, vysielajte svoje multimediálne streamy
Name[ru]=Медиаплеер VLC
Comment[ru]=Универсальный проигрыватель видео и аудио
Name[pl]=VLC media player - odtwarzacz multimedialny
Comment[pl]=Odczytywanie, przechwytywanie i nadawanie strumieni multimedialnych
Name[lt]=VLC leistuvė
Comment[lt]=Groti, įrašyti, siųsti įvairialypės terpės kūrinius
Name[ja]=VLCメディアプレイヤー
Comment[ja]=マルチメディアストリームの読み込み、キャプチャー、ブロードキャスト
Name[wa]=Djouweu d' media VLC
Comment[wa]=Lét, egaloye, evoye vos floûs multimedia
Name[zh_CN]=VLC media player
Comment[zh_CN]=为您读取、捕获或发送多媒体流
Exec=vlc %U
Icon=vlc
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;Player;
MimeType=video/dv;video/mpeg;video/x-mpeg;video/msvideo;video/quicktime;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-msvideo;video/x-nsv;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;application/ogg;application/x-ogg;video/x-ogm+ogg;audio/x-vorbis+ogg;application/x-matroska;video/webm;audio/webm;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/mpeg;audio/x-wav;audio/x-mpegurl;audio/x-scpls;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-ms-asf;audio/x-ms-asx;audio/x-ms-wax;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;audio/x-real-audio;a...

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

Ok, your Launcher is crashing. That's not good!

Can you please run the following command in a Terminal:
apport-collect 882300

This will upload information about your latest crash to this bug report, which will help us debug. We're finding this bug hard to reproduce, so your assistance would be hugely appreciated!

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

apport information

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

apport information

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

It's not actually crashing as much now but the launchers are still not working.

[Gerry Boland (gerboland)]

Hey Eli,
in any case, the Launcher should just work. Thanks for running apport, however it gave me nothing useful. Can you please run this command in a Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libunity-dev libunity-core-4.0-dev libqt4-dev

This will install some development packages that help us get good debugging output. They should have no other affect on your computer, but will take up extra space. Then please run:

sudo service apport start force_start=1

This turns on a Crash reporting service temporarily - it will be turned off again on reboot.

Now do your usual things with the Launcher. If Launcher crashes, shortly after you will get a prompt from Apport to log the crash as a bug. Please do this and enter the bug number here.

Thank you for your time, this is valuable info for us!

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

-dev packages do not help give good debugging output. You need -dbg and/or -dbgsym packages for that. (-dev packages provide header files, not debug symbols.)

Some of the relevant debug symbol packages are available only in the -dbgsym variety, so you'll need to enable the ddebs repository, by following the directions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash.

Then the debug symbol packages corresponding to the packages to which the specified -dev packages correspond are installable via the following command:

sudo apt-get install unity-dbgsym libunity-core-4.0-4-dbgsym libunity-misc4-dbgsym libqt4-dbg

However, that wouldn't actually install the Unity packages relevant to this crash, since this bug is in unity-2d and not unity. So this command would be more appropriate:

sudo apt-get install unity-2d-launcher-dbgsym unity-2d-panel-dbgsym unity-2d-places-dbgsym unity-2d-spread-dbgsym libunity-2d-private0-dbgsym libqt4-dbg

If you like, you can run both those commands. Though I think the first one may be incorrect for a different reason--it tries to install packages for libunity4, but Oneiric uses libunity6. You can make the obvious change to fix that, if the command fails giving an error messaging indicating that it cannot install those packages.

If you run both commands, don't worry about how they both attempt to install libqt4-dbg. If it's installed by the above method, telling apt-get to install it again that way will make no change.

You should copy those commands from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-2d/+bug/882300, and not your email, as they'll get broken up in your email in a way that will result in them getting run incorrectly.

[Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure)]

Since libunity-core-4.0-4 is a dependency of unity-2d (I just checked), you do need to install those too. @Gerry Boland, I apologize for creating confusion on that point.

So I recommend installing all the debug symbol packages listed in my previous comment (https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/882300/comments/16).

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

Ok I've installed all those packages and run the
sudo service apport start force_start=1
command, so we'll see what happens.

It doesn't seem to be crashing at the moment, but the launchers are still not working.

Thanks

[EliCoten (launchpad-elicoten)]

Since I followed these instructions you have given previously, Unity2D hasn't crashed once, but many/most launchers from the dash are still not working. They work fine in Unity3D, however on this computer for some reason since upgrading to Oneiric Unity3D has been very slow (but that's a separate problem which I've filed separately).

[dino99 (9d9)]

This version has expired