GNOME 42 has been a Nightmare!

There are several issues you should resolve, e.g.

Jul 16 14:08:15 kelvin-surfacepro8 systemd[915]: /usr/lib/environment.d/99-environment.conf:11: invalid variable name "export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND", ignoring.
Jul 16 14:08:15 kelvin-surfacepro8 systemd[915]: /usr/lib/environment.d/99-environment.conf:12: invalid variable name "export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2", ignoring.
Jul 16 14:08:15 kelvin-surfacepro8 systemd[915]: /usr/lib/environment.d/99-environment.conf:13: invalid variable name "export GTK_USE_PORTAL", ignoring.
Jul 16 14:08:15 kelvin-surfacepro8 systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[917]: Configuration file /home/kelvin/.config/autostart/overgrive-autostart.desktop is marked executable. Please remove executable permission bits. Proceeding anyway.

Looking through the rest of the log, it does look like your system is quite dirty, with a number of different services taking time to load.

I wonder whether you’d find the same issues with a clean user profile.

Have you met GNOME?

You mean the GNOME developers? :joy:

7 Likes

I’ll create a new user and see if that helps. Is there a way to clear the cache/session for GNOME under my current user profile?

Good call! I created a new user profile, then did some log in tests with the new user. GNOME Wayland starts almost immediately each time with the new user, about 3-5 seconds. I also logged in and out of KDE Plasma and a GNOME Xorg session with the new user, then back into the GNOME Wayland session. Still only takes about 3-5 seconds. It’s definitely not a DM or other DE problem. Something probably got borked with GNOME under my default user profile a few days ago. I did have a lockup that forced a hard shutdown. I just need to figure out how to clean out GNOME under my profile.

1 Like

Ok, I deleted all of the gtk and gnome related files and folders in all of the hidden directories under my user profile. Now GNOME Wayland starts in under 5 seconds, from SDDM with KDE Plasma also installed. Yeah! Thankfully I didn’t lose too much, just got to reinstall my extensions.

So in all “fairness” :wink: perhaps you could consider changing the title of the thread to better reflect the issues you have been having?

Sweeping the house (aka $HOME) sometimes prevents us from making rude posts on forums, if you don’t clean your house how can you complain about something?
As a 20+ year old linux user I’m amazed that this wasn’t the first thing you did.

1 Like

Youre using SDDM with Gnome you said? This is one potential source of issues as Gnome expects you to use GDM.

You need to put the gtk4.0 folder in vinces themes in the ~/.config folder and then your gtk4 applications should follow the theme

This is something people think GNOME is designed around but its actually very keyboard focused.

Gnome requires GDM for it to function properly, regardless of if you want that to be the case or not. Lockscreen among other functions are tied to it.

This is also how the GNOME devs see things, you will not get support for running non standard/tested configurations. Generally the rule is, if its not the expected configuration youre mostly on your own. Its not just GNOME devs but in many situations youll encounter this. This is when you need to look at the community and try to find others with similar configurations or experience with such.

TBH some of the issues youre experiencing sound like issues that can happen when using multiple DEs, especially when you get GNOME involved which doesnt tend to play nice when mixing DEs. Im not gonna convince you to like GNOME, but maybe pick a DE that fits what you want vs trying to use extensions to make GNOME fit what you want. GNOME tends to be at its best when youre navigating with the keyboard and making minimal changes to its intended layout. I use GNOME with just themes and just perfection for some tweaks to clock position and such.

1 Like

It was the first thing I thought about doing, but it is not as easy to do anymore with the new directory structures. Plus, it really doesn’t “fix” the issue. It restarts you from scratch.

Well–My experience has been very different. The upgrade from 41 to 42 went easy—a couple of extensions didn’t work (as per normal)…the only “fly” in the ointment was the “loss” of theming…I used one of the workarounds that have shown up until 43 comes out… The extension problem sorted out within a few days–some just needed a bump in the metadata.json file to work & a couple I had to wait for an update (all-in-all, normal for Gnome). I keep all my extensions in my .local instead of available to the whole system–makes it easier to work with them.

(as a note: I was a beta-tester for the start of Gnome3, so I am comfortable with the “bumps” that Gnome has–Everyone gets comfortable with their chosen “poison” & after time it just becomes “normal” :slight_smile: ).

2 Likes

I can understand being frustrated, but i think this thread couldve been far more productive from the start. We all get there some times but if you came at this looking for help vs looking to vent your anger AND get help it wouldve been better.

Keep in mind, when asking here or anywhere for help with free and OSS that youre asking for people to give you help for FREE in their FREE time for FREE software that was provided to you for FREE. Keep that perspective in mind.

2 Likes

I did some more testing. Turns out, this is an extension issue. To be more precise, it’s an ANY extension issue! If I install any extension in GNOME right now, it takes close to 28 seconds to load. I can’t just disable the extension. I have to delete the entire extension folder. I verified this with the new user account also. So basically I can’t use ANY extensions on GNOME right now. I don’t know what changed in the past two days. There was probably a random GNOME shell related updated that caused this.

So this just may be another example of a random GNOME/GTK release breaking extensions or causing havoc with extensions. I just don’t get it. Why have extensions if they are going to be actively sabotage them at every turn?

this may be an issue with gjs, did it have any updates for you recently? extensions use gnome javascript which may be having an issue in your case.

1 Like

As I noted–don’t have system-wide extensions–if you do…remove them & keep any extensions in your .local–makes trouble-shooting MUCH easier.

The XDG directory specification is quite old, GNOME has been using it since version 2.0, there is a way to clean the settings without having to remove the directories which is through gsettings or dconf-editor resetting the configuration keys or simply deleting the file .config/dconf/user

Not that I know of…I just drill down & remove what I need to. If anyone knows of a better way…now is the time.

I understand. This was meant to vent my anger, which I why I posted in the forums instead of submitting an official bug report. I’ve submitted bug reports for GNOME in the past and have gotten the same reactions from GNOME developers as if I were complaining. I don’t get that reaction when submitting a bug report for any other DE/WM. It’s like we are literally on our own. I want to like GNOME. It’s pretty, it runs a lot of things out of the box, especially on my Surface Pro device. I just hate feeling like a criminal because I want the dock to stay visible or want to add maximize/minimize buttons to my windows.

But that doesn’t get rid of all of the configurations directories. A long time ago (at least 10 years or so) you used to be able to just delete the .gnome or .kde directories to clean everything out. Now there is desktop related stuff all over .local and .config directories that need also be removed.

Well–from personal experience–the Devs are REALLY set in their way of “THIS IS THE WAY IT’S GOING TO BE” cast in concrete ;)…It takes YEARS to move them to a slightly different point of view. I have worked with the “system” for going on 15 years now…SLOWLY it changes–mostly for the better. I do prefer GNOME over the other DEs (maybe because I started with Apple back in the 80’s)…& I MAY be a bit set in my ways too…

I don’t system-wide extensions. I think it’s weird that I had to delete the entire .local extensions directory, not just the individual folders that were in there.

That’s weird…I just delete the offending one & ALT/F2/r to clear it out.