Gnome Shell completely freezes in Ubuntu 20.04 when clicking outside of app icon folders (when ubuntu-dock is loaded)

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

Reproduced this on up to date 20.04

1. Drag two icons into a group
2. Click group
3. Click group title
4. Click outside group title

Shell locks up

Video showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nqyHx0WMPY

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It sounds like some part of the system has crashed. To help us find the cause of the crash please follow these steps:

1. Look in /var/crash for crash files and if found run:
    ubuntu-bug YOURFILE.crash
Then tell us the ID of the newly-created bug.

2. If step 1 failed then look at https://errors.ubuntu.com/user/ID where ID is the content of file /var/lib/whoopsie/whoopsie-id on the machine. Do you find any links to recent problems on that page? If so then please send the links to us.

3. If step 2 also failed then apply the workaround from bug 994921, reboot, reproduce the crash, and retry step 1.

Please take care to avoid attaching .crash files to bugs as we are unable to process them as file attachments. It would also be a security risk for yourself.

I followed step 2 as step one didn't opened a new bug.

here is the link requested:
https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/333816bb-717a-11ea-a7c7-fa163ee63de6

Thanks. That seems to be bug 1843182.

I don't know which crash log i picked as i cannot see them in the errors.ubuntu.com.

So as you can see in the youtube video Alan Popey posted to reproduce the issue, there is not dash to panel extension installed or being used. Neither in the case when i reported this bug.

Did you tried to reproduce this bug yourslef ?

I have the same problem, I have grouped all applications into categories.
To reproduce the error, I open the category after clicking + and so on several times until it freezes.

Sorry, not the + key, but the key Esc

This bug is still a little confused.

* The provided steps including in comment #3 don't seem to crash the shell for me.

* The video in comment #3 looks like another similar issue to bug 1869571, which is fixed already.

* The original reporter has so far only provided a crash report relating to bug 1843182.

In order to avoid further confusion I will make this bug private and will ask the original reporter to please:

1. Verify the problem still exists after updating the system:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt full-upgrade
   sudo reboot

2. If the problem does still exist then try following the steps in comment #4 again.

3. If the steps in comment #4 don't work then please:

   (a) sudo apt install openssh-server
   (b) Log into the machine remotely.
   (c) Reproduce the freeze.
   (d) From your ssh login run:

       sudo killall -USR2 gnome-shell

   (e) Repeat the steps in comment #4.

On second thoughts, add in bug 1874709 and now three people report a similar freeze in the same place. We should be able to debug this.

Four people now.

It is a bug on both xorg and wayland.

In my experience, when I open an app and meanwhile open and close a folder the GNOME freezes.

Can anyone experiencing this bug please try disabling or uninstalling the Ubuntu Dock extension (via gnome-shell-extension-prefs)?

I couldn't reproduce the bug without Ubuntu Dock.

Yeah it seems many of the dash/overview issues we have in Ubuntu are actually due to the ubuntu-dock extension.

Before I move this bug, can anyone else confirm?

With Ubuntu Dock extension enabled, sometimes gnome-shell freezes and sometimes occur what is described in https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-shell/+bug/1870847.
With the Ubuntu Dock extensions disabled, no one of the bugs occur.

Seems like this is not the only bug related to Ubuntu dock. I had some lag locking and unlocking the screen. After disabling the extension, it disappeared.

I see similar freezes without extensions

On my desktop it is ok (intel cpu/nvidia graphics).
On a laptop (intel cpu/intel graphics/xorg) fresh install happens with similar steps as Alan Pope described:
1. Drag two icons into a group
1,5. Notice (different from Alan's video) more dots on the right (as there were more pages with apps)
2. Click group title - rename group
3. Repeat the steps (it doesn't freeze always on the first time)
On about 4th time gnome freezes completely.

how not to freeze:
1. after you notice more than the correct dots on the right (app pages)
2. alt+f2 +r
3. group is renamed in place, dots are correct again
4. continue to grouping apps, but after dots became more, restart gnome or risk to freeze after a surprise number of grouping times

I've ran into this bug as well using the steps above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jbHneixtNw

I have this same problem. I made a video with the problem and the solution here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3N9lnGMj-8

The bug is caused by the Ubuntu Dock extension. Changing the extension for the dock to not occupy the entire height of the screen solved the problem.

What I did to resolve it was:

1 - Install dconf

    sudo apt install dconf-editor

2 - Go to /org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock/extend-height

3 - Deselect the "Use default value". And set "Custom value" to "False".

I did a little research and it seems that the bug happens depending on the size of the computer screen.

https://github.com/micheleg/dash-to-dock/issues/1198

I think that's why the problem is "selective". Try to lower the screen resolution to reproduce the bug.

Rson, thanks for the link but that is bug 1870847.

Daniel van Vugt, both bugs ("extra page dots in App grid" and "clicking outside of app icon folders freezes Gnome shell") are caused by setting extend-height to True (default value) in the Ubuntu Dock extension. If I set this value to False, these problems are resolved. As I showed in the comment above (25).

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1872268/comments/25

In the link indicated by you, he (Brian Murray) says to uninstall Ubuntu dock 67 and install version 68 manually. Someday version 68 will be available by default.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1870847/comments/16

I did everything following these steps:

1 - I uninstalled version 67 of the Ubuntu Dock

    sudo apt remove gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock

2 - I downloaded the indicated Ubuntu Dock 68 .deb file and installed it

    http://launchpadlibrarian.net/479451292/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock_68ubuntu1~20.04.1_all.deb

3 - I restarted the operating system to make sure all changes were made

Even using version 68 I still have the problem with the extra dots. And the interface continues to freeze, but only when I click multiple times outside the app icon folders.

I made a video shown the two problems of Ubuntu Dock 68. Note that at 00:20 the App grid has extra dots. And at 01:05 the interface freezes, and I can only move the mouse.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sijERa-xAWo

another mistake is that you can't see the name of the last
applications in a folder

[image: bug.png]

Rson <email address hidden> escreveu no dia terça, 26/05/2020 à(s)
02:00:

> Daniel van Vugt, both bugs ("extra page dots in App grid" and "clicking
> outside of app icon folders freezes Gnome shell") are caused by setting
> extend-height to True (default value) in the Ubuntu Dock extension. If I
> set this value to False, these problems are resolved. As I showed in the
> comment above (25).
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-
> dock/+bug/1872268/comments/25
> <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1872268/comments/25>
>
> In the link indicated by you, he (Brian Murray) says to uninstall Ubuntu
> dock 67 and install version 68 manually. Someday version 68 will be
> available by default.
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-
> dock/+bug/1870847/comments/16
> <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1870847/comments/16>
>
> I did everything following these steps:
>
> 1 - I uninstalled version 67 of the Ubuntu Dock
>
> sudo apt remove gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock
>
> 2 - I downloaded the indicated Ubuntu Dock 68 .deb file and installed it
>
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/479451292/gnome-shell-extension-
> ubuntu-dock_68ubuntu1~20.04.1_all.deb
> <http://launchpadlibrarian.net/479451292/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock_68ubuntu1~20.04.1_all.deb>
>
> 3 - I restarted the operating system to make sure all changes were made
>
> Even using version 68 I still have the problem with the extra dots. And
> the interface continues to freeze, but only when I click multiple times
> outside the app icon folders.
>
> I made a video shown the two problems of Ubuntu Dock 68. Note that at
> 00:20 the App grid has extra dots. And at 01:05 the interface freezes,
> and I can only move the mouse.
>
> Video
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sijERa-xAWo
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1879158).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1872268
>
> Title:
> Gnome Shell completely freezes in Ubuntu 20.04 when clicking outside
> of app icon folders (when ubuntu-dock is loaded)
>
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Description: Ubuntu Focal Fossa (development branch)
> Release: 20.04
>
> Bug: Gnome shell while opening app drawer, clicking on an app folder
> and clicking on the blank area freezes gnome shell and it makes the
> session completely unusable and non recoverable.
>
> How to reproduce: 1- Click 9 dots on bottom corner of dash (the app
> launcher button), wait for the app grid to show up.
>
> 2- Click on an app folder to open it.
> 3- Click on the blank area outside of the opened folder dialog.
> 4- Gnome shell gets freezes and never come back from this state, on both
> wayland session and x11 session.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: gnome-shell 3.36.1-4ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu ...

^^^
That's covered by bug 1873725, which is reported upstream so that one looks like a pure gnome-shell bug, not related to ubuntu-dock.

This is definitely resolution related. I am unable to reproduce this on my X200's and T400's (1280x800) or T500's (1680x1050), but it hits me every time on my X220's (1366x768).

I also tried gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock 68 from focal-proposed, but that does not help at all. Setting org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock extend-height to false indeed avoids the problem, but it doesn't look very nice.

There seem to be more problems with GNOME Shell on this resolution. The text in the app folder icon doesn't line out nicely, and when opening the drawer, the application icons beneath it seem to re-align. When disabling the Ubuntu Dock extension, the normal GNOME dock also seems to grow and move when an app folder is opened. This does not happen on the other resolutions.

Therefore, I am unsure if this is only caused by the extension. I think it's not, but the dock just makes it worse.

I think part of the culprit may be that the Frequent / All buttons on the bottom are pushed downwards when opening an app folder on a 1366x768 display, causing the grid to re-align. This doesn't happen on 1280x800 or 1680x1050, where the bugs related to the many dots on the right or the shell locking up are also not present.

I can confirm that setting org.gnome.desktop.privacy remember-app-usage to false, and thus removing the Frequent / All buttons, also works around this problem.

There is a problem with the workaround mentioned above, though. If I set this up, then dragging and dropping apps to create app folders break.

If I try to drag and drop an app to the bottom edge, the dash won't change pages so I can drop the app to a folder located there. It does work if all the folders are located on the first page, so I can indeed drag to the top and the dash will change pages.

I have the same problem with 1366x768 resolution.

This bug also happens to me. My resolution is 1366 x 768 and is working again after disabling the Ubuntu dock in the extensions app.

Maybe related (and fixed in 3.38.1):
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/1447

Same problem on 1366 x 768. Its a Ubuntu Dock bug, replacing it with Dash to dock extension fixed issue.

It seems almost always, maybe always, to be Ubuntu 20.04 suffering from this bug. There's only one report from 20.10 and that might not even be the same bug. So it's possible the issue was fixed in 20.10...

I've been trying on 20.04 again and still cannot reproduce this bug. If anyone else can then please:

1. Reproduce the freeze.

2. Reboot.

3. Run:

   journalctl -b-1 > prevboot.txt

   and attach the resulting text file here.

4. Follow all of these steps to report any crashes in gnome-shell that might have happened around the same time: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

I'm reminded of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/commit/33ae220ad2 but it seems everyone including Ubuntu 20.04 already has that fix.

2020-12-09, tr, 08:26 Daniel van Vugt <email address hidden> rašė:

> It seems almost always, maybe always, to be Ubuntu 20.04 suffering from
> this bug. There's only one report from 20.10 and that might not even be
> the same bug. So it's possible the issue was fixed in 20.10...
>
> I've been trying on 20.04 again and still cannot reproduce this bug. If
> anyone else can then please:
>
> 1. Reproduce the freeze.
>
> 2. Reboot.
>
> 3. Run:
>
> journalctl -b-1 > prevboot.txt
>
> and attach the resulting text file here.
>
> 4. Follow all of these steps to report any crashes in gnome-shell that
> might have happened around the same time:
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock (Ubuntu Focal)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1889436).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1872268
>
> Title:
> Gnome Shell completely freezes in Ubuntu 20.04 when clicking outside
> of app icon folders (when ubuntu-dock is loaded)
>
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock source package in Focal:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Description: Ubuntu Focal Fossa (development branch)
> Release: 20.04
>
> Bug: Gnome shell while opening app drawer, clicking on an app folder
> and clicking on the blank area freezes gnome shell and it makes the
> session completely unusable and non recoverable.
>
> How to reproduce: 1- Click 9 dots on bottom corner of dash (the app
> launcher button), wait for the app grid to show up.
>
> 2- Click on an app folder to open it.
> 3- Click on the blank area outside of the opened folder dialog.
> 4- Gnome shell gets freezes and never come back from this state, on both
> wayland session and x11 session.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: gnome-shell 3.36.1-4ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-21.25-generic 5.4.27
> Uname: Linux 5.4.0-21-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu26
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
> CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
> Date: Sun Apr 12 12:00:13 2020
> DisplayManager: gdm3
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-04-11 (0 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Alpha amd64
> (20200329)
> RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 3.36.1-3ubuntu1
> SourcePackage: gnome-shell
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1872268/+subscriptions
>

Thanks. Unfortunately I can't see an explanation in there, and there's no crash either.

Please ensure you only have the three Ubuntu extensions (or less) enabled in the Extensions app. If the problem keeps happening then you can work around it by disabling the 'Ubuntu Dock' extension, I am told....

I don't know why, but when I installed Gnome tweak, Gnome tweak tool, Gnome shell extensions, the problem disappeared

It's likely this freeze was actually a crash, and that crash might have been fixed already under a different guise.

Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) in Ubuntu 20.10 the Frequent apps have been removed. As reported in #33, this solves the problem. It would be nice if in a future version of 20.04 LTS it is disabled by default.

Use dconf and set to false /org/gnome/desktop/privacy/remember-app-usage

It's not working for me

do you turn off - remember-app-usage in dconf, because in my case works

2020-12-23, tr, 00:20 Jehú Marcos Herrera Puentes <
<email address hidden>> rašė:

> It's not working for me
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1889436).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1872268
>
> Title:
> Gnome Shell completely freezes in Ubuntu 20.04 when clicking outside
> of app icon folders (when ubuntu-dock is loaded)
>
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
> Status in gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock source package in Focal:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Description: Ubuntu Focal Fossa (development branch)
> Release: 20.04
>
> Bug: Gnome shell while opening app drawer, clicking on an app folder
> and clicking on the blank area freezes gnome shell and it makes the
> session completely unusable and non recoverable.
>
> How to reproduce: 1- Click 9 dots on bottom corner of dash (the app
> launcher button), wait for the app grid to show up.
>
> 2- Click on an app folder to open it.
> 3- Click on the blank area outside of the opened folder dialog.
> 4- Gnome shell gets freezes and never come back from this state, on both
> wayland session and x11 session.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: gnome-shell 3.36.1-4ubuntu1
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-21.25-generic 5.4.27
> Uname: Linux 5.4.0-21-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: wl
> ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu26
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
> CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
> Date: Sun Apr 12 12:00:13 2020
> DisplayManager: gdm3
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-04-11 (0 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Alpha amd64
> (20200329)
> RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 3.36.1-3ubuntu1
> SourcePackage: gnome-shell
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock/+bug/1872268/+subscriptions
>

Now it works, thanks.

This bug still exists, on a fully updated Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS with Wayland. Having faced at least 7-8 times in the last 2 months, it gets very easily triggered while clicking around the UI. Over here screen resolution is also 1366x768.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open drawer menu (9 dots)
2. Open any group folder
3. Click anywhere outside the folder OR click _esc_ in succession

Freezes the entire UI, keyboard and mouse. No response after 6 minutes. Sleep button too doesn't work, required force shut down.

CPU: Intel Core i3-4030U, 1.9GHz
iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 4400
dGPU: Nvidia GeForce 830M (GM108)
Platform: HP PAVILION 15 NOTEBOOK PC

Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS. this bug still happens, even on Wayland. My screen resolution is also 1366x768, so i guess it really is a resolution problem.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open drawer menu (The one with 9 dots)
2. Open any folder
3. Click outside the folder or press the escape key (esc)

Workarounds:
1. Use dconf editor and set /org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock/extend-height to false (Rson, comment #25)
2. setting org.gnome.desktop.privacy remember-app-usage to false (Kevin Keijzer, comment #33)

System info:
CPU: Intel Core i3-6006U, 2GHz
iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 520
PLatform:80XG Lenovo ideapad 320-14ISK