gnome-shell crashed with signal 5 in g_log("Error in freeze/thaw accounting") - JS ERROR: TypeError: actor.__animationInfo is undefined

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

Just launching `terminator` does not seem to cause a crash for me. Can you check if removing your extensions avoids the issue?

'<email address hidden>', 'freon@UshakovVasilii_Github.yahoo.com'

freon doesn't seem to work with 3.36, wsmatrix I've disabled now and the shell still crashes, also when starting firefox

The relevant log lines are:

[ 2021.323087] bryant gnome-shell[6061]: JS ERROR: TypeError: actor.__animationInfo is undefined
                                         _sizeChangedWindow@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/windowManager.js:1385:9
[ 2021.349267] bryant gnome-shell[6061]: Error in freeze/thaw accounting

Timo,

Can you test this?

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/1453.patch

Thank you for taking the time to report this crash and helping to make this software better. This particular crash has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #1898082, so is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Please continue to report any other bugs you may find.

Ignore the above message.

Also tracking in https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/2f47b25de323a59b617efbd8ce4b9bc7789848bd

And in https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/fc9ef2077ed4ee125d73f018d3f8101a2beb0605

Bumped importance. I've been having to answer reports of this crash from both Ubuntu and upstream Gnome in the past 24 hours.

Also reproducible when mpv running under XWayland (due to vo=sdl usage) finish playback and exit.

The fix is also in debian/3.38.1-3 from commit 72370b880c

When can we expect it in Ubuntu 20.10? Really struggling with those crashes now

I've put the fix in my ppa: https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/gnome

Thanks 👍 I've just put it to test

On Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 13:46 Ernst Sjöstrand <email address hidden>
wrote:

> I've put the fix in my ppa:
> https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/gnome
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1897765
>
> Title:
> gnome-shell crashed with signal 5 in g_log("Error in freeze/thaw
> accounting") from meta_window_actor_thaw() from
> WindowManager::_sizeChangedWindow
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/mutter/+bug/1897765/+subscriptions
>

Hi everyone,
I just had the issue described here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1901222 with citrix and ended up on this page. I added the ppa and updated gnome and it looks like it's working. My IT person also did an upgrade of Citrix on the distant machine so I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure the issue was gnome-related.
Thanks for the fix, just a quick question, is there any downside in using your ppa Ernst ? (stability issues for instance). Should I remove it when this is merged in the main ubuntu repo ?

@zaf Yes, please ppa-purge my ppa when the fix is merged to the ubuntu main repo.

Thanks for providing people with the PPA, Ernst. Only one suggestion is that next time use the version prefix of the old version, not the future version. So then when an official update is available with a higher version number people would get it automatically.

Will we be notified when this is merged in the main ubuntu repo ?
Thanks again for the fix

Ubuntu fix proposed here: https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/44

Hi, just to confirm that I was also experiencing the citrix issue and it has been resolved by the patch in Ernst's PPA. Thanks for the fix and the PPA - the issue was really starting to annoy me!

Can we do anything about https://bugs.launchpad.net/mutter/+bug/1897765/comments/18 ? It is still crashing a lot with that error

We can't do anything with that screenshot. If you experience crashes then please open new bugs for them using these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

had same issue with vscode
added Ernst ppa and updated (cheers for that mate)
all good
fix should be added asap imo

You can track the official fix coming via bug 1908161.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 3.38.2-1ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-shell (3.38.2-1ubuntu1) hirsute; urgency=medium

  * Merge with debian, containing new upstream release (LP: #1908161):
    - Fixed crash in meta_window_actor_thaw (LP: #1897765)
    - Fixed crash in st_bin_destroy (LP: #1898005)
  * debian/patches:
    - Refreshed
    - Revert-appDisplay-baseAppView-Cleanup-animate.patch:
      + Revert a 3.38.2 change that proved to cause regressions
    - screenshot-Grab-screenshot-during-paint-on-X11.patch:
      + Correctly take screenshots for fullscreen games (LP: #1908164)
  * Remaining changes with debian:
    - Replace gnome-backgrounds dep with ubuntu-wallpapers and Suggests
      gnome-themes-standard-data, gnome-backgrounds
    - Add some Recommends:
      + ubuntu-session (| gnome-session) to have the ubuntu session available
      + xserver-xorg-legacy
      + yaru-theme-gnome-shell for the default ubuntu theming
    - Update debian/gbp.conf with Ubuntu settings
    - gnome-shell-common.prerm: Remove deprecated ubuntu theme alternative
    - ubuntu/desktop_detect.patch:
      + add caching for desktop detection to avoid querying the current
        desktop env variable as iterate through the list each time. For the
        time of the Shell process, we can expect this env variable to stay
        stable.
    - ubuntu/smarter_alt_tab.patch:
      + quick alt-tab (without showing up the switcher) switch only between
        the last window of the last 2 applications to be focused instead of
        raising all windows of those apps.
    - ubuntu/lightdm-user-switching.patch:
      + Allow user switching when using LightDM.
    - ubuntu/lock_on_suspend.patch
      + Respect Ubuntu's lock-on-suspend setting.
    - ubuntu/background_login.patch
      + Change default background color as we modified the default GDM color
        for our ubuntu session.
    - ubuntu/gdm_alternatives.patch
      + Add support for GDM3 theme alternatives
    - optional-hot-corner.patch
      + enable patch proposed by upstream developer already in package (but
        not in series) to add a settings for optional hot corner activation.
    - main-show-an-error-message-on-gnome-shell-crash.patch,
      global-make-possible-to-set-debug-flags-dynamically.patch,
      main-increase-the-granularity-of-backtraces-in-SHELL_DEBU.patch,
      main-add-backtrace-crashes-all-and-backtrace-all.patch,
      sessionMode-add-support-for-debugFlags-parameter.patch:
      + Improve debug JS tracing for crash reports
    - st-scroll-view-Handle-the-case-where-scrollbars-are-NULL.patch:
      + Fix crash on theme changes
    - ubuntu/search-call-XUbuntuCancel-method-on-providers-when-no-dat.patch:
      + stop searches when requested from UI
    - magnifier-Show-cursor-when-magnifier-is-enabled-and-scale.patch:
      + Show monitor scaled cursor when magnifier is enabled
    - Break gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (<< 19.01.3+git20190814)

gnome-shell (3.38.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Team upload
  * New upstream release
    - Improve app picker spacing on larger resolutions
    - Don't add dialogs to the window preview more than once
    - ...

Hello Timo, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-shell into groovy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/3.38.2-1ubuntu1~20.10.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-groovy to verification-done-groovy. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-groovy. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

all good with this patch
vscode no longer crashes (see bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1907468)

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-shell has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 3.38.2-1ubuntu1~20.10.1

---------------
gnome-shell (3.38.2-1ubuntu1~20.10.1) groovy; urgency=medium

  * No-change backport to groovy
  * debian: Update gbp.conf and control references to groovy branching

gnome-shell (3.38.2-1ubuntu1) hirsute; urgency=medium

  * Merge with debian, containing new upstream release (LP: #1908161):
    - Fixed crash in meta_window_actor_thaw (LP: #1897765)
    - Fixed crash in st_bin_destroy (LP: #1898005)
  * debian/patches:
    - Refreshed
    - Revert-appDisplay-baseAppView-Cleanup-animate.patch:
      + Revert a 3.38.2 change that proved to cause regressions
    - screenshot-Grab-screenshot-during-paint-on-X11.patch:
      + Correctly take screenshots for fullscreen games (LP: #1908164)
  * Remaining changes with debian:
    - Replace gnome-backgrounds dep with ubuntu-wallpapers and Suggests
      gnome-themes-standard-data, gnome-backgrounds
    - Add some Recommends:
      + ubuntu-session (| gnome-session) to have the ubuntu session available
      + xserver-xorg-legacy
      + yaru-theme-gnome-shell for the default ubuntu theming
    - Update debian/gbp.conf with Ubuntu settings
    - gnome-shell-common.prerm: Remove deprecated ubuntu theme alternative
    - ubuntu/desktop_detect.patch:
      + add caching for desktop detection to avoid querying the current
        desktop env variable as iterate through the list each time. For the
        time of the Shell process, we can expect this env variable to stay
        stable.
    - ubuntu/smarter_alt_tab.patch:
      + quick alt-tab (without showing up the switcher) switch only between
        the last window of the last 2 applications to be focused instead of
        raising all windows of those apps.
    - ubuntu/lightdm-user-switching.patch:
      + Allow user switching when using LightDM.
    - ubuntu/lock_on_suspend.patch
      + Respect Ubuntu's lock-on-suspend setting.
    - ubuntu/background_login.patch
      + Change default background color as we modified the default GDM color
        for our ubuntu session.
    - ubuntu/gdm_alternatives.patch
      + Add support for GDM3 theme alternatives
    - optional-hot-corner.patch
      + enable patch proposed by upstream developer already in package (but
        not in series) to add a settings for optional hot corner activation.
    - main-show-an-error-message-on-gnome-shell-crash.patch,
      global-make-possible-to-set-debug-flags-dynamically.patch,
      main-increase-the-granularity-of-backtraces-in-SHELL_DEBU.patch,
      main-add-backtrace-crashes-all-and-backtrace-all.patch,
      sessionMode-add-support-for-debugFlags-parameter.patch:
      + Improve debug JS tracing for crash reports
    - st-scroll-view-Handle-the-case-where-scrollbars-are-NULL.patch:
      + Fix crash on theme changes
    - ubuntu/search-call-XUbuntuCancel-method-on-providers-when-no-dat.patch:
      + stop searches when requested from UI
    - magnifier-Show-cursor-when-magnifier-is-enabled-and-scale.patch:
      + Show monitor scaled cursor when magnifier is enabled
    - Break gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons (<< 19.01.3+git20190814)

gnome-shell (3.38.2-1) unstable; urge...

Command line apt users may not notice, but the fix has been phased out the day it was released on updates, and the percentile has been remaining at 0% since then.

As a consequence, update-manager users won't get the update. Is it wanted behaviour (i.e. a manual, explicit phase-out), or is there anything wrong with this fix ?

I don't know the answer but will pass it on. Thanks for pointing that out...

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/phased-updates.html
https://askubuntu.com/q/1311421

My guess is that it's because there have been some automated crash reports associated with the updates, so the phasing stopped. This is normal and we need to explain how/why each one is not a regression.

The issue is being tracked in bug 1913672.

I'm experiencing this issue on gnome-shell 3.38.2-1ubuntu1~20.10.1.

Gnome crashes randomly, this time it happened while MS Teams video call was running, and I tried to switch to Nautilus (file browser).

Extract from the syslog is attached.

I'm sorry, I saw the "don't post errors for gnome-shell 3.38.2-1ubuntu1~20.10.1" message after I have already submitted my comment.

Thanks for pointing that out. It appears we have a subtly different bug in the same function. Almost the same line number but a different order of log messages. I've now opened bug 1915681 about that unresolved issue.

Please use bug 1915681 if you continue to experience these crashes in gnome-shell 3.38.2 onward.

Thank you.

Cheers

Same here - often after login and the desktop and everything is loaded, Ubuntu crashes and goes back to the login screen. When I login again I get the Crash Report popup where I can send the problem report. And all Gnome Extensions are turned off.

I'm running Ubuntu 21.04 w/ Gnome Shell 3.38.5.

Neo, this bug is closed. Please open a new bug for your issue.