Not all desktop items are themed

Nightly updates for Aug 27th fixed this problem.

Problem seemed fixed after the updates that came out on 8/28 but the issue still is not resolved. Themes are still not applied to the panel, icons and firefox but seem to be working for window borders.

Versions of most of the involved packages have changed. I am going to try and run another report.

This also affects me, using ubuntu latest maverick from 27/09/2010 on amd64, gnome-settings-daemon version 2.31.92-0ubuntu1

I've changed status from "incomplete" to "confirmed" since I also have this problem, and until the devs take this issue (I hope before the maverick release) and ask us for more info, that should not be marked incomplete.

I am still having this problem as of the latest updates for Oct. 7th. I have 3 laptops and a desktop all installed at various points of Maverick testing and all of them have the same issue. It happens sometimes for the first user of a system, but happens 100% of the time if a second user logs on using "Switch from <user>" option. The second user on the machine will never get their theme.

I have a very similar issue. With the default Nouveau driver themes work. With the proprietary driver enabled, the panel and other items are not themed.

If anyone ever works on this issue here is a pure layman observation of my 4 machines that are affected. The fastest of my machines makes it to the desktop the most consistently without everything being themed. It is almost 100% of the time arriving at the desktop without the panels being themed. All 4 of my affected machines are brand new Core I7 machines with SSD's all running nvidia graphics. Is it possible this is a boot timing issue? Such as themes settings trying to apply before the theme engine is completely up and running.

Exactly the same behavior here.
I7 with nvidia graphics.
First login after boot is most of the time correct.
Today's updates didn't fix the problem for me.

Also i7. Affects me. I have the below system information. I know it says Lucid, I downgraded from my backup after getting frustrated with all of the problems that were happening. For me, it was actually only partially applying my icons. I got the right icons on some areas of the screen (Awoken theme), the ugly icons on some areas, and the hicolor icons on some areas. I would log out and back in and the icons would change. Changing the gtkrc and removing the proprietary driver helped but only intermittently. Killing gnome-settings-daemon did not help.

System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 10/19/2010 21:46:21
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo

SYSTEM INFORMATION
 Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) release.
 GNOME: 2.30.2 (Ubuntu 2010-06-25)
 Kernel version: 2.6.32-25-generic (#44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 20:05:27 UTC 2010)
 GCC: 4.4.3 (x86_64-linux-gnu)
 Xorg: unknown (21 July 2010 01:03:39PM) (21 July 2010 01:03:39PM)
 Hostname: ross-laptop
 Uptime: 0 days 0 h 14 min

CPU INFORMATION
 GenuineIntel, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 820 @ 1.73GHz
 Number of CPUs: 8
 CPU clock currently at 1199.000 MHz with 8192 KB cache
 Numbering: family(6) model(30) stepping(5)
 Bogomips: 3458.60
 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm ida tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid

MEMORY INFORMATION
 Total memory: 7995 MB
 Total swap: 13515 MB

STORAGE INFORMATION
 SCSI device - scsi0
  Vendor: ATA
  Model: INTEL SSDSA2M160
 SCSI device - scsi1
  Vendor: hp
  Model: BDDVDRW CT21L
 SCSI device - scsi4
  Vendor: ATA
  Model: TOSHIBA MK3256GS

HARDWARE INFORMATION
MOTHERBOARD
 Host bridge
  Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Thermal Control Registers (rev 04)
  Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 363c
 PCI bridge(s)
  Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 11)
  Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05)
  Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 05)
  Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 05)
  Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 05)
  Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 8 (rev 05)
  Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5) (prog-if 01)

GRAPHIC CARD
 VGA controller
  nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 230M] (rev a2)
  Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 363c

NVIDIA GRAPHIC CARD INFORMATION
 Model name: GeForce GT 230M
 Card Type: PCI-E 16x
 Video RAM: 1024 MB
 GPU Frequency: 135 MHz
 Driver version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 195.36.24 Thu Apr 22 19:10:14 PDT 2010

I get this bug as well. The only time it shows itself is when the installation is on my OCZ Vertex 2E SSD, if I install on a WD Raptor, login session starts correctly. This bug is present with Ubuntu, but not, for example, Gentoo, so I must assume that some parallelisation of session startup that is Ubuntu-specific is buggy.

Me too, on my Acer Aspire One. Here's my workaround.

It seems that gnome-setting-daemon does not alway start. In a terminal type gnome-setting-daemon. Then type killall nautilus.

This bug is really really annoying.

I have to log out and in up to 20 (!) times in Gnome until the theme loads successfully.

What information can I provide in order to find the origin of the problem?

Dell XPS 14 inch, Intel Core i7 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M 2GB graphics Ubuntu 10.10 x64.

Same issue here.

More information

I'd like to add that, based on getut and aidanjt's comments, i tried a different hard drive in my laptop.

I experienced this bug when using an Intel SSD, model number SSDSA2M080G2GC.

Changed to an older 7200 RPM Samsung hard drive, reinstalled 10.10 x64 and all items (panels included) are themed properly.

Be happy to help test to provide more info. Let me know.

Mike

That is nice to hear. That almost positively indicates that it is a race
condition. Fast processor + fast hard drive means the systems are getting
to the desktop before some process is ready.

Hopefully that is enough information to pique the interest of a developer.

Robert (Getut)

From:
Mike Roberts <email address hidden>
To:
<email address hidden>
Date:
11/17/2010 02:26 PM
Subject:
[Bug 625670] Re: Not all desktop items are themed
Sent by:
<email address hidden>

More information

I'd like to add that, based on getut and aidanjt's comments, i tried a
different hard drive in my laptop.

I experienced this bug when using an Intel SSD, model number
SSDSA2M080G2GC.

Changed to an older 7200 RPM Samsung hard drive, reinstalled 10.10 x64
and all items (panels included) are themed properly.

Be happy to help test to provide more info. Let me know.

Mike

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Looks like we're all using amd64 and SSD. Maybe also ext4? Could this be related to this bug: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/317781 (this was about losing files, but it's also about differences between ext3 and ext4, perhaps the combination of ext4 and SSD make gnome-settings-daemon startup too fast?)

I think it has to do with the order that things are loaded in. I have tried it on ext3 and the problem persisted. It seems like most of us are using i7 as well, so maybe someone should try to delay the X server/gnome DE from loading until gnome-settings-daemon is already loaded. I would do this myself, but I don't know how. Also, I can say that the workaround of de-theming GDM (I don't remember exactly *how* I did it, but it's on some forum somehwere) definitely fixes the problem.

I can confirm this as well: top panel always looks awful after a reboot; generally takes numerous logout/login cycles to get clean theme; fast system w/nVidia, i7 and SSD:

Maverick/10.10 64-bit
System76 Serval Pro (SER-P6) laptop
Core i7-840QM Processor ( 45nm, 8MB L3 Cache, 1.86GHz )
8 GB - DDR3 1333 MHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 Video Memory
160 GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive

I'm attaching screen shots of both the good and bad look of my top panel. I'm using the default Maverick Ambiance theme.

FWIW, the following workaround was posted at http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9969103&postcount=6
    sudo mkdir /usr/share/gdm/nostart
    sudo mv /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/gnome-settings-daemon.desktop /usr/share/gdm/nostart/
    # logout/login

The workaround mentioned is here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9969103

Hello,
I don't know if I have exactly the same bug. Actually, sometimes at login I get the old fashion default gnome theme instead of the theme I set. When I click in System->Preferences->Appearance generally the right theme is loaded. But some icons in the panel like NetworkManager icon is still the gnome default one.
Sometimes, the theme is right at login, but after a while it returns to the old default one.
The weird thing is the behavior is not easy to reproduce.
I got twice to reboot the computer because X freezed and its process was loading 100% of CPU.
The sure thing is the bug appeard after migrationg from Lucid to Maverick.
My hardware is not very fast compared to what's mentionned here :
Maverick/10.10 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
4 GB - DDR2
Intel G31 Express integrated
HDD Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

Please tell me if I can give more details to help.

@Mass-Yas. Does not sound like the same bug. In mine at least (and seemingly everybody else's) the theme never goes back to the default. X never freezes on mine. And on mine the theme will not apply even during an individual session. Also, on mine the behavior is very easy to reproduce. I'd recommend trying the fix in post 20 and if that fixes your problem, then it's probably a different incarnation of the same problem that we have.

The other reoccurring motif seems to be that everyone experiencing
this bug has an SSD.

I have the problem on an Acer Aspire One with 320GB HHD. My suggestion at #13 of restarting the gnome-setting-daemon and killing nautilus works every time for me. No reboot or logout necessary.

I tested the fix in post 20 but the problem came back again. I may open a new bug report.

I threw this script together based on what #13 wrote, works a treat, for me at least:

#!/bin/bash

killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon
gnome-settings-daemon &
killall -9 nautilus

I personally double click it when I log in, manually, as I log out/reboot so rarely. But it might work just as well if you add it to the Gnome start-up applications list.

Anyway, this is all just an ugly work around, are we ever going to see an actual fix from the Ubuntu devs? Or is it just another 'wait for the next version to fix a serious bug'?

I was also experiencing the problem. Looking at the workaround that involves killing gnome-settings-daemon, I guessed that it's being caused by the instance of gnome-settings-daemon that was run with gdm's gconf settings not shutting down properly before another instance of it was run with the user's gconf settings. So I added the line "killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon" to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default to make sure gnome-settings-daemon is killed when the user logs in, and this seems to have resulted in the desired behavior: the user's theme is applied correctly after logout and login, and gdm doesn't lose its own theme.

@dualityim: FWIW, your workaround in comment #28 works well for me as well (Maverick 64-bit). Thanks.

#28 doesn't work for me, but #27 works a charm.

This bug is affecting both my desktop at home (recent i5 and SSD) and my laptop at work (2 years old Thinkpad T400 with Core2Duo and normal HDD). The problem first appeared yesterday. Seems to be unrelated to iX-gen processors or SSDs, then.

I gave #28 a shot, it works for me too.

@RossH: You might have left out #!/bin/sh at the top of /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default, I copied /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default.sample to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default and appended the killall command.

#28 does't work for me either, I made sure i covered everything in #32 (if I understood it all). my /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default:

#!/bin/sh
killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon

If it helps, (i'm pretty new to linux) opening a terminal and passing "sudo gnome-settings-daemon" just returns errors to the terminal, but actually fixes the theme....

Strange that my method works for some people but not others. Not sure what is going on here...

@Andrew Potter: And /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default has +x permissions?

On 27 March 2011 08:06, dualityim <email address hidden> wrote:
> Strange that my method works for some people but not others. Not sure
> what is going on here...
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/625670
>
> Title:
>  Not all desktop items are themed
>
> Status in “gnome-settings-daemon” package in Ubuntu:
>  Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
>  Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon
>
>  After every reboot or logoff/logon or even a user switch, the selected
>  themes do not get applied to all desktop components. In my case,
>  window decorations, borders and window buttons are properly themed,
>  but the top and bottom panel and nautilus, desktop icons, and firefox
>  buttons are the default gnome theme.
>
>  I can get my theme to completely apply by finding gnome-settings-
>  daemon task and killing it, then running it again. The panels will be
>  properly themed then, but it seems nothing is getting nautilus, the
>  desktop icons, or firefox buttons to receive the theme. I am running
>  the newest Nvidia proprietary drivers offered to me by Maverick,
>  256.44.
>
>  ProblemType: Bug
>  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
>  Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.30.2-0ubuntu5
>  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-19.26-generic 2.6.35.3
>  Uname: Linux 2.6.35-19-generic x86_64
>  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
>  Architecture: amd64
>  Date: Sat Aug 28 00:44:54 2010
>  ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon
>  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100824)
>  ProcEnviron:
>   LANG=en_US.utf8
>   SHELL=/bin/bash
>  SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon
>  XsessionErrors:
>   (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1772): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
>   (nautilus:1779): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_value_free: assertion `value != NULL' failed
>   (gnome-appearance-properties:3975): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_display_sync: assertion `GDK_IS_DISPLAY (display)' failed
>   (gnome-appearance-properties:3975): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_display_sync: assertion `GDK_IS_DISPLAY (display)' failed
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/625670/+subscribe
>

Ok, that fixed it, works perfectly. Sorry for the newbie mistake (scripts need to be executable, doh) Thanks for the help!

is this fixed?

It's fixed in Natty. If you want to stick with Maverick, then
paste/enter this command into a terminal:

sudo cp -n /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default.sample
/etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default && echo "killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon"
| sudo tee -a /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default

That'll work around the problem.

I still experience the same problem in Natty using the Ubuntu Classic environment. The behavior is slightly different though. After logging out and logging back in, the icon theme is the wrong one, but the rest of the desktop environment is still using the correct theme. After a few seconds, however, the entire GTK theme reverts to the default one. Changing the theme in Appearance Preferences fixes parts of the theme, but the Gnome Panel remains unthemed.