Desktop folder icons, panel directory menu, not responding

[etisdale]

From time to time, my Desktop folder icons (the default "Home" and "Computer" icons) fail to open with a left-button double click. I also have "Directory Menu" in my panel that similarly fails to respond to a left-button single click. At about this time, the widows start trailing when I move them. At least I can access the menu! In fact, the only way I can navigate my system graphically is to go to Menu > Accessories > File Manager.

It doesn't seem like this is a file manager (pcmanfm) problem since I can still use pcmanfm through the Menu > Accessories > File Manager. Maybe the display manager (LXDM) or window manager (Openbox)?

When my system starts this behavior, it get really, really slow. The only solution I have found to date is to restart my computer.

My LM12 LXDE is pretty much a stock installation (i.e., very little tweaking).

I also posted in another section, but I believe my issue might well be different than what is being discussed here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31360&start=10#p38822

[etisdale]

The problem is intermittent, but it just so happened. These are the characteristics of the problem:

* Trailing windows

* Cannot iconify windows using "Minimize All Windows" panel applet

* Can access open windows on first (working) desktop: For example, I was able to access the terminal (LXTerminal) and my we browser (Chrome)

* Can switch desktops using "Desktop Pager" panel applet

* Can switch desktops using CTRL-ALT-[RIGHT/LEFT ARROW]

* Windows persist in other desktops, but are only accessible on first (working) desktop

* Can get to TTY (e.g. CTRL-ALT-F1), login to TTY1, and reboot.

[rokytnji]

Run top or Htop in terminal to see what is hogging cpu

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harry@Biker:~$ top

top - 07:26:52 up  1:32,  1 user,  load average: 0.21, 0.56, 0.63
Tasks: 105 total,   1 running, 103 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 23.6%us,  3.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 72.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    513720k total,   426880k used,    86840k free,    15428k buffers
Swap:   738984k total,     8292k used,   730692k free,   202412k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND           
 5364 harry     20   0  502m 136m  35m S 14.2 27.3  17:46.45 firefox           
 5195 root      20   0 56844  36m 4852 S  6.3  7.3   5:54.72 Xorg               
 7538 harry     20   0 91364  11m 8576 S  3.0  2.2   0:01.48 evilvte           
 1625 root      20   0 24220 4332 2116 S  1.0  0.8   0:30.02 wicd               
 7585 harry     20   0  2644 1108  848 R  0.7  0.2   0:00.18 top               
 1246 messageb  20   0  3140 1112  804 S  0.3  0.2   0:17.14 dbus-daemon       
 1656 root      20   0 14664 6580 3424 S  0.3  1.3   0:13.49 wicd-monitor       
 5235 harry     20   0 51180 4628 3748 S  0.3  0.9   0:12.38 conky             
    1 root      20   0  2240  592  552 S  0.0  0.1   0:01.68 init               
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.04 ksoftirqd/0       
    5 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.36 kworker/u:0       
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0       
    7 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 cpuset             
    8 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper           
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kdevtmpfs         
   10 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 netns             


[etisdale]

Run top or Htop in terminal to see what is hogging cpu

Will do and will report back next time the problem occurs.

[rockdoctor]

I've seen the failure to respond when clicking on a desktop icon, but not the slowdown. Sometimes the desktop icons call vanish. It often (but not always) occurs when unmounting a USB flash drive. When the problem does occur, I open a run dialog, kill any runing instance of pcmanfm, and run

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pcmanfm --desktop --profile=LXDE

to get it working again

[etisdale]

I experienced the non-responsive Desktop icon (e.g., Home folder) behavior again. This time, though, it was not accompanied by the sluggish behavior I described above (e.g., trailing windows; persistent windows). Everything was OK when I checked the CPU/RAM/Swp usage with htop.

I was able to address the problem using rockdoctor's (thank you!) suggestion:

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killall pcmanfm

pcmanfm --desktop

Interestingly, and immediately afterward, I thought I would try and stop and restart pcmanfm using a different set of commands:

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pcmanfm --desktop-off

pcmanfm --desktop

After issuing the second set of commands, the desktop icons (e.g., Home folder icon) were there, but they were not even clickable. (In the originally described problem, the icons could be clicked, but simply did not respond.) I then issued the first set of commands again but was provided with trailing windows on a black background (no icons at all!).

At this point, I restarted X. Upon restarting X, though, I found that the second set of commands works just fine for stopping and restarting pcmanfm.

[seppalta]

What distro are you running? What version of pacmanfm?

[etisdale]

Hello seppalta! I am using the following:

Linux Mint 12 LXDE (Linux 3.0.0-12-generic)

PCManFM 0.9.9

Desktop icon behavior is currently normal and has been since I restarted X last night. I have since tried to mount/unmount a USB drive (per rockdoctor) but have not re-experienced the problem (yet).

[etisdale]

Just experienced the sluggish behavior described above again (e.g., trailing windows, persistent window across Desktop, but didn't get a chance to click on the Desktop folder icons to see if they properly worked.

For whatever reason this morning, my computer started to get sluggish (uptime was about 2 days, 4 hours). Within a few minutes, the computer was barely usable because it was so slow.

I switched over to TTY1, ran htop, and noted that pcmanfm --desktop was consuming 95+ % of the CPU (htop was using about 3%).

I then switched back to the GUI (TTY7) and was presented with my previous windows on a black background (e.g., no wallpaper, no Desktop icons). I was able to open a terminal emulator using the main menu, but I was unable to kill the pcmanfm --desktop process. (I tried both kill [PID] and killall pcmanfm, but neither worked.) I then tried to kill via htop, but I was unable to do that either.

Using the main menu, I was then able to log out. Upon logging back in, I was presented with the same black background previously described.

Ultimately, I had to reboot and log back in. All is now working fine, but, strangely, my 5-6 Desktop icons were rearranged.

[rockdoctor]

I don't see the sluggishness or the trailing windows, just the occasional failure of desktop folders to open when double-clicked. Sometimes I can open a folder using the pcmanfm launcher I keep in one of my panels, sometimes that doesn't work either. Currently running pcmanfm-0.9.10-2, libfm-0.1.17-1.fc17.1, and openbox-3.5.0-5 on a fully-updated 64-bit Fedora 17 prerelease.