Trisquel 9's Application Launcher keeps saying "Applications Updated." over and over

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arielenter

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OK, I found this bug on Trisquel 9 Ethiopia that is driving me crazy for two days now and it has started up my OSD .

I don’t know why it was not giving me problems until today, and I don’t understand why nobody has reported it already since I couldn’t find any info on the forum or the bug tracker.

Anyway, when I’m trying to check the applications installed on my system using the application launcher on the application tab it keeps saying “Applications Updated.” blinking (like refreshing the menu) over and over again without letting me navigate through the menu at all. The worse part is that, when it starts doing this, it seems it also affects the performance of the entire user interface some how.

At first I thought it had something to do with my keyboard pressing some key I was not seeing, or maybe something to do with my computer graphic card, but after trying Ethiopia on another computer and testing “xev”, the problem kept coming and no key seemed to be being pressed at all.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to have the app launcher store logs or run it verbosely on a virtual console to figure out if it was giving an explanation of the problem. I didn’t try to see if it was possible to do it with the whole panel thought. If some one knows a way I could try this please let me know.

Any way the first thing I tried while trying to solve the issue was to backup my files and re install Ethiopia. You should have seen my face when at the middle of the installation, Ethiopia start doing it on the live USB pen drive session

I couldn’t figure out how this issue is trigger. If you start a live session from a USB trisquel’s installer, at first the problem doesn’t show up, but if you keep doing random things, after a while the problem will show up. Easiest way for me to trigger the bug was to simply start the installation process and the problem will show up in the middle of it.

Once installed on the hard drive, the problem will not show up until later by doing also random staff on it, in my case the easiest way for me to make it come out was to update the system. Once the problem arise it doesn’t go away even if you reboot the system. Oddly enough the problem is replicated on other users accounts on the system without having to wait anymore for the issue to show there too.

Now, this means that if you guys have been using Ethiopia for a while, you might be experience it too. Haven’t any of you guys encountered this issue? As I said I already tried in a different computer so it weird that it would be only me.

All this findings make me believe that the issue might be trigger by some operation that Ethiopia takes time to accomplish before the issue arise. Maybe some indexing of the menu items or something?

Another thing that happens when this issue arise, is that when trying to use the “Add Widgets...” on the context menu of the panel, the window showing the so called widgets also is blinking as the app menu does, like if it were being updated over and over again and scrolling the list all the way up, and very difficultly, allowing you to pick one if you do it fast enough.

The only “fix” I have found so far is to change the language, log out of the current user, and log back in, but that appears to solve the issue temporally. I have tried to use US-English and ES-Spanish, but in both case the issue arise after a while. Currently I’m using UK-English while I’m typing this and surprisingly it might have fixed the issue for now. Although I have to come to terms with having to call the “trash can” a “waste bin” instead (I’m from Mexico and speak Spanish BTW). In any case, if I switch back to Spanish or English the problem shows right a way. ¿Could it be that it does have something to do with the locales?

Anyway, I’m creating a bug report right now, and hopefully my temporally “fix” can help some one out there. I’m also making another bug report that I found while trying to fix this issue where the app launcher’s “Edit Applications” item on its context menu doesn’t do anything as well.

Thank you everyone. I’ll see you soon.

lutes
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I have never encountered such an issue on Trisquel 9 Etiona with French locale.

Never heard of that Ethiopia distro you mention though.

arielenter

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WP XD

arielenter

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Never mind, now British English is not working anymore too. I'm using Portuguese although I don't know how to read it at all, I guessed it would be easier understand than french to me.

This problem wouldn't be so bad if it didn't affect Dolphin and other software as it seem it does.

Hopefully the devs will check my bug report and help me out before I run out of languages xD

Please, if someone hasn't had this problem with English or the Spanish locale please let me know, at lest so that I'll know it's not only me.

Thank you.

arielenter

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OK, I need to rectify something. Other users account sessions are not affected until they get it by their own. The only reason I was mistaken was because I already used that other account enough time that it got it too.

That makes me believe that something within the user folder could be deleted or fix in order to get it fix, and it's also related to the language changes.

Anyway if some one has a clue, please let me know. Thank you.

arielenter

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OK that last thing did it. If only I have figure it out sooner I would have found a fix quicker. It is something in the user's directory. For now I deleted the .cache directory and that fixed it right a way.

I'll be looking on that directory to try to find which specifically is triggering the error and report it back soon. Thank you guys.

arielenter

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I believe I have pin pointed the file that can be deleted in the .cache folder to get it to work again. It is a file called ksycoca5_en_iuiJaFDdWR1oeFmqPa_sZe2ScwQ=

While the problem is occurring a file is created and delete over and over again, that file is: ksycoca5_en_iuiJaFDdWR1oeFmqPa_sZe2ScwQ=.EV2781

In order to be able to delete this ksycoca5 file though, you need to change the language, log out and log in again, other wise, it is recreated again and the problem doesn't go away.

My idea is to create a cron task that would delete this file over and over again every 5 min before the problem arise and hopefully that might help? does the system really needs it?

Will, see. I let you know what I find. Thank you.

arielenter

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OK, so my work around did work. Finally I can sleep at night XD. I hope that ksycoca5 is not essential though O-O. Hopefully my findings can help others and the developer to find the source of the problem.

I find the following that seems to be related to the problem:

https://kde-bugs-dist.kde.narkive.com/BS0K9Alz/frameworks-kservice-bug-352787-new-kservice-rebuild-ksycoca5-every-several-seconds

I'll be checking on it. See you guys.

lutes
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Sorry, did not realize you are using Triskel/KDE, I am using Trisquel with the default MATE desktop.

arielenter

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Just to be clear, Trisquel 9 is coming with kde plasma as default and not MATE right? At least that's what I'm getting in the live cd and installation I downloaded. Also, something like that is mentioned here:

https://trisquel.info/es/forum/ya-est%C3%A1-aqu%C3%AD-trisquel-9-etiona

Although that post is on Spanish...

arielenter

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OK seriously guys, is no one having this issue? XD My work around is not always working anymore, and I don't understand why it stopped working some times :(

Any ways, I found this https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=352787 which seems to explain whats going on. Unfortunately it seems it says that a newer package is needed to get it to work right.

arielenter

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OMFG!!!! I've been using tris(k)el and not trisquel all along ... I want to die xD

No wonder no one was posting anything about it... OMG I feel so silly. Oh well, you learn something new every day. I never thought it was weird the kde was chosen this time around. I ended up liking it, but this bug has drive me crazy for too long now. I'm switching to MATE now.

I even tried libkf5service-bin version 47 which was the latest I could install in Etiona, but didn't work either.

Oh well. Good by kde plasma, here I go MATE C:

If only I had understood what you said in the first place. Thanks a lot my friend, you really saved me.

lutes
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> Thanks a lot my friend, you really saved me.

I'm glad it helped.

I really thought you had strong reasons to stick with KDE and did not want to come across as questioning your choices.