What is this? JS ERROR from gnome-shell keeps happening, and not finding answers
I keep having this problem with GNOME Shell. The errors below are logged into the journal (viewed with journalctl -f). The only solution I've found is to log out of the GNOME session and start again.
Searching Google and this site produces lists of reports, but I cannot find any summary of (1) why does this happen? nor (2) What can be done to work-around or prevent the problem?
Also note that when it happens, UI responsiveness drops, often to the point of being barely usable.
JS ERROR: TypeError: windowActor is null _addWindowEffect@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/closeDialog.js:90:28 vfunc_show@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/closeDialog.js:162:14
P.S. Does JS mean Javascript, and if so, why is there Javascript in GNOME Shell?
--- update ---
Here is a pastebin of grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog*: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/MmNnRVQrzG/
Output of ls -al ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions:
ls: cannot access '<snip>/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions': No such file or directory
Output of ls -al /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/:
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Apr 23 2020 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 18 06:47 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 15 22:12 desktop-icons@csoriano
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 29 11:57 [email protected]
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 29 11:58 [email protected]
--- another update --- https://extensions.gnome.org/local/
Learning stuff
Almost all gnome-shell errors are due to faulty gnome-shell extensions.
Good thing is that you don't have many of these extensions.
If you redo my grep, slightly modified, to:
grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog* | grep -i extensions
You'll come up with a lot of hits that contain similar to this snippet:
/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano
Guess which gnome-shell extension is suspect?
Do the work
So we'll move this extension out of the way and replace it with a substitute. I'll abbreviate my instructions, as you're terminal savvy.
cd /usr/share/gnome-shell
sudo mkdir extensions.HOLD
sudo mv extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano extensions.HOLD/[email protected]
restart gnome-shell
go to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/2087/desktop-icons-ng-ding/ and install this extension.
restart gnome-shell
right-click on the Desktop and select "Settings" to set prefs.
Monitor system for gnome-shell errors AFTER the current time:
grep -i gnome-shell /var/log/syslog*