Nautilus suddenly crashes when using keyboard shortcuts

I mainly use GNOME files using the keyboard shortcuts.
Since about 4 months ago GNOME files randomly crushes.
This happens when changing the tab (using Alt + 0~8) or going one directory up (Alt + up arrow).
The issue happens even more frequently when I try to copy files between tabs,
and it usually crashes when pasting the files (Ctrl + V).

I have tried KDE-Dolphin and the issue is not present.
It would be great if somebody could help, I love the minimalist interface of GNOME files and would love to keep using it.

Here are some information on the system I got using inxi

CPU: 8-Core Intel Core i9-9900K (-MT MCP-) speed/min/max: 4804/800/5000 MHz Kernel: 5.4.124-1-MANJARO x86_64 Up: 9h 09m 
Mem: 8455.1/31942.5 MiB (26.5%) Storage: 2.75 TiB (22.1% used) Procs: 386 Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.04
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 630 driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA TU102 [GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Rev. A] driver: nvidia v: 465.31 
           Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: nvidia resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo> 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 465.31

Thanks a lot

Try running nautilus in debug mode using G_DEBUG="all" NAUTILUS_DEBUG="All" nautilus via a terminal to check for errors.

fixed typo in title as I’m assuming OP meant “crashing” instead of “crushing”

2 Likes

Hello @Emqu and thank you for your suggestion.
Following is the output from the debugging depending on what caused it.

Also notice that I am using fish shell rather then Bash, although fish is running on top of BASH.

Triggered by Ctrl + X

Initializing nautilus-image-converter extension
GSConnect: No translation file found for domain

(org.gnome.Nautilus:101829): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 09:13:46.848: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
fish: Job 1, 'G_DEBUG="all" NAUTILUS_DEBUG="A…' terminated by signal SIGTRAP (Trace or breakpoint trap)

Triggered by Alt + 1 (to select tab 1)

Initializing nautilus-image-converter extension
GSConnect: No translation file found for domain
free(): invalid next size (fast)
fish: Job 1, 'G_DEBUG="all" NAUTILUS_DEBUG="A…' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

Not sure, but probably again copy and paste operations

Initializing nautilus-image-converter extension
GSConnect: No translation file found for domain
Warning: 'sandbox' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.
free(): invalid next size (fast)
fish: Job 1, 'G_DEBUG="all" NAUTILUS_DEBUG="A…' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

The most common errors seem to be:

  • free(): invalid next size (fast)
  • (org.gnome.Nautilus:101829): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 09:13:46.848: g_object_unref: assertion ‘G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed

I am not sure what these errors might be caused from:
Additionally in one case there was also a warning:
Warning: 'sandbox' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.

I really hope somebody could help.

Will also check if I can find something in the GNOME files repository.

Thanks a lot

What Nautilus extensions do you have installed? One of them could be the culprit.

ls /usr/share/nautilus-python/extensions

Hello @Yochanan following are the extensions:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.0K Dec  4  2020 nautilus-admin.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6.2K Mar 29 04:50 nautilus-gsconnect.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5.2K May  4 05:40 open-tilix.py

How can I activate/deactivate extensions?
It does not seem to be present in the preferences

I have all three of those extensions (and more) installed and have no issues.

What about:

Maybe uninstall that one. That’s odd it doesn’t have a file in that folder.

You’ll have to uninstall the corresponding package then completely exit Nautilus with:

nautilus -q

It was strange indeed…and I have removed that package (marked as explictly installed).
But sadly enough did not solve the problem.

Is there any way to activate/deactivate instead of uninstalling?

No, I unfortunately not. You can always reinstall them after the issue has been resolved.

Well, that’s fine.

I tried removing GSConnect but Nautilus was always detecting the extension.
I have deactivated it and still not fixed.
Is open-tilix.py installed by tilix?
Will try to remove that one and try again.

Otherwise will have to switch to Nemo from Linux Mint

Got something different but still related to GLib:

(org.gnome.Nautilus:5921): GLib-CRITICAL **: 12:01:34.842: g_atomic_rc_box_release_full: assertion 'real_box->magic == G_BOX_MAGIC' failed

I am wondering if this could be related to NVIDIA drivers…
Just saying that as this issue is not happening on the other two machines I use (one with Intel integrated graphics, and one with AMD).

I guess I will have to give and use Nemo for now

Yes.

You could switch to the testing branch and see if the 470 series driver helps.

Unluckily I am using the current machine for work,
So I would prefer not experiment much on it.

I guess that waiting for GNOME40 to come to Manjaro is an option.
Will use Nemo until it gets fixes.

Thank a lot @Yochanan and @Emqu for your help,

Manjaro’s community is great

After more extensive tests I sadly confirm that the problem seems related to the GNOME Files application.

I tried removing all extensions, and deactivated all GNOME shell extensions, as the debug lines gave some warnings related to GSConnect.

The issue appears on 3 systems with different hardware (one with NVIDIA, one with AMD graphic card, one with integrated Intel graphics)

I performed a clean install of Manjaro GNOME (Ornara 21.0.7) and the issue is present also after a fresh install with no extra extensions.
Until it does not get fixed I will be using Nemo from Linux Mint.

Thanks a lot to all you for you kind help.