Join Log in
Score:0
Prof.Chaos avatar Ubuntu

Ubuntu 21.04 navigation stops working

us flag
Prof.Chaos

My OS:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 21.04
Release:        21.04
Codename:       hirsute

I've installed it days ago on my Dell Latitude 7420, but the "navigation" of the OS stops working after like 20 minutes or so, I was not able to identify the cause of this. (Let me know if "navigation" is not the right terminology, I'm not an admin/expert)

More specifically, the navigation on the left (I've added a screenshot so that you know what I mean, though I've rotated it so that if fits the screen better) seems not to recognize that the mouse is over its icons, i.e., the mouseover effect is not shown. More importantly, though, they are not clickable anymore. The same holds for the navigation at the top (where one can shutdown the PC, for example). Also when I use Super+Tab to switch windows, the mouse click is not accepted/recognized anymore, I can only confirm this choice with the keyboard.

Not recognizing the mouseover is not the only issue. Sometimes (before the mouseover stops being recognized) all programs are still clickable (in the left navigation) except for thunderbird. ALso the thunderbird icon gets highlighted, but a click doesn't open the program anymore. Does this indicate that thunderbird is causing the problem? Or is it still the 'navigation' that's the issue? (Also note that thunderbird doesn't update the red dots as also mentioned below and in the other linked stackoverflow post.)

enter image description here

In case it's related: Alt+Tab does not work to switch windows either, that's why I use Super+Tab. It's definitely not due to a misconfiguration as I double-checked the shortcuts, and it's configured correctly. So maybe that's related. In fact, this is exactly the same issue as reported here, i.e., including the red dots not disappearing for thunderbird!

It's a freshly installed system, so I really don't know why this happens (e.g., whether that's a side effect from some other program like Zoom or whatever).

Help would be greatly appreciated as I use this for work, which is of course hardly possible like this. (And if you have any advise, please be detailed and specific, as I'm pretty sure that otherwise I don't know what you mean/what to do.)

Another addendum: I've also realized now that sometimes the entire OS freezes — nothing is possible anymore once that happens. I am not sure when this was caused (e.g., whether this is always the consequence of using the left navigation).

So, is there any way to:
(a) either find out what exactly is crashing (with any sort of log output), or
(b) a way to re-install those components responsible for the navigation? Maybe that resolved the problem already...

101
1 + 7
David avatar
cn flag
David
It is something you have done that has killed the dock. You imply you have installed other programs but do not say what. Re install from scratch and make clear note of what programs you are installing. It is not possible to help if you can not say exactly what you have done.
0
Reply
Prof.Chaos avatar
us flag
Prof.Chaos
Well, it's pretty much a completely new OS, so I only installed a very few programs - those that I need to work. So you are implying that I should list all programs that I installed; would that help? I'm not really sure how helpful that really would be as I should be allowed to install these programs... Assuming that the world is deterministic I would also assume that re-installing the entire OS would not help as the same would happen again. So the primary question is how to fix that error, e.g., which components (of the OS) should be re-installed and/or how.
0
Reply
Prof.Chaos avatar
us flag
Prof.Chaos
(FYI: added more details on thunderbird in my question)
0
Reply
in flag
matigo
Do you have any Gnome extensions installed? When the system locks up, is the CPU fan spinning fast or are there any signs the system is very, very busy?
0
Reply
Prof.Chaos avatar
us flag
Prof.Chaos
I don't know. :) How to find out? I could post a list of all installed programs if that helps. Regarding the CPU: Na, I don't think I heard any difference. [thanks for caring/asking!]
0
Reply
cn flag
Ray
This is a new installation of Ubuntu, but is it a new laptop? Have you considered checking the memory chips? Might be completely unrelated but for either a very new computer or a very old computer, I'd check the memory chips just to eliminate that as a cause. See [this](https://askubuntu.com/questions/591488/how-do-i-run-memtest86), for example.
0
Reply
Prof.Chaos avatar
us flag
Prof.Chaos
Thank you, Ray, for your response!! First, it's both a brand-new laptop (<1 week! :)) and a new Ubuntu -- so all is as new as it could be. I didn't look at your example, because I'm 99% convinced that the problem is solved. I will however wait for one or at most two more days to be 100% sure about this. If there are no further crashes I will post the solution.
0
Reply
Score:1
Prof.Chaos avatar Ubuntu
us flag
Prof.Chaos

Solved!

As written in my question, I did not only have the problem that the navigation stops working (and sometimes also the entire OS, i.e. everything froze altogether requiring a hard reset via on/off button), but also that alt+tab didn't work. I was however not sure whether that was related. Now I am sure because after I've applied the fix to the alt+tab problem, no other problems occurred anymore! (For reference, the alt+tab problem was described and solved here on StackOverflow)

The problem is/was that Wayland is currently buggy. Wayland is a display server protocol used by Ubuntu 21.04. Its predecessor used Xorg instead.

This is how you can confirm that Wayland is used -- and how you can change it. (My response is copied from a (seemingly unrelated) StackOverflow entry, so please like that response as well if you found my response helpful!)

  1. Type echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE --> It will print Wayland (I suppose).
  2. Type sudo gedit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf --> You will find the entry #WaylandEnable=false, from which you will have to remove the comment symbol, i.e., remove the #. I suppose that this will switch to Xorg again.

After that: no more issues with the navigation, no more crashes, and alt+tab works again. :)

0 + 0
ธงชาติไทย
Elon Musk
I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

mangohost

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.