"what sidebar are people having that issue are using?" I've got the context information sidebar selected, usually folded (just click on the resize bar), and hardlly ever change it.
I will try using nautilus for a while after loading it with that command. Right now the only line in my .xsession-errors mentioning nautilus is this: Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension -- nautilus sometimes crashes when opening new window https://launchpad.net/bugs/47619 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs
