Update: I've reproduced this multiple times now and the root cause is
`gvfsd-metadata`, not `gnome-shell` or search providers. The shell
timeouts are a symptom.
Reproduction (100% reliable on my system):
1. Delete a large number of files via Nautilus (≥100k files in one folder,
delete many folders like that resulting in total 300-500k+ files. The more
total number of files, the faster this bug is reproduced).
2. Wait. `gvfsd-metadata` consumes from 400 MB to 2+ GB RSS and runs CPU-bound
for tens of minutes to hours.
3. While it's busy: `gnome-shell` icons disappear from Quick Settings, the
Ubuntu menu, OSD, and notifications. Nautilus cannot navigate up the tree (e.g.
from /home/<username>/ going up the tree to `/`). IntelliJ cannot launch.
`gnome-shell` logs floods of `Error: Timeout was reached`.
4. `kill $(pgrep gvfsd-metadata)` → all symptoms vanish within ~1 second.
Direct evidence of the link: in one reproduction, after killing gvfsd-metadata
(which held bus name `:1.175`), the journal showed:
```
idea[31765]: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient
disconnected from message bus without replying
idea[31765]: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name
:1.175 was not provided by any .service files
(×20)
```
Confirming that IntelliJ had ~20 pending D-Bus calls queued on `gvfsd-metadata`
at the moment it was killed.
Process state during a stall (RSS 854 MB, S=R, no kernel wait — CPU-bound in
userspace):
```
PID %CPU %MEM RSS S WCHAN COMMAND
5855 9.8 2.7 854872 R - gvfsd-metadata
[<0>] srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
```
Disabling `[email protected]` did not help. Search-
provider activity in the log is coincidental — `gnome-shell` calls into
GVfs/GIO to resolve icons for search results, and those calls time out
on `org.gtk.vfs.Metadata`. The same timeouts occur from non-shell
processes (e.g. IntelliJ) that have nothing to do with `gnome-shell`
extensions.
This appears to be a problem in `gvfsd-metadata` under bulk filesystem
changes — the daemon doesn't process deletion events efficiently and
blocks all consumers of `org.gtk.vfs.Metadata` until it catches up.
Suggested reassignment: package `gvfs` rather than `gnome-shell`.
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2152197
Title:
GNOME Shell icons disappear in Quick Settings/search; shell logs
repeated “Error: Timeout was reached”
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