I found out what triggers this issue! This happens when I restart (by killing it) unity-settings-daemon as a workaround to infamous bug 1731294.
And now I see that there is a workaround to the workaround. After killing unity-settings-daemon (which restarts automatically), which leaves Nautilus all screwed up with its crappy font, its stupid random beep sounds, and its unusable mess of menus, I have to kill every last running instance of Nautilus (it's not enough to close all nautilus window, you need to kill the one responsible for the Desktop), and restart it. Then it works as expected. Note that, even though this surfaces as a consequence of a workaround to issue 1731294, this is an issue on its own: restarting unity-settings-daemon shouldn't leave a running instance of Nautilus in a crippled state. Either Nautilus should restart automatically if necessary, or it shouldn't be affected in the first place. I don't know whether this is unity-settings-daemon's fault or Nautilus' fault, but it's certainly not expected behavior. ** Summary changed: - Ubuntu patches to nautilus get randomly reverted again and again + Restarting unity-settings-daemon screws up Nautilus settings, needs Nautilus restart ** Description changed: + UPDATE: see comment 2 + From time to time, these two bugs resurface, which were fixed ages ago: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1130722 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1731985 and also: the font type and/or size in Nautilus changes to a smaller and less readable font. - The three things always reappear at once. Then everything goes back to expected; I'm not sure if that's when I get some new updates installed or when I just reboot. It seems to me that all these issues are things that got changed upstream in Nautilus, but patched in Ubuntu because Ubuntu maintainers have some more common sense than the Nautilus developers. - I don't know if + I don't know if (a) sometimes someone forgets to apply some patches, and an unpatched version slips into Ubuntu's packages until somebody corrects it, or (b) some configuration gets randomly lost/changed and then restored/changed back on reboot. Either way, it's f***ing annoying. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: nautilus 1:3.18.4.is.3.14.3-0ubuntu6 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-135.161-generic 4.4.140 Uname: Linux 4.4.0-135-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Sat Sep 15 18:25:09 2018 GsettingsChanges: - b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'sidebar-width' b'190' - b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'1044x767+374+165'" - b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'use-tree-view' b'true' - b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'default-column-order' b"['name', 'size', 'type', 'date_modified', 'date_accessed', 'owner', 'group', 'permissions', 'mime_type', 'where']" + b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'sidebar-width' b'190' + b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'1044x767+374+165'" + b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'use-tree-view' b'true' + b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'default-column-order' b"['name', 'size', 'type', 'date_modified', 'date_accessed', 'owner', 'group', 'permissions', 'mime_type', 'where']" InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1799 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424) SourcePackage: nautilus UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to nautilus in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1792722 Title: Restarting unity-settings-daemon screws up Nautilus settings, needs Nautilus restart Status in nautilus package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: UPDATE: see comment 2 From time to time, these two bugs resurface, which were fixed ages ago: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1130722 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1731985 and also: the font type and/or size in Nautilus changes to a smaller and less readable font. The three things always reappear at once. Then everything goes back to expected; I'm not sure if that's when I get some new updates installed or when I just reboot. It seems to me that all these issues are things that got changed upstream in Nautilus, but patched in Ubuntu because Ubuntu maintainers have some more common sense than the Nautilus developers. I don't know if (a) sometimes someone forgets to apply some patches, and an unpatched version slips into Ubuntu's packages until somebody corrects it, or (b) some configuration gets randomly lost/changed and then restored/changed back on reboot. Either way, it's f***ing annoying. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: nautilus 1:3.18.4.is.3.14.3-0ubuntu6 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-135.161-generic 4.4.140 Uname: Linux 4.4.0-135-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Sat Sep 15 18:25:09 2018 GsettingsChanges: b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'sidebar-width' b'190' b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'1044x767+374+165'" b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'use-tree-view' b'true' b'org.gnome.nautilus.list-view' b'default-column-order' b"['name', 'size', 'type', 'date_modified', 'date_accessed', 'owner', 'group', 'permissions', 'mime_type', 'where']" InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1799 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424) SourcePackage: nautilus UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1792722/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
