System settings won't open on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS after adding System76/pop PPA

Question

I'm trying to open System Settings but it won't open in any way.
Using GUI, Settings are trying to load for a moment and then they are gone.
Using Terminal (gnome-control-center), I get:

(gnome-control-center:8823): GLib-ERROR **: 14:44:15.433: ../../../glib/gmem.c:138: failed to allocate 13477064712 bytes
Trap Trace/breakpoint (core dumped)

I tried:

sudo apt-get remove gnome-control-center
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get install gnome-control-center

With multiple reboots, but I had no result.

UPDATE!: Same errors persist BUT, when I type:

sudo gnome-control-center

(instead of just "gnome-control-center") suddenly System Settings appear! Is it a user permissions issue? Any suggestions?

UPDATE#2: After some system updates, sudo gnome-control-center now spawns "Segmentation fault".

it may be related to this bug https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/issues/342 However try this XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME gnome-control-center — kenn, May 30 '20 at 12:55
Does this help? https://forum.level1techs.com/t/settings-wont-launch-gnome-control-center/142034/12 — Ollie, May 30 '20 at 13:23
@Ollie I installed hidpi-daemon but still, I get the same error when I'm trying to open system settings. — Zerthimon, May 31 '20 at 00:07
getting the same issue. not sure if anyone else has been getting this but i've noticed my online accounts were not longer signed in. i signed back in but see no option for them in Files. — hangejj, Jun 02 '20 at 02:16
Had sort of same issue where I got the error "error while loading shared libraries: libpop_upgrade_gtk.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" on using gnome-control-center. Issues started when I updated gnome settings from Pop shop and then system settings was not loading from gui and cmd. Tried purge removing control center and was unable to install, got some dependency errors. Got it fixed after following this https://askubuntu.com/questions/1353379/cant-install-gnome-control-center-on-ubuntu — febin a f, Aug 14 '21 at 16:38

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 20 '20 at 07:30

14

Finally I found a solution!
The cause of this problem was pop-theme, that I installed once, plus its repository entry, that provided me the broken System settings (gnome-control-center). In order to solve this:

I installed Ubuntu desktop PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ppa

I removed all System76/pop (and other trush) entries, with update-manager, leaving Ubuntu desktop the only one active.
Now that I have the proper repository entry added, I re-install gnome-control-center.
```
sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-control-center
```
Enjoy Gnome System settings!

edited Jul 20 '20 at 07:30

answered Jul 20 '20 at 00:20

Zerthimon

402

2

System76's employee themselves don't recommend using Pop!_OS' PPA over Ubuntu. – Kulfy Jul 23 '20 at 18:28
1

I didn't have System76/pop at all, but following your procedure resolved the problem for me. All I removed was the entry for WineHQ. – Peter Gloor Feb 21 '21 at 12:43

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 06 '20 at 03:00

9

I had the same issue. I was able to fix by removing the GNOME extension/theme which caused the issue and then running:

sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-control-center

edited Jul 06 '20 at 03:00

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Jul 06 '20 at 02:30

Aranganathan

211

Just reinstalling gnome-control-center didn't solve my problem. I had resolve the repository issue (as seen on my and @nobody 's solution). – Zerthimon Oct 25 '20 at 13:53
This is the right answer. Thanks a ton – Utkarsh Feb 08 '22 at 15:50

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 13 '20 at 03:57

5

sudo apt install ppa-purge

For the next step the PPA has to be active.

sudo ppa-purge ppa:system76/pop

This removes packages from this PPA if they are not available from Ubuntu repositories, or reverts to Ubuntu package versions.

edited Aug 13 '20 at 03:57

Zanna

70,465

answered Aug 11 '20 at 10:36

nobody

5,437

Hannu · Answer 4 · 2021-02-08T17:27:04.613

Hmm... a variant of this:

Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
No Pop!_OS' PPA - present.
sudo gnome-control-center # worked, from a terminal/shell,
but not so without 'sudo', no GLib-ERROR, with no output at all.
"Ubuntu software" - also affected, didn't try 'sudo' there though.
dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/ didn't appear to help.
Neither did the apt --reinstall below.

Remedy:

Reboot into "recovery console"
hit ESC ONCE after the BIOS displays to get to the boot menu)
run the "dpkg" option to install / fix packages
this brought in a gcc1 -thingie, didn't pay attention to exactly what*
also run fsck option
enable networking
drop to root prompt,
press ENTER one extra time at the extra prompt
run:

$ apt-get install -f --reinstall gnome-control-center gnome-control-center-data
$ reboot

Note:
Remedy worked only as it was run in recovery mode.

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/ is what worked for me too. — Boson Bear, Nov 29 '22 at 18:06

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 22 '20 at 19:29

3

What worked for me was resetting all configurations of the control-center with the following command:

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/

This works until I click on "Display" in "System Settings". Then it stops working and I need to run the command again.

This was tested on Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (x86_64).

edited Oct 22 '20 at 19:29

Nmath

12,333

answered Oct 22 '20 at 18:57

Chaman Narved

31

it worked but when I click on display in settings System settings are closed and i had to run reset dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center command again. basically you do not click on Display in System setting. – Chaman Narved Oct 22 '20 at 19:16
Have you tried the solution I suggested or @nobody 's solution? – Zerthimon Oct 25 '20 at 13:48
Yes I tried every solution we have here. nothing is working. – Chaman Narved Oct 26 '20 at 14:19

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited May 01 '21 at 07:18

I faced the same issue on 20.04. I clearly remember at the time of Ubuntu installation system settings was working perfectly, but out of nowhere this problem arose. What i did:

Reset the gnome-control-center by sudo dconf reset -f /org/gnome-control-center (but the problem didn’t go away).
Then I tried to access settings through the terminal by typing gnome-control-center, but it said I don’t have this installed.
After installing gnome-control-center by sudo apt install gnome-control-center I rebooted and it fixed my problem.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 05 '20 at 10:36

1

I had the same problem and looking at the question and answers here, I checked gnome-control-center in the terminal and it was not installed. Installing it solved the problem. I have no idea what happened.

answered Dec 05 '20 at 10:36

moddayjob

111

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 07 '21 at 08:06

1

Gnome-control-center is not able to load if any of key is not found. kindly run below commands.

sudo rm -rfv /home/kali/.config/dconf
sudo apt install gnome-control-center --reinstall

Now check the same.

answered Oct 07 '21 at 08:06

Mr. Linux

189

Omar Trkzi · Answer 9 · 2022-05-07T21:12:08.463

If you find yourself coming back here every now and then, you can always make a shell script to make your life easier:

nano ~/Desktop/settings-fix

Ctrl+C this:

echo "You again  !?";
echo "Alright, lemme fix that for you  !";
sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-control-center;
echo "You're good to go ";
echo "More here  https://askubuntu.com/questions/1245159/system-settings-wont-open-on-ubuntu-20-04-lts-after-adding-system76-pop-ppa";

Ctrl+Shift + V it in the text editor

Ctrl+Shift + O to save

Ctrl+Shift + X to close the editor

In your terminal:

chmod 744 ./Desktop/settings-fix

sudo cp ~/Desktop/settings-fix /usr/bin

Now whenever you run to this again, you can simply run from your terminal:

settings-fix

Just reinstalling gnome control center didn't solve the problem but... I like the way you think. :) — Zerthimon, May 07 '22 at 15:40

System settings won't open on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS after adding System76/pop PPA

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