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My question is virtually the same as this one, which is left unanswered. By the way I disagree with the close vote as too localized because hey! I'm a future visitor and I found it useful :)

But I digress. I run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, kernel version 3.2.0-53-generic. I got rid of Unity (apart from the login screen) and installed GNOME 3, currently on version 3.4.2.1.

I also have the Advanced Calculator and Firefox Bookmarks extensions, they are gone too. The Windows and Applications tabs still work, as does the multiple desktops thing.

Purging and reinstalling gnome-shell did not solve the problem.

To clarify: When I say the search box doesn't work, I mean I type something in it and I see no search results.

desktop with no search

In the picture above, Firefox should have appeared, but it didn't. The same is true for the Advanced Calculator and the Firefox Bookmarks plugins which leads me to believe there's something wrong with core Gnome shell, and not the plugins themselves.

Question: Do you know what might be causing this, and, do you have any suggestion on how to fix it?

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rath
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  • What exactly is your question? "Doesn't work" isn't a question. And bug reports are off topic for Ask Ubuntu. They should be filed as bugs. Also, "I installed a bunch of extensions, and suddenly the shell doesn't work right" isn't really on-topic for Ask Ubuntu either. Sounds like a bug with the shell or the extensions, and should be reported in the appropriate place for whatever is causing it. – dobey Oct 01 '13 at 19:12
  • I would check that /usr/share/applications/ has some files and the output of debsums -s. I would also list the extensions that you installed. – Braiam Oct 01 '13 at 21:04
  • @dobey The question is hardly a bug report (since I don't know how to reproduce this behaviour) but I see your point. As I've edited to make clearer, I don't believe the problem is caused by the extensions. If you don't think the question belongs here, please flag it so it can be moved to another site (as I've already done). – rath Oct 01 '13 at 21:11
  • @Braiam Listing the output of /usr/share/applications and the extensions would make for a rather lengthy post. Any suggestions on what should I be looking for? Still running debsums by the way, apparently it takes some time. – rath Oct 01 '13 at 21:12
  • @rath - is this user specific or system-wide? Try creating a new user account and logging into that. Does this work? Does resetting gnome to its defaults work (http://askubuntu.com/questions/56313/how-do-i-reset-gnome-to-the-defaults) ? – fossfreedom Oct 01 '13 at 21:30
  • No, I only need to know if there is any content there. I don't think that your extension list should be a problem. I would try another user too, if the problem is not there then the problem is with your user. Verify that the gnome-seach-tool package is installed too. – Braiam Oct 01 '13 at 21:32
  • @fossfreedom et al. The problem did not persist on a fresh account. After resetting Gnome to its defaults, everything works fine. The bounty is still up for grabs btw. – rath Oct 01 '13 at 22:58
  • @rath Judging from your screenshot, I'd say it's an extension causing problems, given that the search entry, and the related interface for the activities view has been re-arranged from normal quite a bit. Thus, it sounds very much like a bug report you should file upstream. – dobey Oct 02 '13 at 01:17

1 Answers1

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summarising the comments

A similar issue was reported on the opensuse forums.

Basically it looks like there is corruption in one of the underlying gnome-shell configuration files to-do with the search mechanism.

To confirm this, you should create a new user account. If the problem is not persistent this means it is user specific.

To diagnose which file/files are the cause could take some considerable amount of time. Probably the easiest and most productive method would be to reset Gnome back to its defaults.

This being Ask Ubuntu - we already have a great answer for this:

Looking for potential reasons - it could be a rogue extension. You could narrow this down by adding extensions, one-by-one. After each extension, logout-login and test your search mechanism. Continue until you find the rogue extension - then file a bug-report up-stream.

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fossfreedom
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  • The answer might not satisfy the bounty reward criteria as stated, but it's the only one so de facto winner. Cheers – rath Oct 07 '13 at 04:56