File Manager not responding in Ubuntu 11.04

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

I've been suffering from this ever since I upgraded to 11.04, and it's driving me nuts!
Will someone PLEASE help me?

Do you have same problem if you use a terminal, with a command like:
    ls $HOME
Do you have an unresponsivness system or does it apply only to Nautilus ?

Using ls from a terminal works for me. The other thing I have noticed is that the icon for the external disk appears in the main desktop area as well as the side bar but clicking on it does not work.

Forget the bit about the icon on the main desktop area not working, it does.

I have no idea.
Could you open a terminal (Ctrl+T), then run command "nautilus", try to open files from icon, and report error message in terminal.

Running "nautilus" from a terminal works but this doesn't solve the original problem.

Haven't any obvious ideas. Could you give us the output of `mount' and `df' in a terminal to see if that suggests anything odd about some of your filesystems.

Is this an 11.04 installed afresh, or an upgrade from 10.10?

On Wed, 2011-06-22 at 10:55 +0000, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Your question #157006 on nautilus in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+question/157006
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Ralph Corderoy requested more information:
> Haven't any obvious ideas. Could you give us the output of `mount' and
> `df' in a terminal to see if that suggests anything odd about some of
> your filesystems.
>

This a new 11.04 installation. The output of "mount" is

peter@peter-System-Product-Name:~$ mount
/dev/sda6 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /media/Windows type fuseblk
(rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc
(rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/peter/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon
(rw,nosuid,nodev,user=peter)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/External type fuseblk
(rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
peter@peter-System-Product-Name:~$

and the output of "df" is

peter@peter-System-Product-Name:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 241898920 15271820 214339356 7% /
none 966528 664 965864 1% /dev
none 973136 1256 971880 1% /dev/shm
none 973136 92 973044 1% /var/run
none 973136 0 973136 0% /var/lock
/dev/sda1 234508164 9508192 224999972 5% /media/Windows
/dev/sdb1 244196000 23228748 220967252 10% /media/External
peter@peter-System-Product-Name:~$

I hope this helps.

Running "nautilus" from a terminal works but this doesn't solve the original problem. : I know that Nautilus will start. What I want is knowing if you get error messages.

On Wed, 2011-06-22 at 17:41 +0000, delance wrote:
> Your question #157006 on nautilus in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+question/157006
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> delance requested more information:
> Running "nautilus" from a terminal works but this doesn't solve the
> original problem. : I know that Nautilus will start. What I want is
> knowing if you get error messages.
>

There are no error messages, just nothing happens when I click on my
'home' icon.

What happen when you do a right click at folder icon ?
Please, avoid posting with previous message included. It makes Web forum interface less readable.

If I right click on the icon while external folder is displayed there is an option to quit. If I select 'quit' the external folder clears from the desktop and I can now access my home folder by left clicking.

I presume you talk of an external device (USB memory stick, USB external disk, phone, ...).
I have no option "Quit" on my external device with Nautilus software.
Are you using Unity or Gnome GUI ?
If you use Unity, do you use file explorer software (Nautilus) or icons displayed on background ?
Could you provide a picture of screen (with a camera if you want) in imageshack.us ?

I'm using Gnome and a screen photo is attached.

Launchpad doesn't support attached file, so I need you to post in imageshack.us and return URL. I will have a look tomorrow.

Does doing

    sudo umount /media/Windows /media/External

before starting Nautilus help with his handling of your home directory?

And the failure; is it that it doesn't respond but might do if left for ten minutes, or it never responds even if left for a long time?

I tried waiting and nothing happened so I gave up after 15 ninutes.

sudo umount /media/External unmounts the external drive and then the
'Home' icon works.

What is imageshack and how do I use it?

http://imageshack.us/ is a paste-bin site for pictures.
You can use another one if you are more accustomed to it.

(http://tinypic.com/ is an alternative to imageshack; you upload the screenshot to them and then tell us the URL they provide.)

So it seems as if it's the /media/External filesystem that's causing Nautilus to slow since unmounting that in advance completely removes the problem? And that was with /media/Windows still mounted? It would be nice to pin down whether both /media/* need to be unmounted for normal Home behaviour or whether it is just External that's key to fixing things. Then we'd know whether to concentrate what's odd about /media/External.

With media/Windows still mounted and media/External unmounted Home
works. Unmounting /media/Windows does not clear the problem, so as you
say it would appear to be something to do with external.

The screen shot is at http://tinypic.com/r/rvzivs/7

I think I need to clarify what is happening.

If I open either media/External (external hard disc) or media/Windows
(Windows file system on main hard disc) from their icons the Home icon
does not work.

If I open my Home folder from the Home icon first all is OK.

There are no error messages and I can run programs (Libre Office) from
the appropriate icon. Libre Office can open folders and files OK.

Thanks for advice Ralph. It works if I unmount External or Windows. I will report it as a bug.