gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

lintek · 2014-08-29 00:24:15

Has there been any reported issues with gvfsd-smb and thunar. When I perform network file browsing, thunar's view window which displays the shares hangs after a while. When I initially open thunar, I can navigate pretty quickly. Nut after some idle time, it just hangs up. I discovered that I kill the gvfsd-smb processes, thunar returns to normal speedy execution.

Hiballer · 2014-10-15 15:28:28

I have found this to be true with me also. Sometimes, the thunar icon bounces up and down (Cairo Dock) for 20 seconds and then takes around 30 seconds before the window appears. If I watch gvfsd-smb, it will appear that this is the holdup. Browsing the Network will ALWAYS take several (from 2 to 10) tries before I am able to make a connection with the rest of my household network. Thunar shows the spinning mouse icon, but after 20 seconds or so it simply stops spinning and nothing shows in the right panel.

Other file management software makes the connection to my network rapidly and completely first try.

Bill

Hiballer · 2014-10-16 16:48:25

@lintek: I can see by the wealth of answers to your original question that there is apparently no interest in our problem. To "solve" it, I quit using Thunar and went to Dolphin. Dolphin works great and does not hesitate at all when working over networks - especially those with Windows machines in it.

Good luck

Bill

Hiballer · 2014-10-18 20:46:57

Not a whole lot going on here in this forum is there?

Bill

ToZ · 2014-10-18 21:44:11

I've seen/read about thunar network delays a number of times, but unfortunately, it doesn't affect me so I don't know what to suggest. Its quite possible that this is the case with others as well. You can create a bug report about it (a search for gvfsd-smb doesn't return any hits so its possible that the developers are not aware of the issue).

Out of curiosity, which distro and what version of Xfce and gvfs are you using?

MountainDewManiac · 2014-10-18 22:13:10

If your system has created any error logs, it might be helpful to part them. That's true in general, but doubly so in situations where our resident gurus cannot reproduce the problem. If something is broken for everyone, it's generally a bug - but if it's only broken for some, it's usually either a hardware incompatibility or something that is missing or misconfigured.

Information is useful when asking for free help, lol. The psychics always charge a fee.

Regards,
MDM

Hiballer · 2014-10-18 22:30:00

There are error logs out there, but I haven't a clue which one to look at.

What I have on my computer was originally a plain vanilla copy of Ubuntu 12.04 which I upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04. Then, in order to get a little better desktop, I installed XFCE4.10 (which is what is running now)

When I boot up, I get "XUBUNTU 14.04) on a black screen and at login, I can switch between Ubuntu (default), several other sessions, and an XFCE Session (which I use all the time). It takes a bit for things to settle down and then once Cairo Dock starts I click Thunar. The icon bounces up and down for around 20 seconds, then stops. Nothing appears until the 45-50 second mark, then I get a blank window. The window fills out at around the 90 second mark and I can navigate my own machine nicely except for a 1.5TB USB hard drive which is physically attached to this machine. For that, I have to wait about ten or 15 seconds for the right window to be populated with directories.

When attempting to browse my network (which contains 3 Windows and 1 Ubuntu machine) Thunar hangs for around 50 to 90 seconds. I am unable to do ANYTHING at all during that period to Thunar. When it finally comes back, I may or may not have my current workgroup in the right window. Double-clicking that, I have to wait another 30-40 seconds for my machines to appear. Double-clicking ANY of the 4 machines will eat up another 30 seconds and then (maybe) I will see the shared directories and drives on those machines.

If I don't see anything when Thunar returns control to me, something has screwed up and I have to go back and start all over by double-clicking on the Network to start the process again.

If, during this whole evolution, I have my Process Manager open, I can see all my various gvfs items lighting up. Where the longest hangup in Thunar appears is when gffssd-smb and gvfssd-smb-browse are active. That leads me to believe that either there are some things in those two utilities that aren't configured properly, or they might have some buggy code.

For whatever the reason, I have stopped using Thunar and begun using Dolphin. Dolphin can access my network rapidly (within 5 seconds) and let me browse through my shared directories and drives easily. So, the only difference is Thunar vs Dolphin.

I hope this helps.

Bill

ToZ · 2014-10-18 23:13:12

A couple of things to try:

1. Try running "thunar" from a terminal prompt to see if you get any messages display on the screen. If you're adventurous, try running it as "strace thunar" and hopefully you'll see some diagnostic info when it hangs. (you will see alot of information).

2. Download and boot from the Xubuntu 14.04 live cd/usb and see if the problem exists if you use a pristine environment.

Hiballer · 2014-10-19 00:14:25

Done both 1 and 2 over the last week. Tracing Thunar produces a file roughly 1.2 Mb, which is a heck of a lot of stuff to plow through. Under both starts, Thunar behaves exactly the same - long delays when connecting to external Windows/Linux computers.

Bill

birch · 2014-10-22 11:38:51

I was having problems with the jbd2 process hogging up I/O when I first started using XFCE, and I found the only thing that could kill it was typing "pkill gvfsd-metadata". I don't know if that's related to Thunar. It stopped being a problem about a month ago, so perhaps some update solved it. Thunar hangs often enough that I always have a terminal open with htop and iotop running at all times, so if the system is suddenly sluggish I can quickly kill it. Opening folders with lots of videos or pictures seems to cause Thunar to do this, so I'm somewhat prepared for when I will have to kill it. The only reason I don't switch to another file manager is because I love the custom actions. I wish every file manager had custom actions.

Hiballer · 2014-10-22 13:52:16

I don't know if that process is related either. I've found that I am happy with Dolphin and have replaced Thunar with it. I've set up Cairo Dock so that Thunar is used to open and view files on my *local* USB drives, but Dolphin is used when I want to pass anything to/from my Networked computer/drives. The processes that Thunar uses vis-a-vis Networking as a whole needs to be looked at to determine if they can be trimmed or if any potential hang-ups can be found. I fully realize that it may be simply dealing with Windows and how it handles incoming requests for sharing drives/directories, but Thunar also has probelms connecting to my Ubuntu machine in the basement and that's the same OS as what I'm on now.

Bill

MountainDewManiac · 2014-10-22 21:18:19

Hiballer wrote:

I fully realize that it may be simply dealing with Windows and how it handles incoming requests for sharing drives/directories, but Thunar also has probelms connecting to my Ubuntu machine in the basement and that's the same OS as what I'm on now.

Just curious, but are you using a different communications protocol to communicate with machines running a Microsoft OS than what you use to communicate with ones which run linux? Or are you using SMB/Samba for both purposes?

Regards,
MDM

Hiballer · 2014-10-22 21:41:26

Nope. For my testing, I have been using Thunar exclusively with the underlying layers of smb/Samba.

Bill

MountainDewManiac · 2014-10-22 22:15:31

I used to use an app called gigolo to take care of the connecting to various networked directories (it is a GUI app and has a bookmarks function). You might install it and see if initiating the connection with it allows Thunar to work without the hang/delay. Might be a PitA to use two apps in light of the fact that you are happy now using an alternate file manager, but if you try it and find that the issue is no longer present, that could be helpful to whoever is tasked with developing/fixing Thunar.

Regards,
MDM

birch · 2014-10-22 23:00:19

Can Gigolo be used to connect two computers with nothing but an ethernet cable? Will Gigolo handle all the configuring that would otherwise have to be done by the user?

Hiballer · 2014-10-22 23:19:43

With Gigolo running, Thunar connects almost immediately with my Windows computers BUT only after I make the connection first with Gigolo. Apparently, Gigolo comes built-in because I don't remember downloading it, but it is installed into Ubuntu/XFCE4.

If I close Gigolo but leave Thunar running. About half an hour later Thunar becomes sluggish and then finally fails to open my shared directories on Windows machines again. I suppose I could leave Gigolo running and shuffle it over to another desktop, but, as you say, that is a PITA now that Dolphin fits the bill (pun intended).

Bill

Hiballer · 2014-10-24 20:05:32

Extensive testing here has only strengthened my belief that the Thunar devs need to take a hard look at how network sharing is handled. I have tried 6 separate file managers and every one of them beats Thunar hands down. One, Gnome Commander, can access my shared /computers/drives faster than any of them. How GC manages to connect and display the entire contents of my Windows machine (including whole drives and not just the shared directories) without me having to give my username and password is beyone me. Even Dolphin make me input username and password before allowing me to view EVERYTHING on those computers.

So, I guess this is the last post in this thread for me as I've ditched Thunar until I hear something has changed in network handling.

Bill

Last edited by Hiballer (2014-10-24 20:06:14)

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#1 2014-08-29 00:24:15

gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#2 2014-10-15 15:28:28

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#3 2014-10-16 16:48:25

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#4 2014-10-18 20:46:57

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#5 2014-10-18 21:44:11

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#6 2014-10-18 22:13:10

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#7 2014-10-18 22:30:00

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#8 2014-10-18 23:13:12

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#9 2014-10-19 00:14:25

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#10 2014-10-22 11:38:51

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#11 2014-10-22 13:52:16

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#12 2014-10-22 21:18:19

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#13 2014-10-22 21:41:26

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#14 2014-10-22 22:15:31

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#15 2014-10-22 23:00:19

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#16 2014-10-22 23:19:43

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

#17 2014-10-24 20:05:32

Re: gvfsd-smb hangs thunar

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