eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
 * Do you have nautilus crashing or just a warning?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

2009/10/18 Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>

> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu
> better. Please answer these questions:
>
> * Is this reproducible?
>
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?
> * Do you have nautilus crashing or just a warning?
>
> This will help us to find and resolve the problem.
>
> ** Changed in: nautilus (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
>
> ** Changed in: nautilus (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> ** Changed in: nautilus (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
>
> --
> error info when I execute "nautilus ."
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/454234
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Hi Sebastien

Each time I called 'nautilus .' in my terminal, nautilus threw a warning
message as "
(nautilus:4164): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion
`preferences_is_initialized ()' failed"
So it is not a serious problem generally.

Zheng

do you get any noticable issue in the software or are you just annoyed by the warning?

Just warnings like this. But it never occurs in the previous version of
Ubuntu.
Zheng

2009/10/18 Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>

> do you get any noticable issue in the software or are you just annoyed
> by the warning?
>
> --
> error info when I execute "nautilus ."
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/454234
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Could you try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report?

The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

Thank you for your bug report. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments at:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=598918

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: nautilus 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare vboxusers

Hi! I have the same problem. It starts when I was working with some files from inkscape. Attacht a this message is the strace log.

Hope this Could helpt

Thanks in advance.

why did you change this bug to confirmed?

Sorry ... but I "confirmed" that this is a bug for me.

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:14 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>wrote:

> why did you change this bug to confirmed?
>
> ** Changed in: nautilus (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Triaged
>
> --
> eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()'
> failed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/454234
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Nautilus: Unknown
> Status in “nautilus” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: nautilus
>
> Nautilus always complains that
>
> (nautilus:6587): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion
> `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Sat Oct 17 16:31:48 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> Package: nautilus 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu7
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=zh_CN.UTF-8
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8
> SHELL=bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: nautilus
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
>

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triaged means confirmed + enough informations, changing back to confirmed means you disagree it has the required details to be worked, doesn't seem what you wanted there

I'm Sorry for that mistake .. in other matter, this is a very very important
one nautilus is basic !

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>wrote:

> triaged means confirmed + enough informations, changing back to
> confirmed means you disagree it has the required details to be worked,
> doesn't seem what you wanted there
>
> --
> eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()'
> failed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/454234
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Nautilus: Unknown
> Status in “nautilus” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: nautilus
>
> Nautilus always complains that
>
> (nautilus:6587): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion
> `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Sat Oct 17 16:31:48 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> Package: nautilus 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu7
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=zh_CN.UTF-8
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=zh_CN.UTF-8
> SHELL=bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: nautilus
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
>

--
IV Congreso de la Cibersociedad
GT: Adquisición de Competencias para la ciudadanía digital
http://www.cibersociedad.net/congres2009/es/gts/adquisicion-de-competencias-para-la-ciudadania-digital/5/

@petrizzo en Twitter

::( ^_^ ) ::

"El verdadero viaje es siempre un “no sé” y luego algo sucede, quizá lo que
no esperas" John Berger

Siempre emerge la vida, siempre del mejor modo posible

http://spiralia.net.ve ~ http://recursosymas.spiralia.net.ve

http://petrizzo.org.ve/

http://laspalabras.wordpress.com/
http://vineparapreguntar.wordpress.com
http://policynetworks.wordpress.com/
http://spicyspiralia.wordpress.com/
http://endogeno.wordpress.com
http://instantaneas.wordpress.com
http://mamas-blogueraspost.blogspot.com/
http://sietesabores.petrizzo.org.ve
http://sietesabores.wordpress.com
http://libreconocimiento.wordpress.com
http://rade.weblogs.us

Hi All,

I'm not sure how/what to change here, but I think I've tracked down the bug, and it's an Ubuntu bug and not in the original Nautilus code. After some debugging and stack tracing, here is what I've found (looking at the nautilus-2.28.1-0ubuntu3 sources):

- In src/nautilus-main.c, around line 465, there is a call to eel_preferences_get_boolean(); this is an Ubuntu patch, related to the "boot curtain"
- However, the call to nautilus_global_preferences_init(), which initializes the eel preferences code, only comes on line 509.

Result? Every time you run Nautilus you will get this error.
Probable fix? Move the boot curtain code down after the initialization call. I've tried this and it seems to work (see attached patch below), but I may be missing some bigger picture.

This is the patch I mentioned in my earlier comment (sorry for the mess, first time using launchpad)

I've created a PPA with the patched package, if anyone feels like trying it: https://launchpad.net/~erez-volk/+archive/nautilus

@Erez

tried nautilus from Your PPA. It no longer gives that error (which for me was fatal, nautilus didn't start from command line but died after the message) but there's now another problem:

nautilus invoked by just "nautilus" from terminal doesn't do anything. You have to append a path (dot works) to launch it.

@wing: Thanks for the feedback. Are you running in some environment other than GNOME? I can't seem to reproduce this (nautilus from the command line opens for me), so perhaps there's some difference in environment...

This bug was fixed in the package nautilus - 1:2.28.3-0ubuntu1

---------------
nautilus (1:2.28.3-0ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * New upstream version:
    - Fix memory leaks
    - Don't rewrite bookmars unnecessary on startup
    - Fix background "darkness" detection for font color (lp: #356289)
    - Disable trash/delete key shortcuts when menu items disabled
      (lp: #490512)
  * Sync on Debian
  * debian/control.in:
    - Build-Depends on liblaunchpad-integration-dev
    - change recommends on cd burners to a suggests
    - change gksu conflicts version to match the ubuntu transition
    - don't build using beagle and tracker
    - don't recommends desktop-base, don't suggests tracker
    - nautilus Suggests gnome-app-install rather than synaptic
    - set vcs url
  * debian/mount-archive.desktop,
    debian/mount-archive.desktop.in,
    debian/nautilus.install:
    - new nautilus context menu item to allow mounting zip, iso, etc
  * debian/nautilus-data.gconf-schemas:
    - change the default desktop configuration, default to browser,
      don't change autorun option to not ask what to do
  * debian/nautilus-data.install, debian/source_nautilus.py:
    - apport hook to list versions of files in /usr/lib/nautilus and reassign
      the crashes when there are not due to nautilus code directly
  * debian/patches/01_lpi.patch:
    - launchpad changes.
  * debian/patches/03_menu_entry.patch:
    - change the menu item category.
  * debian/patches/15_translations_list_update.patch:
    - list the new desktop as translatable
  * debian/patches/18_signal_curtain.patch:
    - signal the curtain when loaded
    - update by Erez Volk to fix a warning (lp: #454234)
  * debian/patches/20_open-with_install.patch:
    - don't use that debian change but rather gnome-app-install
  * debian/patches/80_suppress_umount_in_ltsp.patch:
    - don't list unmount and eject actions on ltsp clients
  * debian/patches/82_gnome-app-install.patch:
    - Invoke gnome-app-install when no application known for file.
  * debian/patches/95_no-initial-fade.patch: Patch to disable the initial
    fade-in of the background without disabling crossfades when the
    background is changed.
  * debian/rules:
    - don't use debian translation hack
    - update shlib version
  * debian/watch:
    - watch unstable serie

nautilus (2.28.1-1) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Josselin Mouette ]
  * Drop gnome-mount recommends, it’s already pulled by gvfs if needed
    (i.e. for gvfs builds that use HAL).

  [ Andrea Veri ]
  * New upstream release.
  * debian/control:
    - bumped standards-version to 3.8.3. No changes needed.
    - bumped libtrackerclient-dev to >= 0.6.6 (lenny version),
      to start up nautilus porting to tracker 0.7. Thanks mbiebl
      for the hint.
    - added missing ${misc:Depends} to both nautilus-dbg and
      libnautilus-extension-dev making lintian stop complaining.

  [ Josselin Mouette ]
  * nautilus-data.gconf-defaults: set exit_with_last_window to false so
    that nautilus doesn’t go in a loop when show_desktop = false.
  * 13_autostart.patch: removed, it is no longer necessary.
    + Automount works even when show_desktop = false. Closes: #538108.
...

@Erez:

Used your patch in 9.10 Gnome and worked perfectly for me, no more issue. Thanks for supplying a patch!

@Erez :

I was looking for opening the properties window for my .avi file. Your patch seems to solve my problem. Now I do not get these annoying messages "Creating properties window" and the properties window come quickly up. But I - at the moment (before reboot) - do have the problem that "sudo nautilus" did not work and comes up with:

"(nautilus:10857): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Error while sending message: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken."

Also have problems in the same to access "WIndows network", if this matters here.

Ach, and thanks for supplying the patch!!!

On Sun, 2009-12-27 at 21:19 +0000, peddanet wrote:

> @Erez :
>
> I was looking for opening the properties window for my .avi file. Your
> patch seems to solve my problem. Now I do not get these annoying
> messages "Creating properties window" and the properties window come
> quickly up. But I - at the moment (before reboot) - do have the problem
> that "sudo nautilus" did not work and comes up with:
>
> "(nautilus:10857): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Error while sending message:
> Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application
> did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply,
> the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken."
>
> Also have problems in the same to access "WIndows network", if this
> matters here.
>

Those extra symptoms are not a bug, and are completely unrelated to the
problem described in this bug report. That behaviour is because there is
no dbus-daemon and gvfs daemon running in your sudo session. Such
discussion would be better suited in the answer tracker rather than on
an unrelated bug report though.

i got same error here (*eel_preferences_get_boolean* error on karmic, updated at dec 31) but Erez PPA fixed.

tnks Erez Volk! : )

Thank-you, patch works for me!

Unfortunately, Erez bugfix didn't help me out: true, the assertion fail was gone but nautilus still segfaulted elsewhere... Thus I restored the 'original' nautilus package via apt-get (which of course restored the assertion fail and didn't fix the problem).

But when logging on as different a user (which was previously created for testing reasons), nautilus worked just fine. Guessing the problem might have a configuration aspect, I removed all nautilus/gnome related settings files from my home folder. And finally the original ubuntu maintained nautilus works again.
I have to admit that removing all config files is surely a brute-force solution but I don't know my way around in the configuration files. I guess that some file in the .local folder eventually caused the problem.

I had to remove the files in .gconf nautilus to get my desktopicons back again.
Nautilus gave problems when i tried to view the properties of a file.

So its working for now , but nautilus still gives L:Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

grtz,

Jan

I also have this problem. Nautilus not responding in karmic. Will try adding the patched ppa to see if it helps.

i'v got the same message when i tape nautilus -q in the terminal; although nautilus is operational.

Nautilus wont start.On calling through terminal the same above error appears.

Then i tried Erez Volk's PPA.Now the error no longer appears but still nautilus wont start.

Note:On creating another user,nautilus works fine there.

I have the same error:

I downloaded the opera browser to test (I rather prefer an open source browser) from the opera-website in Firefox.

I chose "open with GDebi Package installer" for the opera_10.10.4742.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb file, and not "save file.."
after a while, the package installer said, "file not found anymore" or something like that
After that I got the nautilus problems.

First I got the
(nautilus:2632): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
error

After the Erez Volk's PPA (didn't work for me):

bert@pcThuis:~/Bureaublad$ nautilus
Initializing nautilus-gdu extension
** (nautilus:2393): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'UploadFinished'
** (nautilus:2393): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'DownloadFinished'
** (nautilus:2393): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'ShareCreateError'
Segmentation fault

Maybe it's the curse that rest on proprietary software? :-)

The patched ppa did not work for me - the error message went away, but nautilus still fails to load on gnome initialization / manual launch from the terminal.

This is a critical bug.

On Sat, 2010-02-20 at 16:47 +0000, Reuben Firmin wrote:
>
> This is a critical bug.
>
Not really. This bug only caused a message to be logged to the console
at startup, and had no other effects. If you're having issues with
Nautilus starting up, then it's not related to this bug

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jirka@jirka-desktop:~$ sudo nautilus
[sudo] password for jirka:

(nautilus:7954): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

** (nautilus:7954): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'UploadFinished'

** (nautilus:7954): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'DownloadFinished'

** (nautilus:7954): WARNING **: No marshaller for signature of signal 'ShareCreateError'
Initializing nautilus-gdu extension
Nautilus-Share-Message: Called "net usershare info" but it failed: 'net usershare' vrátil chybu 255: net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error No such file or directory
Please ask your system administrator to enable user sharing.

(firefox:8038): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

I have this problem. Same error messages. Nautilus won't start now.

(nautilus:3623): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Error while sending message: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

Fixed it. Saved a .svg file in Inkscape's format to home. For some reason Nautilus could not recognize it. mc could not find it. It made Tunar crash. So I rm'ed it in terminal. All is well. (I have no idea how to report this bug to Inkscape devs. Sigh.)

the new comment suggest a librsvg bug, you might want to open one with the svg

patched package/ppa by Erez Volk fixed the issue for me too. thanks man!

I'm getting "(nautilus:xxxxx): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed" errors too whenever I launch it from a terminal. Nautilus seems to work okay but it probably shouldn't be putting out an error message so handling the issue would be good.

I can provide any needed info from my system.

chelz: What version of Ubuntu are you running? This is only fixed in 10.04. If you are running 10.04 please post the output of "apt-cache policy nautilus" from the terminal. Thanks!

Hi, I'm running 9.10 Karmic. If the fix isn't too complicated I figured it would be worth suggesting that it be released for still-supported versions before Lucid.

Hi chelz, sorry but low-importance bug fixes are very rarely backported to old versions. It's not worth the risk of breaking something else.