Bug#827639: gnome-settings-daemon: wrong owner of /run/user/1000/dconf/user causes X to freeze

Sat Jun 18 23:11:10 UTC 2016

Package: gnome-settings-daemon
Version: 3.14.2-3
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system

Dear Maintainer,

[I am not sure against which package to file this bug report (/var/log/messages
says 'gnome-settings-daemon' has problems, or perhaps 'gnome-session'? Or
'dconf' - but which exact dconf package?). If you have ideas what might be
really causing this crazy freeze, please re-assign this bug report to the
appropriate package(s). Sorry & thx for your work then, I am a newb. Thank you
very much.]

   * Symptoms

I have literally millions of identical log entries of this type:
    cat /var/log/messages | grep /run/user/1000/dconf/user

    Jun  6 15:54:50 laptopacer01 gnome-session[3275]:
    (gnome-settings-daemon:3354): dconf-CRITICAL **:
    unable to create file '/run/user/1000/dconf/user':
    Permission denied.  dconf will not work properly.

It brings the X system to a total halt. Perhaps because of:

    cat /var/log/messages | grep /run/user/1000/dconf/user | wc
    11395103 227899102 2277048187

   * What led up to the situation?

My system is dist-upgraded from wheezy to jessie (following the manual
exactly), and that upgrade seemed to have gone fine (Kudos for that
possibility, I am pretty impressed!). Not sure if the problem was already there
before (had not used the system in a long time). Not sure when exactly it
happens; but definitely once after purging obsolete packages, and then 'apt-get
upgrade'; and later once, after ending eclipse.

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)?

The error explosion stopped when I did a
    chmod a+rwx /run/user/1000/dconf/user
or even
    rm /run/user/1000/dconf/user
but only after
    killall Xorg
I could continue to work. After logging back in.

My current workaround is:

    echo "sudo chown andreas:andreas /run/user/1000/dconf/user" >
/usr/local/bin/dconf-repair.sh
    chmod 777 /usr/local/bin/dconf-repair.sh

So whenever it happens, I quickly switch to a textscreen console, and execute
'dconf-repair.sh'.

   * What was the outcome of this action?

Then I can continue to work - until it happens again. But I have to restart X,
programs, loose data, etc. Not nice.

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

That this problem gets fixed, and never re-appears ;-)  How can I help with
that?

   * Ideas what might help

I am wondering if I should perhaps put a cron job that is executing that
'dconf-repair.sh' every 10 seconds?  Brute force solution - and would perhaps
not even help, because with the past freeze events, it was only all good again
after 'killall Xorg' - and killing my X every 10 seconds is not the way to go
*lol*

How to identify which script/program/package is causing it?  Is there a way to
install a watcher, which logs all the programs which are changing a specific
file?

Thanks a lot!

P.S.:
Yes, I asked on the mailinglist https://lists.debian.org/debian-
user/2016/06/msg00275.html
Yes, I know this or a similar bug had been reported before, but perhaps my
workaround & my ideas up there might help someone?

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.5
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnome-settings-daemon depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend]  0.22.0-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                    3.14.1-1
ii  libc6                                        2.19-18+deb8u4
ii  libcairo2                                    1.14.0-2.1+deb8u1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                           0.30-2.1
ii  libcanberra0                                 0.30-2.1
ii  libcolord2                                   1.2.1-1+b2
ii  libcups2                                     1.7.5-11+deb8u1
ii  libfontconfig1                               2.11.0-6.3
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                           2.31.1-2+deb8u4
ii  libgeocode-glib0                             3.14.0-1
ii  libglib2.0-0                                 2.42.1-1+b1
ii  libgnome-desktop-3-10                        3.14.1-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                                   3.14.5-1+deb8u1
ii  libgudev-1.0-0                               215-17+deb8u4
ii  libgweather-3-6                              3.14.1-1
ii  liblcms2-2                                   2.6-3+b3
ii  libnm-glib4                                  0.9.10.0-7
ii  libnm-util2                                  0.9.10.0-7
ii  libnotify4                                   0.7.6-2
ii  libnspr4                                     2:4.10.7-1+deb8u1
ii  libnss3                                      2:3.17.2-1.1+deb8u2
ii  libnss3-1d                                   2:3.17.2-1.1+deb8u2
ii  libpackagekit-glib2-18                       1.0.1-2
ii  libpam-systemd                               215-17+deb8u4
ii  libpango-1.0-0                               1.36.8-3
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0                          1.36.8-3
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                        0.105-8
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0                      5.0-13
ii  libpulse0                                    5.0-13
ii  librsvg2-2                                   2.40.5-1+deb8u2
ii  libupower-glib3                              0.99.1-3.2
ii  libwacom2                                    0.8-1
ii  libwayland-client0                           1.6.0-2
ii  libx11-6                                     2:1.6.2-3
ii  libxext6                                     2:1.3.3-1
ii  libxfixes3                                   1:5.0.1-2+b2
ii  libxi6                                       2:1.7.4-1+b2
ii  libxtst6                                     2:1.2.2-1+b1
ii  nautilus-data                                3.14.1-2

Versions of packages gnome-settings-daemon recommends:
ii  pulseaudio  5.0-13

Versions of packages gnome-settings-daemon suggests:
ii  gnome-screensaver            3.6.1-4
ii  metacity [x-window-manager]  1:3.14.3-1
ii  mutter [x-window-manager]    3.14.4-1~deb8u1
ii  x11-xserver-utils            7.7+3+b1

-- no debconf information