System settings won't open on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS after adding System76/pop PPA

20.04 ppa system-settings gnome-control-center

23,730

Solution 1

Finally I found a solution!
The cause of this problem was pop-theme, that I installed once, plus its repository entry, that provided me the broken System settings (gnome-control-center). In order to solve this:

I installed Ubuntu desktop PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ppa

I removed all System76/pop (and other trush) entries, with update-manager, leaving Ubuntu desktop the only one active.
Now that I have the proper repository entry added, I re-install gnome-control-center.
```
sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-control-center
```
Enjoy Gnome System settings!

Solution 2

I had the same issue. I was able to fix by removing the GNOME extension/theme which caused the issue and then running:

sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-control-center

Solution 3

sudo apt install ppa-purge

For the next step the PPA has to be active.

sudo ppa-purge ppa:system76/pop

This removes packages from this PPA if they are not available from Ubuntu repositories, or reverts to Ubuntu package versions.

Solution 4

Hmm... a variant of this:

Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
No Pop!_OS' PPA - present.
sudo gnome-control-center # worked, from a terminal/shell,
but not so without 'sudo', no GLib-ERROR, with no output at all.
"Ubuntu software" - also affected, didn't try 'sudo' there though.
dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/ didn't appear to help.
Neither did the apt --reinstall below.

Remedy:

Reboot into "recovery console"
hit ESC ONCE after the BIOS displays to get to the boot menu)
run the "dpkg" option to install / fix packages
this brought in a gcc1 -thingie, didn't pay attention to exactly what*
also run fsck option
enable networking
drop to root prompt,
press ENTER one extra time at the extra prompt
run:

$ apt-get install -f --reinstall gnome-control-center gnome-control-center-data
$ reboot

Note:
Remedy worked only as it was run in recovery mode.

Solution 5

What worked for me was resetting all configurations of the control-center with the following command:

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/

This works until I click on "Display" in "System Settings". Then it stops working and I need to run the command again.

This was tested on Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (x86_64).

View more solutions

23,730

Author by

Zerthimon

1d20 java programmer. 1d10 mysql db builder.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Zerthimon over 1 year
I'm trying to open System Settings but it won't open in any way.
Using GUI, Settings are trying to load for a moment and then they are gone.
Using Terminal (gnome-control-center), I get:
```
(gnome-control-center:8823): GLib-ERROR **: 14:44:15.433: ../../../glib/gmem.c:138: failed to allocate 13477064712 bytes
Trap Trace/breakpoint (core dumped)
```
I tried:
```
sudo apt-get remove gnome-control-center
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get install gnome-control-center
```
With multiple reboots, but I had no result.

UPDATE!: Same errors persist BUT, when I type:
```
sudo gnome-control-center
```
(instead of just "gnome-control-center") suddenly System Settings appear! Is it a user permissions issue? Any suggestions?
UPDATE#2: After some system updates, sudo gnome-control-center now spawns "Segmentation fault".
- kenn almost 4 years
  
  it may be related to this bug gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/issues/342 However try this XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME gnome-control-center
- Ollie almost 4 years
  
  Does this help? forum.level1techs.com/t/…
- Zerthimon almost 4 years
  
  @kenn doesn't work. It spawns the same error.
- Zerthimon almost 4 years
  
  @Ollie I installed hidpi-daemon but still, I get the same error when I'm trying to open system settings.
- hangejj almost 4 years
  
  getting the same issue. not sure if anyone else has been getting this but i've noticed my online accounts were not longer signed in. i signed back in but see no option for them in Files.
- Hannu over 3 years
  
  Did you get this remedied?
- febin a f almost 3 years
  
  Had sort of same issue where I got the error "error while loading shared libraries: libpop_upgrade_gtk.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" on using gnome-control-center. Issues started when I updated gnome settings from Pop shop and then system settings was not loading from gui and cmd. Tried purge removing control center and was unable to install, got some dependency errors. Got it fixed after following this askubuntu.com/questions/1353379/…
Kulfy almost 4 years

System76's employee themselves don't recommend using Pop!_OS' PPA over Ubuntu.
Chaman Narved over 3 years

it worked but when I click on display in settings System settings are closed and i had to run reset dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center command again. basically you do not click on Display in System setting.
Zerthimon over 3 years

Have you tried the solution I suggested or @nobody 's solution?
Zerthimon over 3 years

Just reinstalling gnome-control-center didn't solve my problem. I had resolve the repository issue (as seen on my and @nobody 's solution).
Chaman Narved over 3 years

Yes I tried every solution we have here. nothing is working.
JPG over 3 years

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/ worked for me
Peter Gloor about 3 years

I didn't have System76/pop at all, but following your procedure resolved the problem for me. All I removed was the entry for WineHQ.
Utkarsh over 2 years

This is the right answer. Thanks a ton