Ubuntu

caja stopped working

Asked by Robert Pearson

In caja, I selected a directory with 1.2 million files. I then tried to move 200,000 to the desktop. The progress window appeared and showed 170,000 files to be moved. Then it stopped changing. After 5 hours of showing the same number, I decided caja had crashed. I used xkill on caja. Then used a different program to spread the files among other directories.

Then I tried to launch caja. Nothing. Apparently, some of caja's hidden state is corrupt preventing it from running.

I tried apt-get reinstall. No change.

I tried apt-get purge followed by apt-get install. No change.

How do I get caja to actually work?

I am currently using nautalis and DiskExplorer in place of caja.

How do I get caja to actually work? Preferably without having to reinstall Ubuntu MATE?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

For diagnostic purposes, what output do you receive for the commands

uname -a
lsb_release -crid
apt policy caja
caja --quit
caja --version
caja

Revision history for this message
Robert Pearson (rpearsonii) said : 		#2

Thank you! At least someone is trying to fix the problem.

uname -a
Linux A88XM-A 5.19.0-45-generic #46~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Jun 7 15:06:04 UTC 20 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lsb_release -crid
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
Release: 22.04
Codename: jammy

apt policy caja
caja:
  Installed: 1.26.0-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.26.0-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.26.0-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

caja --quit
Could not register the application: Timeout was reached

caja --version
MATE caja 1.26.0

caja
Could not register the application: Timeout was reached

When I use the menu, I get a spinning wheel then nothing.
I really want to get caja working again.
How long should I wait when caja crashes. This time I waited 5 hours with the number of files stuck at one value.
I am willing (although reluctant) to reinstall Ubuntu MATE just to get caja to work.

Again. Thanks for caring enough to respond.

Revision history for this message
Robert Pearson (rpearsonii) said : 		#3

Nautilus does not support the protocol used in connecting my phone or tablet to my computer. caja used to. I really want to get caja working again.

Revision history for this message
Robert Pearson (rpearsonii) said : 		#4

I had been using nautilus since caja stopped working.

I discovered that caja HAD moved some files to my desktop before it crashed.

When I selected a directory that is my version of the trash, nautilus hung. I used xkill on nautilus. I used VisualWorks and found that there were over 77,000 files. I deleted most of the files in VisualWorks.

Now caja is working!!! Even the mtp:// protocol to my tablet is working!

Apparently, the algorithm used by both programs assumes each directory has only a few hundred files and does not scale well. 5 hours is not enough time for caja to look at a large directory. When using caja on a volume using NTFS, the time is measured in days.

So caja is back in business (sorta).

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#5

In future you might consider using the command line when you want to manipulate huge numbers of files in a directory. That usually has far less overhead.

Revision history for this message
Robert Pearson (rpearsonii) said : 		#6

Telling users not to use an app is easier than actually fixing the app. I'll stick with Smalltalk.

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