Ubuntu Settings won't open with Gnome 3 desktop installed

So I am running Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit, and have been using the Gnome 3 desktop since the day I installed 13.10. However, just recently the settings app has stopped working. When I try to open it through a search on the gnome desktop nothing happens, and when I try

gnome-control-center

I get the following result:

(gnome-control-center:20095): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot derive 'GnomeControlCenter' from non-fundamental parent type 'CcShell'
(gnome-control-center:20095): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion 'result != 0' failed
(gnome-control-center:20095): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_new: assertion 'G_TYPE_IS_OBJECT (object_type)' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Anyone know how to fix this? Any help would be appreciated.

1 Answer

Same happened to me. In the meantime a bugfix is released, you can partially sort it out by changing the control-center called from the script /usr/bin/gnome-control-center, and use the one provided with Ubuntu which doesn't crash:

$ cat /usr/bin/gnome-control-center
#!/bin/sh
# Support legacy applications that still refer to gnome-control-center in Unity
if [ "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "Unity" ] && [ -x /usr/bin/unity-control-center ]; then exec /usr/bin/unity-control-center $@
else #exec /usr/bin/gnome-control-center.real $@ exec /usr/bin/unity-control-center $@
fi

--Edit:

Seems there is another workaround which allows to open the real gnome-control-center, thanks to Marius Gedminas who posted it in bugs.launchpad.net. After installing apt-show-versions:

sudo apt-get install $(apt-show-versions|grep 'newer than version in archive'|cut -d ':' -f 1|sed -e 's/$/\/trusty/')

cheers,

Sergi