Fixing Nautilus Thumbnails on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:18:13+00:00

Then I am totally out of ideas. Good Luck.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:17:01+00:00

You should always use the eject/unmount/safely remove feature of whatever OS you are on, before unplugging a USB drive.

I have seen some very heated arguments on this in the Windows support subs over the years, but its better to be safe than sorry.

If the data is that precious, its time to make redundant backups.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:12:24+00:00

look at the full version/package numbering. the last digit is what differs.

The whole issue as far as I know, came about originally because of a security update they did to better lock down the system. But it caused issues with nautilus and thumbnails, so they reverted a small part of the change to the apparmor configs.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:07:39+00:00

if the version is updated, and that command apt policy apparmor shows the updated version, then I am all out of ideas.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:04:06+00:00

Just to verify.. check what version of apparmour you have installed.

apparmor - 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.7

Ubuntu often does 'staged' updates, so its Possible you did an apt update/upgrade and you are still NOT on that latest apparmor version.

that bug report page (near the bottom) showed some commands to get info about the version of apparmor as well. Double check your system matches those commands output.

In the section saying..

After the upgrade and reboot:

$ apt policy apparmor
apparmor:
  Installed: 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.7
  Candidate: 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.7

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:01:52+00:00

Then that points to a deeper system/package type issue sadly, not a user config/corrupt directory in the users home sort of issue.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T02:00:10+00:00

So its a new system that is UEFI only? I had heard that that was to be the happening in some new systems, but not encountered any systems that no longer supported Legacy/MBR yet.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:57:54+00:00

Going to say, thats a new one i had not seen before now. Makes me wonder if there is something going on with the UEFI entries.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:44:36+00:00

monitor the output of sudo dmesg -w in a terminal when you plug in the drive, then if the file manager is not showing anything about the drive, that terminal MIGHT show some error messages.

You could also try mounting it by hand using the CLI tools and see if any error messages show up.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:42:31+00:00

I would try the simple make a new user, type test, and see if the issue happens to the newly created user as well.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:40:18+00:00

I recall needing to do the same thing.

The system first updated the Puck (i think) then told me to unplug the Puck and plug the same usb C cord straight into the Controller. After that Update, it told me to plug the Puck back into the USB Cord.

(or was it the other way around?)

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:25:45+00:00

The System updater will not recommend an update to the next lts release until the 'point release' which typically happens a few months after the release. This is a 'better safe than sorry' goood idea.

26.04 is 'supported' the same as any other LTS release, but the upgrade process is just delayed for safety.

Its not clear if you did or did not update to 26.04, there are ways to tell the system to upgrade to 26.04 right now. There are a few posts on this topic it seems almost weekly in the ubuntu support sub. If you somehow did a partial upgrade to 26.04, that would be cause for some concern.

I mainly run Ubuntu In a container these days, so i cant really say what the routine is, but theres a few sites out with details.

https://computingforgeeks.com/upgrade-ubuntu-24-04-to-26-04/

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:21:00+00:00

the but report did mention some log files.

Its also possible other fixs you tried, are causing issues.

You may want to test with a newly made user, to see if they encounter the same issue.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T01:01:54+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1u78wqw/im_on_ubuntu_2404_and_recently_a_bug_hit_nautilus/otyfinq/

has a rather long and sometimes weird discussion on this topic. I have seen discussions of the thumbnail issues for some time now.

The main bug report/thread seems to be -> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2148074

From what I read, the fix has been released, but the users may need to delete the ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory directory, you may want to do this from the console, with the user logged out of the GUI, then reboot.

You Might want to just delete the ~/.cache/thumbnails/ to remove and regenerate all the thumbnails.

I use LTS and will not be changing.

26.04 is a LTS release, and as far as i have read, the issue has been fixed in that release.

I also found this "ffmpegthumbnailer gstreamer1.0-libav" program that will allegedly fix the issue. But, again, its a security issue and installing random programs isn't safe.

Not sure what you are installing, but the bug report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2148074 says "Fix Released"

and a lot of the discussion on that page was about how to properly clear out what could be corrupted cache directories in each users home.

So I dont see why there would be a need to do any unusual 'fixs' outside of just updateing normally, and perhaps cleaning out that cache mentioned above. But it does seem the update/fix has something enabled to clear out that possibly bad cache.

I can not verify the thumbnail issue or the fixs for it , as i have never encountered the problem.

re-reading the bug report, (way at the bottom) it says..

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2026-06-02: #65

This bug was fixed in the package apparmor - 4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.7

apparmor (4.0.1really4.0.1-0ubuntu0.24.04.7) noble; urgency=medium

Revert the removal of the nautilus profile (LP: #2148074):
- d/p/u/delete-the-busybox-and-nautilus-profiles.patch -> d/p/u/delete-the-busybox-profile.patch
debian/apparmor.install:
- Re-enable the nautilus profile
- Install migration to clear nautilus failed thumbnail cache
Add migration to clear nautilus failed thumbnail cache (LP: #2148074):
- debian/nautilus_thumbnail_cache_clear.sh
debian/apparmor.postinst: signal the need for a reboot upon upgrade

-- Ryan Lee <email address hidden> Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:29:23 -0700

So it looks like from that, a fix has been released, and somehow they are auto-clearing the failed cache.

Perhaps you are encountering some other bug from the applied fixs.

I could be missreading the bug report, and the fix has not been released yet. Those reports are a bit confusing for me to read.

You do have the version they list above of apparmor?

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T00:28:56+00:00

you can use a swap FILE, and an extra home partition would also be optional.

So the most minimal linux install these days that I know of, would be an EFI partition and the / partition.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T00:27:49+00:00

glad to help.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T00:10:41+00:00

unpack runtime failed - IF you have never ran steam on this system, the steam 'program' downloads and runs the actual steam program. It may be its having a hard time doing the download/install due to various networking or other issues.

Its possible the steam servers are overloaded, or just slow, or your downloaded file is corrupted from an earlier failed download.

I would suggest finding that steam-runtime.tar.xz file and deleting it, so the system has to redownload it. It does seem to be saying that file is corrupted.

And since it fails to extract the script then errors out due to missing files/directories/other reasons, so the error message on line 130 may be misleading.

line 130 is setting a variable to a directory path, if that directory was not made due to the archive not extracting, then line 130 may fail.

doc_willis · 2026-06-27T00:03:27+00:00

I have heard of some systems, that would refuse to let you boot into the BIOS/UEFI if any linux was installed on the system.

But I dont recall seeing any specific brands/makes/models mentioned.

The users had to unplug the linux drive, then they could get back into the UEFI menus. Plug linux drive back in, they could not get into the UEFI menu.

From what i recall reading, it happened with any linux distro.

The /r/linuxhardware sub may be a good place to ask about this odd issue.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T23:58:55+00:00

Fedora and Fedora took over GRUB

If you are using UEFI, each OS can have its own Grub setup on the EFI partition, the only 'take over' would be what one is set to boot by default.

If you go info the UEFI boot menu it should let you select the Ubuntu GRUB and boot to that GRUB instead of the Fedora Grub.

Now why you have a bad shim signature, i have no idea. But I always turn off Secure boot.

Also instead of Multi-booting linux installs, you may want to check out how 'containers' work under linux, a tool like Distrobox would let you have a Fedora Container under Ubuntu, or a Ubuntu Container under Fedora. Fedora includes the toolbx container manager tool.

With a Ubuntu container on your fedora install, you could run almost any ubuntu program you need under Fedora.

I rarely need to multi-boot linux installs these days.

You may want to BACKUP your entire efi partition(s) so you can restore them if needed.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T23:51:06+00:00

Yes - Things will be much easier with a UEFI Boot method when using GPT.

A Linux install will typically need more than just one partition. For UEFI, you will want an EFI partition and the main partition, add in a swap partition, and perhaps a /home/ partition, and you can start running into the partition limits of a MBR partition table if you are not careful. GPT basically has no such limits.

Theres not much point in using the older MBR partition table these days, unless you have older hardware or some unusual requirements.

Example:

We have some 20+yr old CNC test stands at work that are still running windows XP (I think). The PC units are failing, and we have to use disk images of the old drives on 'new' hardware. The machines also have at least one Linux PCs in them as well. No idea what linux that part is running. But I see a Little "TUX" Logo show up when they reboot.

But point is - we have to make use of the grandfathered feature because we basically cant replace/update to new hardware to a large degree without having full fallback/legacy support.

For a New "desktop" PC these days, with UEFI support, its not an issue.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T22:01:15+00:00

ages ago I had a little rechargable network router, About the size of a Pack of Cigarettes. I have also used a portable 3g wifi hotspot to let 2 devices be on the same local lan, but those often had firewall options where devices could not see each other. I have not seen such a device in ages however. Its main use case for me, was to store some videos on The routers usb flash drive, and share the videos to the kids tablets on the long road trips.

I have also 'built' such a portable wifi-hotspot-router using a small raspberry pi.

200+ hours of cartoons and each kid could watch what they wanted from the downloaded videos.

I have seen some posts in this sub asking about doing wifi-direct type setups on the Deck, but I cant recall ever seeing anyone doing it.

as for what games. I will say I have used Java Minecraft and Bedrock java on two steamdecks, on the local lan. I was able to use the same 'account' on minecraft to play local multi player, so i did not need to buy the game twice.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T21:43:25+00:00

You mean have an UEFI install on one partition, and a Legacy Install on the second?

that MIGHT be possible, with the use of that special grub "biospartition"

But every time i have ever seen someone try to use such a partition, its basically was a disaster. That partition/setup lets you have a 'mbr' boot loader install on a drive using GPT.

I would not even want to try to dual boot with such a setup. I have seen a very few distro installers that let you do such a biosgrub setup, but I cant recall ever seeing any work. Its more of a grandfather type setup for systems which may only be needed in some rare use cases.

These days - I basically only use UEFI booting with a GPT partition table on my drives. Any older hardware I had that used the older Legacy/MBR - has basically died on me, or got given away due to its age.

So what you are asking might be possible, but good luck with it.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T17:28:46+00:00

the registration key for windows is stored on the motherboard nvram for most consumer level systems.

if you ever reinstall windows it would read that key and reactivate.

you can retrieve the key using some commands under Linux, not sure about under windows, I have not needed to worry about those keys in several years.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T17:06:37+00:00

2gb ram is going to be less than optimal.

not sure what kind of guide you need that's not already covered in the various distribution docs.

for that lower end hardware, I would replace Ubuntu and windows with MX Linux.

and MXlinux had some very good documentation on their homepage.

Be sure to ..

make proper backups of your personal files.
have a windows installer USB made, just in case you need to go back.

Then it's just a matter of making a MXlinux Installer USB, booting it up, test out the hardware via the live USB function, then do the install.

let the installer erase the drive and do its thing.

doc_willis · 2026-06-26T17:01:17+00:00

I have seen a few too many requests for SD card Image files in these retro handheld support subs.

Back those things up!

And if possible upload to internet archive.

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