can't open system settings(Ubuntu 17.10), icon is visible but settings don't display

screenshot show modal, but i can not see it

I'm having the same problem. Started soon after I changed the dock position from left to bottom. Have already tried to reinstall gnome-control-center, but to no avail. Rebooting won't help either.

I believe I know what's happening: it looks like Ubuntu created a virtual screen. If I put my mouse pointer to the right, it vanishes the same way it does when there's a second monitor/screen attached to the system. Don't know how it happened, though, since I haven't changed my screen resolution or displays.

Ok, a little workaround did restore the System Settings for me (assuming one had this problem after changing the dock position just like me):

- sudo apt install dconf-editor
- Navigate to org>gnome>shell-extensions>dash-to-dock>dock-position
- Restore dock position to it's default value

System Settings is working properly now. However, my mouse cursor still disappears if I move it to the screen edge to the right.

Same problem, and no apparent virtual screen is present.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I have deactivated all the gnome extensions. Rebooting and the control center launch normally... So it's a workaround, before I isolate what is exactly the problem and possibly the extension (if only one is implicated).

I don't know if it's related or not to the problem, but here it goes. I'm using Ubuntu 17.10 on a laptop that has a Nvidia 540M GPU and also an onboard Intel GPU. It seems Ubuntu is assigning a monitor for each (there's an unknown second monitor on my setup and I have no idea where it came from).

In the end, my solution was disabling that unknown monitor. That made the "virtual screen" I was referring to before disappear and the system settings app to work again. But, oddly, it only began malfunctioning after I moved the dock to the bottom position.

The description and comments are a bit confusing. Does it has to do with misconfiguration of scrreens? Or a gnome-shell extension?
The screenshot in #comment1 looks right, what's the issue on it?

I had the same issue. In my case it turned out that gnome-control-center had been uninstalled. I'm not sure why, but reinstalling fixed it.

Dear friends
I have the same problem as you had. I read all the comments but I am new to ubuntu and sometimes I don't understand what you are talking about (technically speaking). For example, what does it mean:

- Navigate to org>gnome>shell-extensions>dash-to-dock>dock-position
- Restore dock position to it's default value

Is is a piece of code? Drag and drop? How do I navigate? or ...? (@Cleber Cassol). or how can I disable the unknown monitor (I have it as well) ? (@Cleber Cassol)?

I did everything to the best of my knowledge and based on the search results on the net but whenever I try to start setting a column blinks in the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Please help me since I am totally novice and can't go further into technical details.

Thanks

Hi!

To disable the phantom monitor, hit the super key (the one with the Windows
logo on it), the type Display. The app that handles the displays will be
shown, click on it. Once there, you're see two monitors, the real one to
the left and the phantom one to the right. Click on it and disable it
choosing the appropriate control (I don't have Ubuntu installed anymore, so
I'm telling you this by memory). It should be labeled "Activate", "Enabled"
or something similar.

Hope this helps!

Em dom, 7 de jan de 2018 20:50, Meysam Majnooni <email address hidden>
escreveu:

> Dear friends
> I have the same problem as you had. I read all the comments but I am new
> to ubuntu and sometimes I don't understand what you are talking about
> (technically speaking). For example, what does it mean:
>
> - Navigate to org>gnome>shell-extensions>dash-to-dock>dock-position
> - Restore dock position to it's default value
>
> Is is a piece of code? Drag and drop? How do I navigate? or ...?
> (@Cleber Cassol). or how can I disable the unknown monitor (I have it as
> well) ? (@Cleber Cassol)?
>
> I did everything to the best of my knowledge and based on the search
> results on the net but whenever I try to start setting a column blinks
> in the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Please help me
> since I am totally novice and can't go further into technical details.
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1721637
>
> Title:
> can't open system settings(Ubuntu 17.10), icon is visible but
> settings don't dislay
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1721637/+subscriptions
>

I am also experiencing this issue, when I click on settings it "loads" for a few seconds but nothing is displayed.

вот же говно

in dconf-editor everything is by default
gnome-control-center is not installed

still can not open:

- RMC-> Change background
- system settings window

how is it possible for the OS not to open system settings???

honestly i am frustrating with ubuntu

back to confirmed and fix the problem

I installed Ubuntu 17.10.1 today on my laptop, and got the same problem. Opened settings and moved the dock to the bottom, and the settings window just disappeared. The answer given in the following link helped me to disable the second virtual monitor from the command line, and restored the settings window back to my normal laptop screen view:

Link: https://askubuntu.com/questions/366813/disable-second-non-existent-screen-from-command-line

Of course, this second monitor may come up again when you restart your machine, so it would be a good option to follow the latter part of the answer in above link, and put the command in a script which you can schedule to run at startup. This is a workaround though, and this not the proper fix, which hopefully may come in a future update/patch.

I'm experiencing this as well. When I try to install gnome-control-center I get:

sudo apt install gnome-control-center
dave@dave-K55A:~$ sudo apt install gnome-control-center
[sudo] password for dave:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gnome-control-center : Depends: colord (>= 0.1.30)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I haven't fiddled with anything, I haven't moved the dock... How can I be missing colord, system settings? I've got to calibrate and profile a new monitor.

I'm not a noob, I just install or update and work. I don't mess with anything!

I started settings after installation and it worked. But when I clicked on Users tab, it freezed. So I clicked wait twice and then force close. Then I reinstalled and settings didn't work anymore.

I reinstalled gnome, disabled tweak extensions, removed .config and .cache and .local from home dir. After that gnome settings started to work again. From my testing there was some bug in .local settings as this was that that finally helped me.

David and Ales, please file new bugs since it's not clear that your bugs are the same as this bug.

Please run this command to file the bug so that information about your system is included that can help bug triage:

ubuntu-bug gnome-control-center

Hello, 4 me the problem is solved after installing gnome-control-center.

sudo apet-get install gnome-control-center

Here is how settings is "displayed", when control panel is in bottom of the display.

(@Cleber Cassol) This is an year old issue but I had the same problem yesterday. So I did what you said, I used the dconf editor and set the dock to left and the the system settings started working again. I also had the problem where my mouse was disappearing to the right. I opened
'Settings>Devices>Displays' where I saw that the Display Mode was set to 'Join Displays' by default. I changed it 'Single Display' and now the mouse works properly. I am using ubuntu on a lenovo G580 laptop and my BIOS is inaccessible. It seems ubuntu and lenovo don't work well there have been many similar issue. Forunaely my laptop boots properly I just can't access the BIOS, many however are not so lucky...

What vertical space do you have? Is it that the settings dialog is too tall to fit on the screen with the dock at the bottom?

Maybe it's an old problem but I did a fresh install of 18.04.1 yesterday and today I moved the Dock to the bottom and could not get access to Settings any more.

None of the above helped me at all but the solution is here https://askubuntu.com/questions/366813/disable-second-non-existent-screen-from-command-line.

At this link the top command did nothing - but starting from First run: those two commands did the trick, in my case for the second command I had to type "VGA-1-2" instead of VGA2.

Have yet to reboot so I will find out if I have to add it to the "run on start"

Cannot believe this bug has not been fixed.

@David, your comment is not clear. You didn't have that second screen before moving the dock? When that happens, can you move the dock back to the left and then open settings? If so what config is displayed in the displays section?

@Sebastian I provide more detail and info below

Originally with the Dock at the bottom I could not get access to settings. I clicked settings and the cog appeared on the dock with an orange dot - but no window appeared - so no access to settings.

After getting the Dock back to the left side using the procedure that I highlighted in #27 above, I have done a lot more checking.

Selecting displays in settings I find I supposedly have two displays, the one that is my laptop and an unknown display which does not actually exist i.e. 1 and 2 respectively (in that order).

I plugged a standalone monitor into the port on the laptop and I then supposedly had three displays 1 3 and 2 in that order with display 2 showing unknown and not existing in reality.

using xrandr it shows as follows (for two real displays and one non existing) (blurb removed for clarity)
   LVDS-1 connected primary
   VGA-1 connected
   HDMI-1 disconnected
   DP-1 disconnected
   VGA-1-2 connected

In #27 and to get access to settings I used the link in 27# above and therefore VGA-1-2 was inserted in the command to remove the (at that time unknown to me a non existing) display (since then I have rebooted and it has reappeared but the Dock will remain at the side so I keep clear of the problem (I do not know enough to permanently remove VGA-1-2).

For all I know this may be a problem specifically for my ASUS K53S laptop alone but my post pointed to a solution which all those above were seeking - so I thought I would help.

Thanks for the details, so yeah it seems the issue you are having is that "ghost" screen which is either an hardware or a kernel/driver issue but not a settings one. That's an issue but if that's what the bug is about then it should be closed as invalud from the setting side

Now it could be that the dock at the bottom impact things by making the settings send to another screen which has more available space

Not sure if this helps.. Same thing happened on 20.04 LTS after moving dock to bottom.. Moved my cursor way over past the right edge of my display to where I thought would be the title bar of the settings window in the imaginary second screen, dragged it back into main screen. Took me a couple click and drags to find it. Now you can go into display settings and click "Single Display" under Display Mode, then click "Built-in Display" and hit apply. Now you can reposition dock anywhere without disappearing menu and cursor wont escape the boundary.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.