#841251 nemo should not be started under GNOME

Package:
nemo
Source:
nemo
Description:
File manager and graphical shell for Cinnamon
Submitter:
Stephen Allen
Date:
2026-09-30 15:37:03 UTC
Severity:
important
#841251#5
Date:
2016-10-18 23:52:40 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

Hello.

I have both Gnome 3.22.x and Cinnamon installed. When logging in using
GDM3 with Gnome specifically enabled, both Nautilas and Nemo are
activated to manage my desktop, resulting in double overlapping icons.
Once I forcequit Nemo, all is well.
#841251#10
Date:
2016-10-19 01:00:18 UTC
From:
To:
Am 19.10.2016 um 01:52 schrieb Stephen Allen:

Why is this bug filed against gdm3?
Sounds like a bug in nemo if it wants to manage a GNOME session.
#841251#15
Date:
2016-10-19 15:50:07 UTC
From:
To:
[ please always CC the bug report ]
Am 19.10.2016 um 17:27 schrieb Stephen Allen:

for a gnome session, gnome-session will run what's defined in
/usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome.session, i.e.
RequiredComponents=org.gnome.Shell;gnome-settings-daemon;

And then it will start all applications from /etc/xdg/autostart and
/usr/share/gnome/autostart/.

So no, gnome-session doesn't start nemo directly unless it was asked so
by nemo, in which case this would be a bug in nemo, I guess.

But I have no idea how nemo is started, tbh, which is why I think you
need to talk to the nemo maintainers.
#841251#20
Date:
2016-10-19 15:52:29 UTC
From:
To:
Am 19.10.2016 um 17:50 schrieb Michael Biebl:

I'm going to reassign this bug report. The nemo maintainers should be
able to diagnose why nemo is autostarted and if that is something which
it shouldn't do.
#841251#31
Date:
2016-10-19 16:20:07 UTC
From:
To:

Btw, are you sure you were starting a GNOME session?
GNOME by default does no longer draw any icons on the desktop.
#841251#36
Date:
2016-10-19 23:44:11 UTC
From:
To:
Correct, I enabled icons via Gnome-Tweak-Tool. Thank-you for reassigning
to the Cinnamon Team.

So, yes I'm sure Yours Truly is running Gnome. :-)
#841251#41
Date:
2016-10-20 07:45:52 UTC
From:
To:
¡Hola Michael!

El 2016-10-19 a las 17:52 +0200, Michael Biebl escribió:

Nemo includes an /usr/share/applications/nemo-autostart.desktop file with:
 [Desktop Entry]
 Type=Application
 Name=Nemo
 Comment=Start Nemo desktop at log in
 Exec=nemo -n
 OnlyShowIn=X-Cinnamon;
 AutostartCondition=GSettings org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons
 NoDisplay=true

I would expect the OnlyShowIn=X-Cinnamon to prevent it to be started in GNOME.
If that's not the case then, do you know of a way to avoid this (even in the
case of enabling show-desktop-icons for nemo and nautilus)?

Happy hacking,
#841251#46
Date:
2016-10-23 12:18:11 UTC
From:
To:
Hi!

Maxy and I have been trying to reproduce this problem using nemo and nautilus
both from unstable and stable and we have not been able to reproduce this.

The nemo-autostart.desktop file is only installed in /usr/share/applications.
In cinnamon, it's started as part of cinnamon session, but given that it's not part
of /etc/xdg/autostart, it shouldn't get autostarted by default.

Stephen, could it be that you had nemo-autostart as part of /etc/xdg/autostart?
Or that you had added it to your local ~/.config/autostart directory?
#841251#51
Date:
2016-10-23 12:32:04 UTC
From:
To:
Don't think so Marga, see attached screengrab. This started happening
only recently.
#841251#56
Date:
2016-10-23 14:18:19 UTC
From:
To:
El Domingo, Octubre 23, 2016 14:32 CEST, Stephen Allen <marathon.durandal@gmail.com> Ha escrito:

Are you still able to reproduce this problem when you log out and back in?
If so, can you check if nemo is started as "nemo" or "nemo -n" ?
Can you also check in the tree of processes which process is the parent of nemo?
(I guess if you can paste / show a screengrab of the relevant ps fax,
that would be enough).
#841251#61
Date:
2026-09-30 15:35:25 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

back then the nemo process itself also managed the desktop whenever it
was started, unless it was run with -n, and its D-Bus services
(org.freedesktop.FileManager1, org.Nemo) started it without that option.
So any D-Bus activation of nemo in a GNOME session was enough to make it
draw the desktop icons, regardless of nemo-autostart.desktop.

Since nemo 3.4.0 the desktop is handled by a separate program,
nemo-desktop, which is only started by nemo-autostart.desktop
(OnlyShowIn=X-Cinnamon), and the nemo process no longer touches the
desktop. I'm therefore closing this bug with the first Debian version
that has that change.

Thanks,
Fabio