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[5.0.9-arch1-1-ARCH with gnome-desktop 3.32.1.2-1 and tracker 2.2.1]

My syslog at boot ($ sudo journalctl -b) is being spammed by messages about tracker-miner not being able to execute sparql along with the tracker-store.service unit being masked. I do not remember masking this unit. Very small extract below:

Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME dbus-daemon[3165]: [session uid=1000 pid=3165] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Tracker1' unit='tracker-store.service' requested by ':1.54' (uid=1000 pid=3441 comm="/usr/lib/tracker-miner-fs ")
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME dbus-daemon[3165]: [session uid=1000 pid=3165] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'tracker-store.service': Unit tracker-store.service is masked.
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME tracker-miner-f[3441]:   (Sparql buffer) Error in array-update: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit tracker-store.service is masked.
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME tracker-miner-f[3441]: Could not execute sparql: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit tracker-store.service is masked.
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME dbus-daemon[3165]: [session uid=1000 pid=3165] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Tracker1' unit='tracker-store.service' requested by ':1.54' (uid=1000 pid=3441 comm="/usr/lib/tracker-miner-fs ")
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME dbus-daemon[3165]: [session uid=1000 pid=3165] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'tracker-store.service': Unit tracker-store.service is masked.
Apr 26 07:47:05 HOSTNAME tracker-miner-f[3441]:   (Sparql buffer) Error in array-update: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.systemd1.UnitMasked: Unit tracker-store.service is masked.

I also see:

$ systemctl --user status tracker-store
● tracker-store.service
    Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit tracker-store.service is masked.)
    Active: inactive (dead)

and

$ tracker status
Currently indexed: 50073 files, 3018 folders
Remaining space on database partition: 39.0 GB (24.28%)
(tracker status:17788): Tracker-CRITICAL **: 19:47:02.875: Could not get miner progress for 'org.freedesktop.Tracker1.Miner.Extract': Timeout was reached
(tracker status:17788): Tracker-CRITICAL **: 19:47:27.899: Could not get miner progress for 'org.freedesktop.Tracker1.Miner.Files': Timeout was reached
All data miners are idle, indexing complete

indicating that indeed the service unit is masked and its has completed its indexing job.

Quite diverse posts involve similar keywords as what appears in the boot syslog: "tracker-miner"(1), "sparql" not executing (2), a masked "tracker-store.service" unit (3). tracker has been held responsible for monopolizing CPU, hogging memory and storage space, violating user privacy, etc, ever since it started shipping systematically as part of gnome-desktop.

No post got me closer to answering:
- Why do I get those syslog messages at boot ?
Note: Log verbosity is minimum and set to "errors" by default for all tracker apps. I don't know how to reduce it to nil. I also assume (perhaps wrongly) that if tracker was well configured, it would not be at the origin of so many error messages at boot.
- If so, what do I need to fix/reconfigure for those errors to go away ?

sourcejedi
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Cbhihe
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    @sourcejedi: tx for edits... and BTW, I also issued $ tracker reset --hard to reclaim close to 1GB of SSD space eaten by tracker's database. For all those not working with Nautilus, and therefore not using Nautilus' gui search tool, tracker is utterly useless, so getting rid of its database is a good idea, in addition to disabling it, per the accepted solution below. – Cbhihe Apr 29 '19 at 15:00

1 Answers1

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It sounds like masking tracker-store is not the "correct" solution to disable Tracker, since it generates so much log noise.

If you masked Tracker yourself, I would revert that, i.e.systemctl --user unmask tracker-store. (Nothing should have automatically masked it. If you find such a culprit, I would point these messages out to them).

If you are interested in disabling Tracker:

On Fedora 27, Gnome 3.26.2 ([tracker-preferences is] not available in repositories).

It appears that tracker can be disabled by simply going to Settings -> Search -> [Window bar] Switch Off.

Credit for this solution goes to samtuke:

https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/9822/how-do-i-disable-tracker-in-gnome/?answer=117319#post-id-117319

sourcejedi
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    @Cbhihe eww. Nothing else should have installed a mask. I don't know what the likely culprit would be in your environment, sorry. The question didn't ask for a CLI and it's tagged as gnome; please edit to clarify. There are recent CLI answers in the link, but I haven't tested any of the solutions. The approach I've tested is to use the same gnome GUI to limit which directories it searches. – sourcejedi Apr 29 '19 at 14:16
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    I mostly assumed you would at least be happy with disabling Tracker, due to complaining about other disadvantages, and not saying there was anything particular you still wanted Tracker to be able to do :-). – sourcejedi Apr 29 '19 at 14:42
  • +1 -- ;-)) Your approach (i.e. unmasking + switching off "Search" in Window's headbar, while in GUI) worked. Just had to launch my desktop and Tchuss ! -- I tagged my post as gnome as tracker depends on glib2(a part of the Gnome ecosystem) and I do use GDM on Xorg, only rarely... Everytime I launched gnome-desktop though, I got a bunch of crappy errors that I spent too much time filtering through. So, yes, I am happy with disabling tracker. Why use this tracker thing, when you have find at yr fingertips ? – Cbhihe Apr 29 '19 at 14:46
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    [Ctnd] No idea how this mask got there btw, but it might have been me experimenting with gnome-desktop extensions for Nautilus, which I NEVER use, a couple of years ago. Did not document what I did then and, just in case, apologies to you for being unduly schroff ! Yr solution actually worked. It weeded off 148 errors (after reboot), all related to tracker-store, tracker-miners, etc., all because of tracker as provided in OP under syslog link. --- Only 58 errors to go... :-( – Cbhihe Apr 29 '19 at 14:46