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xfce4 4.2 does not start properly
Status:
RESOLVED: INVALID
Product:
Xfce4-session
Component:
General

Comments

Description Mathias Homann 2005-01-16 18:44:22 CET
I installed xfce 4.2 from the suse 9.2 rpm packages provided at   
http://turing.fh-landshut.de/~bwalle/xfce/... and it does not start properly. 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. install the rpm packages from the above location 
2. logout 
3. login using kdm and choosing xfce4 
 
Actual Results:  
i get a blank desktop with the xfce panel but i cant start the settings 
manager to change anything, i get no taskbar on top of the screen, i get no 
menu when i click the background with any of the mouse buttons 

Expected Results:  
it should have started a default xfce4 session as it used to with rc2 and rc3?
Comment 1 Bernhard Walle 2005-01-16 18:57:26 CET
Not reproducable here.
Comment 2 Mathias Homann 2005-01-16 18:59:30 CET
(In reply to comment #1) 
> Not reproducable here. 
 
go online on jabber, its faster ;) 
 
Comment 3 Mathias Homann 2005-01-16 19:33:44 CET
ok, it seems that xfce-mcs-manager segfaults. no idea why, tho. 
Comment 4 Mathias Homann 2005-01-16 19:55:53 CET
seems to be related to the gtk-qt-engine (i'm runnning version 0.6); as soon 
as i uninstall it, xfce4 works fine. 
 
Comment 5 Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail) 2005-01-17 04:46:20 CET
gtk-qt-engine is quite buggy.
Comment 6 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 10:12:40 CET
i still believe that its not only because of the "buggyness" of gtk-qt that 
several core components of xfce crash without ANY output, just because the 
gtk-qt-engine is installed, while other desktop environmemnts which rely as 
heavily on gtk as xfce (namely gnome) just work. 
 
Comment 7 Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail) 2005-01-17 18:26:34 CET
(In reply to comment #6)
> i still believe that its not only because of the "buggyness" of gtk-qt that 
> several core components of xfce crash without ANY output, just because the 
> gtk-qt-engine is installed, while other desktop environmemnts which rely as 
> heavily on gtk as xfce (namely gnome) just work. 

i'm sorry, but you're simply incorrect.  the gtk-qt theme engine is known to be
buggy, and i've seen this behavior before while using it.  unless you can
provide some specific evidence pointing to something in xfce that is causing the
crash, this bug will remain INVALID.  i'm not absolutely saying you're wrong,
but past experience and evidence indicates that this is most likely a gtk-qt
engine problem.
Comment 8 Jasper Huijsmans editbugs 2005-01-17 18:32:19 CET
If you can provide a backtrace of the crashes with gdb, that might pinpoint the
cause of the problem.
Comment 9 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 18:48:55 CET
the programs in question dont even crash or something like that, they just 
exit without any feedback. but i could try to produce a backtrace if someone 
tells me how to do that. 
 
Comment 10 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 18:58:54 CET
some more facts to consider: 
 
1. no other gtk-based software i use has such problems with the gtk-qt engine 
(namely all of gnome, and gimp 2.0.x) 
 
2. xfce4.2 rc2 and rc3 worked just fine, _with_ the gtk-qt engine. 
 
3. some of the programs that crash/exit dont even have a gui (xfce-mcs-manager 
for example). 
 
Comment 11 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2005-01-17 19:06:45 CET
I'm sorry but I agree with brian, the Qt engine is buggy. "GNOME works" doesn't
mean/prove nothing either, it's different software.

Please provide a backtrace or a bit of info and we'll be able to track this
down, otherwise, we can't help here.
Comment 12 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2005-01-17 19:09:02 CET
You may try to run a program with "strace" that can give usefull informations.
Comment 13 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 19:15:35 CET
Created attachment 150 
a strace output of a crashing xfdesktop
Comment 14 Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail) 2005-01-17 19:16:16 CET

(In reply to comment #10)
> some more facts to consider: 
>  
> 1. no other gtk-based software i use has such problems with the gtk-qt engine 
> (namely all of gnome, and gimp 2.0.x)

not really relevant.  different software behaves differently.
 
> 2. xfce4.2 rc2 and rc3 worked just fine, _with_ the gtk-qt engine. 

this points even more at the theme engine: there were very very few changes
between RC3 and final; mainly translations and theme changes (and since you're
not using the xfce theme engine, they don't matter here).

> 3. some of the programs that crash/exit dont even have a gui (xfce-mcs-manager 
> for example). 

xfce-mcs-manager does indeed have a GUI; it's just not visible on startup.

if you can get a backtrace of a failing app, that would be the most useful. 
please see http://gaim.sf.net/gdb.php for a quick example on how to use gdb. 
note that you'll need the desktop running while you're doing this.  a crashed
part of xfce can be started from a terminal, or, if absolutely necessary, a
console (by setting DISPLAY=:0).
Comment 15 Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail) 2005-01-17 19:19:06 CET
the strace is somewhat useful - if my guess is correct about those cut off
strings near the bottom, it's writing RestartCommand and CloneCommand, which
would mean it's crashing during or after talking to the session manager.

unfortunatley, a higher-level problem isn't going to show up in an strace, since
e're only seeing system calls here.  so a gdb backtrace is needed.
Comment 16 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 19:19:48 CET
btw i found now that its more or less inconsistent which programs refuse to    
work, but its always one or more of xfdesktop, xfce-mcs-manager,    
xfce-settings-show, xfce4-panel and xfce4-taskbar.    
 
Comment 17 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 19:45:25 CET
hm. murphy strikes again. now it works. 
what i did: i sat down at the offending computer to produce the backtraces... 
 
only one thing left: the logout diialog has no input widgets. so i cant select 
if i wanna save the session, logout, reboot or shutdown. 
 
Comment 18 Mathias Homann 2005-01-17 19:50:46 CET
oh how fun. by posting the previous command (and by switching to the xfce4 
theme engine in the previously working session) i made it broken again. 
here's  a backtrace from xfdesktop: 
 
(gdb) bt 
#0  0x402c2153 in ?? () 
#1  0x42b304d8 in gdk_event_apply_filters () 
from /opt/gnome/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 
#2  0x42b32082 in gdk_event_translate () 
from /opt/gnome/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 
#3  0x42b337c7 in _gdk_events_queue () from /opt/gnome/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 
#4  0x42b33bad in gdk_event_dispatch () 
from /opt/gnome/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 
#5  0x41c29d17 in g_main_context_dispatch () 
from /opt/gnome/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 
#6  0x41c2c467 in g_main_context_iterate () 
from /opt/gnome/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 
#7  0x41c2d677 in g_main_loop_run () from /opt/gnome/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 
#8  0x4293de43 in gtk_main () from /opt/gnome/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 
#9  0x0804cbf0 in main (argc=1, argv=0xbffff4b4) at main.c:352 
 

Bug #690

Reported by:
Mathias Homann
Reported on: 2005-01-16
Last modified on: 2009-07-15

People

Assignee:
Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail)
CC List:
0 users

Version

Attachments

a strace output of a crashing xfdesktop (294.73 KB, text/plain)
2005-01-17 19:15 CET , Mathias Homann
no flags

Additional information