GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 68030
every gnome2 app crashes on startup (with GDK_USE_XFT=1 set)
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
After compiling gnome2 today using vbs, all gnome2 applications (not gtk-demo) segfault on startup right after the "1.3 is unstable etc" message. Everything worked fine using a build from less than a week ago. I don't have a ~/.gtkrc-2.0, so it uses the default settings. GDK_USE_XFT=1 is set. Here's a backtrace of gnome-about: Gtk-Message: YOU ARE USING THE DEVEL BRANCH 1.3.x OF GTK+ WHICH IS CURRENTLY UNDER HEAVY DEVELOPMENT AND FREQUENTLY INTRODUCES INSTABILITIES. if you don't know why you are getting this, you probably want to use the stable branch which can be retrieved from ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v1.2/ or via CVS with cvs checkout -r glib-1-2 glib; cvs checkout -r gtk-1-2 gtk+ Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
+ Trace 15795
Thread 1024 (LWP 20931)
I tracked this down yesterday. It is actually a bug in the Xrender library shipped with XFree 4.1.0. In Xrender.c::XRenderQueryFormats() it reads the uninitialized variable xFormat, and if it's NULL it consider this an error. This was fixed in: ---------------------------- revision 1.7 date: 2001/10/11 03:26:00; author: keithp; state: Exp; lines: +2 -2 branches: 1.7.2; Check malloc return for Xrender query reply temp data ---------------------------- But this change is not in a stable XFree86 release yet. I don't know what to do about this. It's hard to work around as it depends on what is on the stack. Maybe we can build a fixed version of libXrender and distribute from gtk.org. I added a g_error() in the code referencing this bug.
I experienced this as well, but it mysteriously went away when unsetting LD_BIND_NOW, that vicious-build-scripts used to set until recently.
Anything that changes the data on the stack could effect this bug. 4.2.0, now out, has the fix.
<ShawnX> gnome_segv (pid:31991): ** ERROR **: Failed to match any font. This could be due to a broken Xft configuration, or if you run XFree 4.1.0 due to a bug in libXrender. For more information about this, read http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68030 <ShawnX> what ? SignOff seth: #GNOME (Ping timeout: 600 seconds) <ShawnX> XFree86 Version 4.2.99.1 / X Window System <ShawnX> (protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600) <ShawnX> Release Date: xx January 2002 telemaco [~telemaco@62-36-133-206.dialup.uni2.es] has joined #gnome <ShawnX> what font is it looking for? <jamesh> ShawnX: probably sans <ShawnX> hmm <jamesh> ShawnX: if your XftConfig file doesn't map it to anything, then you have problems <ShawnX> odd, it works for gnome 1.4.x
Additional info: im using Xft 1.0.tar.bz2 from keithp's download page. are there problems with Xft 1.0 vs 1.1 with reguard to this issue? pango-CVS wont build with Xft 1.1 :/
Dump from gnome-terminal 2 with gdb:
+ Trace 19751
This is NOT fixed.
from gnome-about 2 5 0x408ffdb6 in g_log (log_domain=0x0, log_level=G_LOG_LEVEL_ERROR, format=0x4081ac40 "Failed to match any font. This could be due to a broken Xft configuration, or if you run XFree 4.1.0 due to a bug in libXrender. For more information about this, read http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bu"...) at gmessages.c:583
+ Trace 19752
The bug is in Xrender, not Xft.
So, um, how common is this going to be? If it is an xrender bug, and it is common, we've got to have a workaround- we can't just say 'oh, sorry, please upgrade X to use GNOME.' That's not going to fly real far, I wouldn't think...
People have the choice: - Upgrade X - Don't use Xft fonts There really isn't any other way out.. I mean, we could provide a tarball of a fixed Xrender library, but I think people are less likely to hose their system if they just upgrade X. (XFree86-4.2 has been out for over 6 months now.) Experience indicates that about 1/3 people using XFree86-4.1 will see this crash if they turn on Xft fonts.
Oh, ok, not using xft is an acceptable workaround. Didn't realize that fixed it (because clearly I failed reading comprehension in elementary school.) thanks for the feedback, owen.