GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 99741
gnome-session won't start it dies after splash screen
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
Description of Problem: Using garnome-18.3, I installed Gnome 2 for the first time. It compiles properly with GCC 3.2.1 on a RedHat 7.3 system with many modifications and kernel 2.4.20-rc2. Everything is installed in a separate directory: /gar2. I created a dedicated user for testing purpose. I first tried login thru gdm using a special session which is setting env variables accordingly to the FAQ for garnome. After logging in successfully, the gnome-session doesn't complete and dies after splash screen. In order to get more details, I started X from a plain xinit command getting a plain X with a xterm without a window manager. From this xterm, I setted the env vars and started gnome-session using strace to get a system calls trace. I can send you the strace file on request. In the garnome FAQ there is a link to bug 70351 which seems similar to this one. However, since I am not yet an expert with Gnome2, I cannot determine if it is actually related. The trace seems not identical. And bug 70351 is about some fonts and XFT font cache. I tried to find out informations on the XFT font cache in order to flush it as recommended. I just don't know how to proceed and how to identify which cache needs to be flushed. So, could you provide me with some guidance. Steps to reproduce the problem: 1. Just logging in. 2. 3. Actual Results: gnome-session crashes. Expected Results: gnome-session shouldn't crash. How often does this happen? All the time. Additional Information: See above.
Try running fc-cache as root, and then fc-list as the user who will be running garnome. Remember, fc-cache and fc-list will likely require the PATH/LIBRARY settings to include the garnome install directory. the #garnome channel on irc.gnome.org can also be helpful. Moving to garnome
I did the fc-cache and fc-list commands as described. The behavior has changed. gnome-session is crashing much more quickly after the splash screen with the following message in the .xsession-errors: ** (gnome-session:30254): WARNING **: Cannot open font file for font Verdana 10 ** (gnome_segv:30348): WARNING **: Cannot open font file for font Verdana 10 Is there any way to circumvent this?
Have you actually got any truetype fonts, and is fonts.conf configured correctly to find them? Please read the mailing list for a lot of discussions regarding this issue. Resolving WONTFIX, because without a valid fonts list, your system is not going to work very well. :-) There is, however, a separate bug here that I will file - that the fontconfig ~/.fonts.cache-1 file is not correctly updated in current GARNOME releases.
After some investigation I found some answers and few questions. - I am using a RedHat 7.x system. - I am using xfs which is supposed to serve TrueType fonts. - All my font paths seems right. - If I issue a xlsfsfont command with -server unix/:7100 I am getting a very extensive list of fonts (over 6000). The Verdana font is there. - Given above result, I conclude TT fonts are actually available to the X server. - I tried to check availability of the Verdana font using an application like gfontsel. The Verdana font seems not to be available. - I am not sure if I should work with the XftConfig file in my /etc filetree or the /garnome/etc/fonts.conf file in my Garnome filetree. - Is there some missing link to make the fonts available to applications? - I checked with dpyinfo and the RENDER extension is loaded. So, it still doesn't work and complains about the Verdana font.
GNOME 2.1.x doesn't use X server fonts, it uses client side fonts via fontconfig/Xft/RENDER/freetype. Nothing to do with your X or xfs provided fonts. 2.1.x is based on fontconfig, so you need to make sure $prefix/etc/fonts.conf is correct, and run fc-cache as root as other posters have mentioned on garnome-list.
I already did all this stuff with fc-cache and it didn't worked, that's the reason I explored xfs stuff. When running fc-list with my test user, I am actually getting the Verdana fonts in the list. However, I still get this frustrating message about missing or not readable files for Verdana fonts.
Then it sounds like you've got an unreadable or broken Verdana font. Obviously, this has gone far beyond the realms of a GARNOME bug now. :-)
Well, you are right, however, I never opened this bug record as a GARNOME bug. It was originally opened as a gnome-session bug. I believe there is still a problem somewhere with gnome-session. I cannot believe I am spending so much time on something that should be straight forward like fonts support. For sure, I have no longer fun with Gnome. My goal is not to become a fonts guru, I just want it to work. I just want to use glade, gnome-db and some nice stuff in Gnome 2, since versions in Gnome 1 are no longer actively improved and functionnality I am seeking for is in the Gnome 2 version. I understand you may no be the right person to help, however, I would be grateful if I can be directed to someone that can really help. Documentation is just not there. I usually solve myself most of my problems. After following instructions for the TrueType font support, I still think something went wrong. Where are the debugging tools for such a problem? How can I check if each step has actually produce the right result? And, I am sure the font file is not corrupted. So, what is missing?
It's not a gnome-session bug either - it's a problem with your font, or fontconfig/freetype.
Two things; bugzilla is not the best place to get support (use gnome-list for that), and if you don't want to deal with these kinds of issues please DON'T use unstable development releases GNOME! We have a very nice stable branch for Real Users; I'm sure there are packages for your distribution.
Well, you may be true. But, if the problem is with the fonts, even the stable version will not work. And, on the other side, I don't think I demonstrated I wasn't willing to spend some time debugging the beast, however, there is also a limit on the time everyone is willing to spend on something. I suppose there is also something interesting for those involved with a piece of software to have someone else to test that piece of software. Clearly, after following the steps documented with GARNOME, GNOME 2 is still not working. The problem is clearly identified as a font problem. But there is no clear documentation on the working setup required by Gnome 2. When looking at TrueType fonts doc, we end up with something about the fontserver, however, the fontserver is useless with Gnome 2 and the fontconfig doc is not complete or there is no way to be sure what is says is what you get. fc-list command tells me the fonts are there and gnome-session is telling me they are not. Why not simply include the fonts and the working setup with GARNOME?
a) GARNOME 0.18.x builds GNOME 2.1.x, which uses fontconfig and Xft2, not core X fonts. It's a whole different kettle of fish. That's why I've recommended using stable, as you seem to want to USE not TEST the software. b) GARNOME does not include fonts because... Well, why should it? This is for testing GNOME, not distributing fonts. You have fonts. I have fonts. Everyone already has fonts. c) GARNOME *is* a working setup for most users. If you don't have the time to test and debug unstable development software, use GARNOME 0.17.x, or do the sensible thing and use packages for your distribution. If you want to discuss this further, post to the GARNOME mailing list. This is totally inane to discuss in bugzilla, so I'm closing the bug.