GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 727684
Magnifier Crashes GNOME Shell with DConf error
Last modified: 2014-04-11 12:22:08 UTC
I thought I'd take a look at the 3.12 magnifier but unfortunately, turning it on locked me out of not only my session but made it completely impossible to login as anyone but root or to turn off the magnifier when logged into the terminal (having been locked out) ("oh no something has gone wrong... etcetc") It was also not possible to switch off the magnifier using the terminal gsettings set blablabla because it 'failed to commit' according to the DConf error and though it was active only under my login I could not create a new user because the login screen was magnified to all but root (weird? Not sure...). Sorry I did not get a trace because I had to forceably solve the problem in a hurry as my laptop is too old to do much more than email now and I have yet to replace it with a younger model so I can set upon it and until I do, I need my desktop to be reasonably well behaved. Maybe this will work for someone else: 1. Turn on the magnifier. 2. nope that's it if stuff did not break after 1. then you cannot recreate it. So, hopefully it was just my dodgy suse upgrade but be good if someone could check just in case it was not as I won't be able to for at least another couple of weeks (pretty sure it was a regular session not a wayland one but not 100% certain of that just know I did not consciously select a wayland sesh) Thanks. Turrah!
(In reply to comment #0) > It was also not possible to switch off the magnifier using the terminal > gsettings set blablabla because it 'failed to commit' according to the DConf > error Did you run some GUI program as root? There is a known issue (but no resolution as far as I know, in either of dconf, systemd, su) of XDG_RUNTIME_DIR's owner being changed to root, making it inaccessible for the actual user.
Thanks for getting back (In reply to comment #1) > (In reply to comment #0) > > It was also not possible to switch off the magnifier using the terminal > > gsettings set blablabla because it 'failed to commit' according to the DConf > > error > > Did you run some GUI program as root? It is possible that a gui would have been running but I doubt it since I went to check the magnifier I was probably not in the middle of doing anything important right that second. That said, stranger things have happened... However although after it went wrong, I was only able to login as root but no normal user but at the time I figured it was because the greeter/login dialogue - (sorry I forget the correct term for it) was magnified unless I pressed the key combination ->out of broken login window "oh no" error-> and into a terminal screen-> login as me-> login as su -> hit startx. Then no magnified issue was around but with that said, likewise for su there was no magnifier enabled which I figure is significant too (checked this firstly and did so a few times to make sure - at first I figured I would be able to disable the magnifier in my user account before logging in as su and after to check, so am very sure of that). However, when I did create a user and try to login via the user the login screen was magnified right before crashing. Additionally, when I was logged in and running the gnome-shell session as su (after startx) it would be fine but still crash if I so much as tried to logout or switch users. (I also tried turning off auto login and things like that too to see if that would help me gain control via the new user account.) > There is a known issue (but no resolution Is there a bug listed with a trace? > as far as I know, in either of dconf, systemd, su) of XDG_RUNTIME_DIR's owner > being changed to root, making it inaccessible for the actual user. Interesting. Maybe relevant, maybe not: In general XDG_RUNTIME_DIR configuration by default is quite odd in OpenSuse because it does not seemsto be set for root users (su and sudo that is) by default (I think they are trying to stop people like me doing crazy things as root i.e an intentional security measure) so I am not sure that means anything for this bug however on the off chance it helps : Ages ago I had to explicitly set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0 for root (su though not sudo ) just so I could open gui programs (yes I know it is terrible but some things are simply a pita in vi) as root (a bit before that I actually think I encountered a problem where EUID was not set for root too but I am not certain I remember rightly on that part) Anyway in this case, I am pretty sure I only bothered to do it for su because sudo was not necessary after that. If I tried with sudo it would give me error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment. Unable to init server (gedit:27369): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: because the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR does not get set automatically. Another weird thing I note in opensuse is that running startx as a user is a no go. ( I don't recall ever having that problem in fedora and I do have a lot of experience at crashing my computer and breaking back into it so hopefully I am remembering rightly!) Also I do not know if this is connected but on checking systemctl --failed I did have a systemd failure to do something with volatile/temporary files issue The only other different thing (which may or may not be useful info too, but here goes...) the user accounts are set up on the assumption that the login shell is going to be used. Other than that I am not sure but I might well have some information in the logs on my disk now I have some better idea of what to look out for. If anything jumps out at me I will link to an fpaste, if you think that might be useful? Anyway, thanks again for your help.
Update, I get the same type of error with opening edit saying (gedit:13056): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: The connection is closed I suspect fixing this would be a good start where could I file a bug for that?
(In reply to comment #2) > Is there a bug listed with a trace? There's https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=956306, though I'm pretty sure there are others in Fedora's bugtracker. > Maybe relevant, maybe not: > > In general XDG_RUNTIME_DIR configuration by default is quite odd in OpenSuse > because it does not seemsto be set for root users (su and sudo that is) by > default That's not an OpenSuSE issue at all - using su/sudo is *not* the same thing as logging in as another user. If this was the case, you wouldn't be able to run any graphical programs at all for instance. > Also I do not know if this is connected but on checking systemctl --failed I > did have a systemd failure to do something with volatile/temporary files issue That may be related - systemd is responsible for setting up the runtime dir.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 727824 ***