LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Debian
User Name
Password
Debian This forum is for the discussion of Debian Linux.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 08-06-2006, 10:17 PM   #1
misterflibble
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Distribution: Debian UnStaBle
Posts: 123

Rep: Reputation: 15
GTK apps die in Xorg 7.0


I've just installed Debian AMD64, and I've got serious problems running any of my GTK2 applications (gaim, firefox, azureus, synaptic etc). When any of them are started, they output a message like this to ~/.xsession-errors:

X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
Major opcode: 19
Minor opcode: 0
Resource id: 0x2400039

Eventually, the GTK2 apps just quit suddenly, leaving no clue as to why they died except more of these messages (with an occasional "Major opcode: 20" thrown in). After a while (usually within a few hours) all of my GTK apps will have disappeared, but not at the same time. Does anyone have the same problem or a solution? Or if not that, at least some idea of what part of Xorg is generating that error message? Thanks in advance for any help.

What I've tried so far:
Changing the window manager, disabling the Composite extension, using the nvidia and nv drivers, disabling RenderAccel, creating a brand-new user, downgrading from unstable to testing (but not to stable yet, as that means going to XFree86 and some dependency difficulties)
 
Old 08-06-2006, 11:19 PM   #2
rickh
Senior Member
 
Registered: May 2004
Location: Albuquerque, NM USA
Distribution: Debian-Lenny/Sid 32/64 Desktop: Generic AMD64-EVGA 680i Laptop: Generic Intel SIS-AC97
Posts: 4,250

Rep: Reputation: 62
I have no such problems with Debian AMD64. I'd suspect hardware issues. Take the cover off the PC and jiggle the momory chips and any PCI cards. A good cleaning would be in order, and make sure you don't have an overheating problem.
 
Old 08-06-2006, 11:42 PM   #3
misterflibble
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Distribution: Debian UnStaBle
Posts: 123

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Thanks for the reply rickh, I'll swap out the memory and video card to make sure they're not causing it somehow, but I really doubt its hardware-related, because it's very easily reproducible (the error pops up *every* single time I start a gtk app), and highly selective (only gtk apps, not a single qt app is affected in this way). The PCI cards, the video card, and the memory all came straight off my last motherboard which was functioning perfectly with Debian i386. And as for cleaning, well it's a brand-new motherboard, and I cleaned the case when I installed it

You wouldn't happen to be running Stable, would you? If nothing else works, I might try my luck at downgrading to that.
 
Old 08-07-2006, 01:33 AM   #4
vharishankar
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2003
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 3,178
Blog Entries: 4

Rep: Reputation: 138Reputation: 138
It might be some incompatibility between AMD64 libraries and GTK+.

It appears to be so, at least, but that's my guess. It could be a different problem. Packages in testing and unstable tend to have these kinds of problems.

It doesn't appear to be a hardware problem here.

Last edited by vharishankar; 08-07-2006 at 01:35 AM.
 
Old 08-07-2006, 11:43 AM   #5
rickh
Senior Member
 
Registered: May 2004
Location: Albuquerque, NM USA
Distribution: Debian-Lenny/Sid 32/64 Desktop: Generic AMD64-EVGA 680i Laptop: Generic Intel SIS-AC97
Posts: 4,250

Rep: Reputation: 62
Quote:
it's very easily reproducible
Sorry. I read too fast the first time, and thought that since you said the GTK apps disappeared gradually, it was an intermittent thing.

I would not take AMD64 back to Stable unless that package uses Xorg, which I doubt. You'll just have to, presumably, do the conversion from XFree86 to Xorg in a few months when Etch becomes stable, and that seems to cause lots of headaches.

My AMD64 installation has been very stable, although, granted, it's kind of hard to live without Flash these days. The experimental OpenOffice works very well for my needs. The one thing I haven't been able to get working is GLX apps. That seems to be related to my ATI video.

For your issue, my recommendation would be to do a fresh install of Etch, and then slowly and carefully move individual pieces from Sid to accomodate any particular needs you have. Remember that if packages sit in Sid for a few weeks with no critical bugs filed against them, they are moved to Etch, so it's usually not too long a wait. On several occasions, I have done a dist-upgrade from Sid, and it almost always wound up leading to a fresh install. That's a relatively painless process if you have /home on a separate partition.
 
Old 08-08-2006, 01:59 PM   #6
misterflibble
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Distribution: Debian UnStaBle
Posts: 123

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Thumbs up

It works (I think)! I still have the BadWindow errors, but only when a window is closed, and I haven't had any GTK apps quit on me yet.

I think the problem was because I had installed from a Sarge CD and then upgraded to Etch. This time I found the Etch DVD and used that. I guess there were some good reasons why AMD64 wasn't an official Debian platform for Sarge. Thanks for all the help.
 
Old 08-09-2006, 11:43 AM   #7
misterflibble
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Distribution: Debian UnStaBle
Posts: 123

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Of course, I spoke too soon. The problems continue even after two fresh installs of Etch, with nothing pulled from Sid.
 
Old 08-09-2006, 11:54 AM   #8
vharishankar
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2003
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 3,178
Blog Entries: 4

Rep: Reputation: 138Reputation: 138
Have you downloaded any GTK app source code and tried compiling them? Then tried to execute them? That might give you some clues about the underlying problem. I still suspect it's something to do with the 64-bit libraries.
 
Old 08-09-2006, 12:03 PM   #9
rickh
Senior Member
 
Registered: May 2004
Location: Albuquerque, NM USA
Distribution: Debian-Lenny/Sid 32/64 Desktop: Generic AMD64-EVGA 680i Laptop: Generic Intel SIS-AC97
Posts: 4,250

Rep: Reputation: 62
Couple shots in the dark: Try the vesa driver in xorg.conf; Upgrade the kernel, I'm using 2.6.17 from Sid.

Edit: Another thought. Did you get your installation media from Debian or someplace else? I've seen some very peculiar issues with unofficial installations; especially for Etch. If you decide to do another install, I highly recommend the netinstal. Only have to download about 100 MB, and you're sure to get all the most recent libraries, etc. The regular AMD64 netinstaller is broken, but you can get the 'daily build' one which I have used successfully several times.

Last edited by rickh; 08-09-2006 at 12:19 PM.
 
Old 08-09-2006, 01:42 PM   #10
misterflibble
Member
 
Registered: Feb 2004
Distribution: Debian UnStaBle
Posts: 123

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Unfortunately the netinstall doesn't work for me as I have to use my wireless card to connect to the internet and my on-board ethernet wouldn't connect, at least under the installed 2.6.8. And of course the drivers for it aren't included in the mainline kernel yet and don't seem to compile on AMD64 anyway, so I had to go with ndiswrapper (compiled from source it works beautifully, using Debian's module-assistant it's hopelessly broken).

I used the bittorrent of the Etch DVD right off of the main Debian site, so it's completely legit. And before that install I had used their official Sarge CD, and then upgraded all the packages to Etch from the official package repositories.

I've used both the nvidia and nv drivers, no change in behavior, they work exactly as well as their 32-bit counterparts did.

I'm on 2.6.16 right now, the version of the kernel for Etch, again no changes in any of the kernels between 2.6.8 and it.

I have to agree with Harishankar that it's probably an issue with the 64-bit libraries somewhere. I read something somewhere that led me to believe that these messages I'm seeing in .xsession-errors are perfectly normal, since they occur when a window is closed, whether it died or was just closed normally and they don't always result in a crash. Also, these messages don't appear in XFCE or Gnome, but the crashes continue.

I think for the time being, I am going to give up on the AMD64 port and try reinstalling the i386 one. I might try to track down the source of this trouble if I could find someone else who also has it, but as it stands it's just one user, it can takes anywhere from minutes to days to manifest itself, and there could be a thousand variables at work.

Unfortunately, this also isn't the only problem I'm having with this install: amarok's been flaky, even when compiled from source, lack of openoffice, lack of flash, lack of media codecs, and occasional crashes of X. It's just not usable right now as my main desktop. I still have high hopes that it will get there when Etch becomes stable.

Thanks for all the advice and help, everyone
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How to get apps to start when Xorg starts? raid517 Linux - Software 2 05-23-2006 05:54 PM
LXer: Open source must die die die LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 01-28-2006 08:16 PM
Die, lotus notes, die (sorry for ranting) slackist General 10 01-10-2005 10:42 AM
Die Caps lock Die! tfdml37 Linux - General 1 06-26-2004 02:00 AM
gtk apps kvd Linux - Software 5 07-27-2003 06:26 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Debian

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:05 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration