SCIM causing frequent firefox, gtk app crashes on 13

corbis_demon · 11-05-2009, 11:19 AM

Hi,
I'm experiencing this problem on my Slack 13 box, where SCIM causes frequent firefox and gtk-based application crashes. Is there a way to stop it from executing when X starts? Please advise.

rrbert · 11-05-2009, 10:12 PM

I have also noticed that scim sometimes seems to cause problems. In Slackware 12.2, I edited the file /etc/rc.d/rc.M and commented out the 4 lines beginning with
if [ -x /usr/bin/gtk-query-immodules-2.0 ]; then

This should safely prevent scim from starting up, but leave the rest of your system intact. If you only need to enter Chinese characters occasionally, you could try the slackbuild from:
http://www.qt-apps.org/content/show....?content=95926

corbis_demon · 11-05-2009, 11:42 PM

Darn, that didn't help. I still have:

Code:

arrakis      3369  0.1  0.1  42860  3084 ?        Ss   10:08   0:00 /usr/lib/scim-1.0/scim-launcher -d -c simple -e all -f socket --no-stay -d
arrakis      3373  0.0  0.0   4260   948 ?        Ss   10:08   0:00 /usr/lib/scim-1.0/scim-helper-manager
arrakis      3374  0.0  0.2  24228  5560 ?        Ssl  10:08   0:00 /usr/lib/scim-1.0/scim-panel-gtk --display :0.0 -c socket -d --no-stay
arrakis      3376  0.0  0.1  22868  2228 ?        Ss   10:08   0:00 /usr/lib/scim-1.0/scim-launcher -d -c socket -e socket -f x11 --no-stay -d
arrakis      3377  0.0  0.0  21288  1440 ?        S    10:08   0:00 scim-bridge

these processes running. What if I just do a removepkg on scim packages? I don't need alternative input methods. Is it advisable?

poncez · 11-06-2009, 12:13 AM

don't know if it's enough reassuring, but I have removed scim packages months ago and it looks like everything keeped working

corbis_demon · 11-06-2009, 02:58 AM

Yeah, hey, that's what I just did, everything seems fine (for now). I mucked around in profile.d for scim settings, but didn't find anything that could've been useful. Hopefully, firefox won't crash anymore on account of the IO exceptions that scim encountered.

gegechris99 · 11-06-2009, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corbis_demon

Hi,
I'm experiencing this problem on my Slack 13 box, where SCIM causes frequent firefox and gtk-based application crashes. Is there a way to stop it from executing when X starts? Please advise.

I'm using SCIM to enter Korean characters and I haven't encounter any issue so far in gtk-based or QT-based applications in Slackware 13.0 (32-bit edition).

You decided to remove SCIM packages and it's OK.

However, if you want to use SCIM, do not forget to follow the steps in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT:

Quote:

Input methods for complex characters (CJK, which is shorthand for Chinese,
Japanese, Korean) and other non-latin character sets have been added. These
input methods use the SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) platform.
The environment variables for SCIM support are set in /etc/profile.d/scim.sh
The requirements for getting SCIM input methods to work in your X session
are as follows:
(1) Use a UTF-8 locale. Look in /etc/profile.d/lang.sh for setting your
language to (for instance) en_US.UTF-8. As a word of warning: maybe you
should leave root with a non-UTF-8 locale because you don't want root's
commands to be misinterpreted. You can add the following line to your
~/.profile file to enable UTF-8 just for yourself:
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
(2) Make the scim profile scripts executable. These will setup your
environment correctly for the use of scim with X applications. Run:
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/scim.*
(3) Start the scim daemon as soon as your X session starts. The scim daemon
must be active before any of your X applications. In KDE, you can add a
shell script to the ~/.kde/Autostart folder that runs the command
"scim -d". In XFCE you can add "scim -d" to the Autostarted Applications.
If you boot your computer in runlevel 4 (the graphical XDM/KDM login)
you can simply add the line "scim -d" to your ~/.xprofile file.
This gives you a Desktop Environment independent way of starting scim.
When scim is running, you will see a small keyboard icon in your system tray.
Right-click it to enter SCIM Setup. In 'Global Setup' select your keyboard
layout, and you are ready to start entering just about any language
characters you wish! Press the magical key combo <Control><Space>
in order to activate or deactivate SCIM input. The SCIM taskbar in the
desktop's corner allows you to select a language. As you type, SCIM will show
an overview of applicable character glyphs (if you are inputting complex
characters like Japanese).

corbis_demon · 11-06-2009, 05:22 AM

Thanks so much for the reply. I decided to install scim again (a cure for the itch, if you will, not coz I need it). I don't have qt installed, and I am running the 32-bit version. These are the error messages I got:

Code:

Nov  5 21:41:47 arrakis scim-bridge: No such IMContext
Nov  5 21:41:47 arrakis last message repeated 11 times
Nov  5 21:41:47 arrakis last message repeated 17 times
Nov  5 21:41:47 arrakis scim-bridge: An invalid char is given at scim_bridge_string_to_uint (): -
Nov  5 21:41:47 arrakis scim-bridge: Invalid message: Close the connection.

I thought maybe a bug in some gtk-based app might be causing this. So I closed any such app, and surprisingly, have had no crashes since. Earlier, I had been using thunar, rhythmbox, gimp, gThumb and various others. I had a crash each time I tried renaming a file in Thunar. Also using the scroll-wheel to adjust volume on rhythmbox caused crashes. Some random event, too, triggered the crash. Is this a problem with SCIM or gtk? Whatever it is I have decided to remove scim anyway. Maybe I need to upgrade to a newer GTK or pango version?

EDIT:
Also, when SCIM was running, Firefox disabled the horizontal scrollbar (when required) at the bottom of a page. Upon uninstalling, this behaviour has has reverted to normal. Wierd.