gnome-terminal fails to start

[thecolourblue@…]

Trying to run gnome-terminal fails with this error:

$ gnome-terminal 
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display "/tmp/launch-yGsTn9/:0".
Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.

As far as I can tell dbus is running, but gconfd is not:

$ ps ax | grep dbus
51173   ??  Ss     0:00.01 /opt/local/bin/dbus-daemon --system --nofork
51242   ??  S      0:00.02 /opt/local/bin/dbus-daemon --nofork --session

The installed versions of the software are:

$ port installed gnome-terminal dbus gconf
The following ports are currently installed:
  dbus @1.2.12_5 (active)
  gconf @2.26.2_0 (active)
  gnome-terminal @2.26.1_0 (active)

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

I'm seeing the same problem with gnome-terminal but other apps that use GConf work correctly. A good example is gconf-editor which allows you to explore the GConf database and change preferences if you like. It works fine. Which means that both dbus and gconf are working ok. Concerning gconfd, it does not run all the time but is launched on demand on a per user (session) basis when someone wants to connect to it, stays active as long as at least one app is connected and then stops after a few seconds of no connection. So you may or may not see it by using ps or the like.

This all leads me to think that is specifically what gnome-terminal is doing that the others don't that is causing the problem. So this calls for some debugging/code inspection.

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

gnome-terminal updated to 2.26.2 in r51136. This doesn't make it work any better but might as well be working with the latest code.

an experiment: if I launch gconf-editor, then gconfd is launched and stays running as long as gconf-editor is open.

devans% ps ax | grep gconf
 5977  ??  S      0:00.71 /opt/local/libexec/gconfd-2
 5974  p5  S+     0:03.02 gconf-editor

Even so, when gnome-terminal is launched in addition, it still behaves the same

devans% gnome-terminal
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":0.0".
Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.

So its not because gconfd isn't running apparently.

Will look at it more in the morning.

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

Quick fix committed in r51139. As expected the problem wasn't with gconf or actually connecting to it but with a precheck gnome-terminal makes to see if gconfd is available which always fails. Comment this check out for now and it seems to work. For instance, I changed the profile settings to put the scroll bars on the left instead of on the right and then stopped and restarted the app. Scroll bars still on the left so gconf correctly saved and restored these preferences.

Let me know if this works for you as well.

I know this is quick and dirty but the code describes what they were doing as an evil hack so I guess everything is even.

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

Assume this is fixed.

[thecolourblue@…]

Replying to devans@…:

Assume this is fixed.

works great- thanks