X client owned by root has no access to PRIMARY in XQuartz 2.5.1 (xorg-server 1.8.99.904)

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

Hello!

In X11 I use the X client GNU Emacs 24.0.50, configured and compiled to use these libraries:

	/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/ApplicationServices (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 34.0.0)
	/sw/lib/freetype219/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib (compatibility version 11.0.0, current version 11.0.0)
	/sw/lib/libXaw3d.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.0.0, current version 7.0.0)
	/sw/lib/libcairo.2.dylib (compatibility version 10803.0.0, current version 10803.10.0)
	/sw/lib/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 1801.0.0, current version 1801.9.0)
	/sw/lib/libgif.4.dylib (compatibility version 6.0.0, current version 6.6.0)
	/sw/lib/libglib-2.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 2201.0.0, current version 2201.4.0)
	/sw/lib/libgmodule-2.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 2201.0.0, current version 2201.4.0)
	/sw/lib/libgobject-2.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 2201.0.0, current version 2201.4.0)
	/sw/lib/libintl.3.dylib (compatibility version 8.0.0, current version 8.3.0)
	/sw/lib/libjpeg.62.dylib (compatibility version 63.0.0, current version 63.0.0)
	/sw/lib/libotf.0.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
	/sw/lib/libpng12.0.dylib (compatibility version 45.0.0, current version 45.0.0)
	/sw/lib/librsvg-2.2.dylib (compatibility version 29.0.0, current version 29.0.0)
	/sw/lib/libtiff.3.dylib (compatibility version 13.0.0, current version 13.4.0)
	/sw/lib/ncurses/libncurses.5.dylib (compatibility version 5.0.0, current version 5.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libICE.6.dylib (compatibility version 10.0.0, current version 10.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libSM.6.dylib (compatibility version 7.0.0, current version 7.1.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libX11.6.dylib (compatibility version 10.0.0, current version 10.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXext.6.dylib (compatibility version 11.0.0, current version 11.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXft.2.dylib (compatibility version 4.0.0, current version 4.13.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXmu.6.dylib (compatibility version 9.0.0, current version 9.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXpm.4.dylib (compatibility version 16.0.0, current version 16.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXrender.1.dylib (compatibility version 5.0.0, current version 5.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libXt.6.dylib (compatibility version 7.0.0, current version 7.0.0)
	/usr/X11/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib (compatibility version 6.0.0, current version 6.3.0)
	/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 111.1.5)
	/usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
	/usr/lib/libresolv.9.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 25.0.2)
	/usr/lib/libz.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.2.3)

When I try to select some text I get in a *Backtrace* buffer this:

  signal(error ("No symbol corresponding to PRIMARY selection"))
  error("No symbol corresponding to %s selection" PRIMARY)
  mouse-sel-selection-thing(PRIMARY)

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Doesn't appear to have anything to do with MacPorts.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

OTOH, I guess it's possible you're using the xorg-server-devel port - but that's not made at all clear.

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

I am indeed using the xorg-server-devel port on Leopard (10.5.8, PPC), and before I launched the recently built xorg-server 1.8.99.904 it was all OK. So I thought at once that this server version introduced a bug. Actually it seems that I was wrong, because going back to 1.8.99.903 shows the same behaviour. And launching an earlier version of GNU Emacs 24.0.50 (from a Time Machine backup – nice thing that I can see the whole file systems on the command line!) also shows no change. What seems to make a difference is the customisation applied during Emacs' start – there was an instance that the PRIMARY selection worked. When it worked X resources were not substituted by an internal struct (an Elisp "alist"). In this area code changes happened, were removed, were applied, were...

BTW, GNU Emacs 24.0.50 compiled with libraries from /opt failed exactly the same way. With GCC 4.2.

Temperature here is a bit lower than last night, so I'll try other Emacsen (23.2, 22.3) and also find by bi-secting the init files a possible cause.

[jeremyhu (Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia)]

Please reopen if you can reproduce this as a MP bug.