Customization of the faces is resetting

[bolgarov]

Binary package hint: emacs22

Steps to reproduce:

Under X11/Gnome:

- remove ~/.emacs
- start emacs22

emacs22 starts in ugly black background, blue modeline, etc.

- using menu, start Customization Groups browser, select Faces -> Basic Faces -> Default; change foreground/background to black/gray. Click on Set for Current Session, then Set for Future Sessions. Exit emacs.

A new ~./emacs file now is generated - now, in custom-set-faces, the default font is black on gray. The mode-line background is Navy, the widget-field background is DarkBlue.

- Start emacs22 again. Go to the customization groups browser, select Faces -> Widget Faces -> Widget Field. Enter 'gray' as background. Click on Set for Current Session and Set for Future Sessions. Exit emacs.

Now the .emacs contains gray as background of the widget-faces.

- Start emacs22 again. Go to the customization groups browser, select Faces -> Mode Line Faces -> Mode Line. Enter 'gray' as background. Click on Set for Current Session and Set for Future Sessions. Exit emacs.

Now the mode-line background in the .emacs file is gray.

But: the widget-field background is reset to DarkBlue.

If you start emacs22 again and set the Widget Field background to gray through the Customize interface, then click on Set for Current Session and Set for Future Sessions and exit emacs, you will see in the .emacs file the widget-background is gray, but mode-line background is reset to Navy.

I don't know if any other customization setting, when saved, reset the mode-line and widget-field backgrounds to Navy and DarkGray, or if any other settings are reset too.

Note that is happens on Ubuntu 7.04, updated regularly to the current state with the aptitude. This is my computer at work. I'm running Debian testing/unstable at home, I installed Debian's emacs22 package, and there I can safely save customizations without faces being reset to some other background color.

I have no idea if something that is left from my previous linuxes on my current Ubuntu box at work can cause this - I installed first time Ubuntu 6.04 onto the new computer and then copied my home directory from my old Fedora 5 computer to the Ubuntu system. Since then, I upgraded it to Ubuntu 6.10 and 7.04. Something from the old Fedora settings in my home directory might be causing this...

[Florian Hars (hars)]

If emacs-extra is installed, emacs writes a horribly convoluted (custom-set-faces ...) value to .emacs whenever any face options are changed.

(And on installation emacs-extra produces the nice info-message

| you must run "apt-get install 10 emacs-extra/select-modes doesn't exist" to install theses languages support
| long description here...

Version 0.1 seems about appropiate.)

[Michael Olson (mwolson)]

Making this one just belong to emacs-extra.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10?

[bolgarov (alex-bolgarov-org)]

Yes, it is still reproducible in 8.10.

I have upgraded Ubuntu on this computer to 8.10 couple of weeks ago,

Today, I have installed emacs22 and emacs-extras packages, went through the steps in the initial bug description, and again, when I change background for the modeline and save options, the background for the widget field is reset to the dark gray, and when I change background of the widget field and save options, the background of the mode line is reset to navy.

[era (era)]

Belatedly confirming, based on comments in other related bugs against this package.