Official mozilla.org 1.5.0.1 firefox build crashes at startup

[Gary Coady]

If scim is enabled, firefox 1.5.0.1 from mozilla.org crashes, with a backtrace like:

#0 0xb7544334 in free () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#1 0xb5f628b1 in operator delete () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#2 0xb5f418f3 in std::string::_Rep::_M_destroy () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#3 0xb5f42884 in std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::~basic_string () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#4 0xb603185e in __initialize_config () at scim_global_config.cpp:138
#5 0xb6032c10 in scim::scim_global_config_read (key=@0xbfcf1928, defVal=5000)
    at scim_global_config.cpp:186
#6 0xb606ea3f in scim::scim_get_default_socket_timeout ()
    at scim_socket.cpp:1210
#7 0xb606a3cb in PanelClientImpl (this=0x8c18e50) at scim_panel_client.cpp:89
#8 0xb606956b in PanelClient (this=0xb612635c) at scim_panel_client.cpp:566
#9 0xb6115137 in __static_initialization_and_destruction_0 (__initialize_p=1,
    __priority=65535) at gtkimcontextscim.cpp:297
#10 0xb61151a1 in global constructors keyed to _Z23gtk_im_context_scim_newv ()
    at gtkimcontextscim.cpp:2258
#11 0xb611d605 in __do_global_ctors_aux ()
   from /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.4.0/immodules/im-scim.so
#12 0xb6104415 in _init () from /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.4.0/immodules/im-scim.so
#13 0xb7fea2ab in call_init () from /lib/ld-linux.so.2
#14 0xb7fea35d in _dl_init_internal () from /lib/ld-linux.so.2
#15 0xb75def40 in dl_open_worker () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#16 0xb7fea106 in _dl_catch_error () from /lib/ld-linux.so.2

When run under valgrind, it talks about a "mismatched free/delete" at this point in the execution of the program.

When stepping through, it seems to crash at:
    String sys_conf_file = String (SCIM_SYSCONFDIR) +
                           String (SCIM_PATH_DELIM_STRING) +
                           String ("scim") +
                           String (SCIM_PATH_DELIM_STRING) +
                           String ("global");

I haven't done a lot of C++ up to now, so not sure how this could cause a problem. I'm guessing that a string just went out of scope (from an iterator?).

[Gary Coady (garycoady)]

... and basically any other app linked with libstdc++.so.5 (like acroread).
See http://web.glandium.org/blog/?p=49 and http://www.scim-im.org/wiki/faq/gtk_gnome/why_firefox_mozilla_acrobat_reader_7_other_gtk_2_based_apps_can_not_be_installed_started

[Ming Hua (minghua)]

Yes this is a known bug. Unfortunately there is no good solution yet and the real fix needs to be made in g++/libstdc++. So for now whenever you need to use binaries linked to libstdc++5, please use the XIM workaround, i.e., GTK_IM_MODULE=xim. Using scim-bridge, GTK_IM_MODULE=scim-bridge may work as well.