ubuntu-tweak crashed on startup running over X-ssh tunnel

[genepool]

When running ubuntu-tweak over an ssh tunnel it occasionally crashes on start-up. I can not reproduce the problem reliably.

[Ding Zhou (tualatrix)]

What's the error message when you got this problem.

And you say you can not reproduce this problem now?

[genepool (genepool99)]

I was wrong, it crashes every time I try to run X through ssh forwarding. Here is the GUI message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "ubuntu-tweak.py", line 75, in <module>
    launcher = TweakLauncher()
  File "ubuntu-tweak.py", line 42, in __init__
    from mainwindow import MainWindow
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/mainwindow.py", line 31, in <module>
    from common.canvas import RenderCell
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/canvas.py", line 14, in <module>
    class RenderCell:
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/canvas.py", line 15, in RenderCell
    font_name = StringSetting('/desktop/gnome/interface/font_name').get_string()
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/settings.py", line 92, in __init__
    super(StringSetting, self).__init__(key, default)
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/settings.py", line 51, in __init__
    self.__client.add_dir(self.dir, gconf.CLIENT_PRELOAD_NONE)
GError: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-tblDbvz0Uv: Connection refused)

And here is the terminal output:
ubuntu-tweak.py:60: GtkWarning: gdk_window_set_geometry_hints: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
  gtk.main_iteration()
ubuntu-tweak.py:60: GtkWarning: gdk_window_resize: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
  gtk.main_iteration()
ubuntu-tweak.py:60: GtkWarning: gdk_window_freeze_toplevel_updates_libgtk_only: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
  gtk.main_iteration()
ubuntu-tweak.py:60: Warning: g_hash_table_lookup: assertion `hash_table != NULL' failed
  gtk.main_iteration()
ubuntu-tweak.py:60: GtkWarning: Error loading theme icon 'gtk-yes' for stock: Icon 'gtk-yes' not present in theme
  gtk.main_iteration()
/usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/debug.py:38: GtkWarning: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates_libgtk_only: assertion `private->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed
  if dialog.run() == gtk.RESPONSE_YES:

[Ding Zhou (tualatrix)]

It seems the gconf server hasn't started yet.
So please confirm you're in a full-featured environment when you use X through ssh forwarding.

[genepool (genepool99)]

The ssh X forwarding works with no errors for xeyes, firefox, and others. I also get an ssh forwarded X GUI error message. Attached is a screen-shot of the GUI error message from the remote computer "dusty" to the local machine. Interestingly, for testing I tried running ubuntu-tweak with root permissions which seams to work, but dumps the following errors to the terminal:

You must not launch Ubuntu Tweak as root, it is INSECURE
Failed to open file '/usr/share/pixmaps/splash/ubuntu-splash.png': No such file or directory
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.1519:/com/ubuntu_tweak/daemon: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Rejected send message, 1 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.1518" (uid=0 pid=1023 comm="/usr/bin/python -OO ubuntu-tweak.py ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable" member="Introspect" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination=":1.1519" (uid=0 pid=1035 comm="/usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/ubuntu-tweak-daemon "))

[Ding Zhou (tualatrix)]

Can you run the gconf-editor?

[genepool (genepool99)]

The gconf-editor works fine through SSH.

[Ding Zhou (tualatrix)]

OK.

Can you edit the source code for yourself?

Open the file:
sudo gedit /usr/share/ubuntu-tweak/common/settings.py

Remove the line 51:
        self.__client.add_dir(self.dir, gconf.CLIENT_PRELOAD_NONE)

Then try again.