Inkscape 0.47 not starting with X11 2.3.4 on Snow

[gaffa]

This is probably an extension of older reports but they were on earlier releases where the advice was to move up to earlier beta versions of 0.47.

When I start Inkscape it briefly appears in the Menu Bar and Dock, then disappears entirely. Activity Monitor detects nothing, and the Console messages are:

20/12/09 4:30:03 PM [0x0-0xd20d2].org.inkscape.Inkscape[3966] (process:3969): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
20/12/09 4:30:03 PM [0x0-0xd20d2].org.inkscape.Inkscape[3966] Using the fallback 'C' locale.
20/12/09 4:30:03 PM [0x0-0xd20d2].org.inkscape.Inkscape[3966] Nothing to do!

Running 10.6.1 on 2.5 GHz 17' Macbook Pro

[su_v (suv-lp)]

1) How do you start Inkscape?
 - by double-clicking its application icon in the finder?
 - by double-clicking a SVG file in the finder?
 - on the command-line or from a script?
2) Does X11 launch when you start Inkscape?
 - does it change if you launch X11 first, then Inkscape?

--
the console message comes from 'src/main.cpp', line 1110 ff.:
int sp_main_console(int argc, char const **argv)
{
    /* We are started in text mode */
(…)
    GSList *fl = NULL;
    int retVal = sp_common_main( argc, argv, &fl );
    g_return_val_if_fail(retVal == 0, 1);

    if (fl == NULL && !sp_shell) {
        g_print("Nothing to do!\n");
        exit(0);
    }
(…)

[gaffa (crw-nosirrah)]

Starting from application icon in finder.

I didn't see X11 launch, so I launched it and then Inkscape and this is the console log:

20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] Waiting for startup parameters via Mach IPC.
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] X11.app: Could not connect to server (DISPLAY is not set). Starting X server.
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] X11.app: Launching /usr/X11/bin/startx:
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[0] = /bin/sh
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[1] = -c
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[2] = /usr/X11/bin/startx
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] font_cache: Scanning user font directories to generate X11 font caches
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] font_cache: Updating FC cache
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM org.x.privileged_startx[4439] font_cache: Scanning system font directories to generate X11 font caches
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM defaults[4461]
The domain/default pair of (org.x.X11, dpi) does not exist
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] xauth: creating new authority file /Users/nosirrah/.serverauth.4432
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] launch_msg("CheckIn") IPC failure: Operation not permitted
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] X11.app: do_start_x11_server(): argc=6
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[0] = /usr/X11/bin/X
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[1] = :0
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[2] = -nolisten
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[3] = tcp
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[4] = -auth
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] argv[5] = /Users/nosirrah/.serverauth.4432
20/12/09 7:34:52 PM org.x.privileged_startx[4439] font_cache: Updating FC cache
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM X11.bin[4425] Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/iWow.plugin/Contents/MacOS/iTea: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/iWow.plugin/Contents/MacOS/iTea, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/iWow.plugin/Contents/MacOS/iTea: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM X11.bin[4425] Cannot find function pointer iTeaHAL for factory 73EDA2E8-5F3F-4BCF-B706-C26A9484B735 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x1005132a0 </Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/iWow.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] Xquartz starting:
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] X.Org X Server 1.4.2-apple45
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] Build Date: 20090705
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /usr/X11/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
20/12/09 7:34:53 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /usr/X11/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
20/12/09 7:34:54 PM [0x0-0xf20f2].org.x.X11[4425] font_cache: Done
20/12/09 7:34:54 PM org.x.privileged_startx[4439] font_cache: Done
20/12/09 7:35:22 PM defaults[4609]
The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleAquaColorVariant) does not exist
20/12/09 7:35:22 PM...

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> I didn't see X11 launch
Does this mean if X11 isn't already running it does _not_ get launched when staring Inkscape? Expected behaviour is that Inkscape triggers the start of X11 automatically (via launchd) on a default system configuration.

>> X11.app: Could not connect to server (DISPLAY is not set). Starting X server.
Something seems strange with your X11 configuration. AFAIK the environment variable $DISPLAY should be automatically set by the mechanism that launches X11 when an application requests it. Did you by chance either upgrade/migrate from Tiger (where you used special X11 configuration files) or install any of the Xquartz Beta versions from <http://xquartz.macosforge.org>?

With X11 running, could you please open a terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and enter
 echo $DISPLAY
and paste the result back here.

You might also consider asking on the X11-users mailing list (http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/x11-users).

> Thank you for the code, but it means almost nothing to me.
It was added as further reference for bug triage.

possibly related to
bug #167857 “assertion hit when running inkscape without DISPLAY set”:

other reports with $DISPLAY issues on OS X Leopard
Bug #433281“Unable to Open Inkscape-0.47pre2-2 from Finder in Snow Leopard, but Able to Open from Terminal”:
Bug #398186 “DISPLAY=:0.0 prevents launch-on-demand of X11 on OS X Leopard”:

[su_v (suv-lp)]

to reproduce with Inkscape 0.47 on OS X 10.5.8 Leopard, X11/Xquartz 2.4.0: open terminal, unset $DISPLAY and launch Inkscape from the command line:

| LeWitt:~ suv$ unset DISPLAY; /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/MacOS/Inkscape
| Setting Language: .UTF-8
|
| (process:46762): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
| Using the fallback 'C' locale.
| Nothing to do!
| LeWitt:~ suv$

When $DISPLAY is unset Inkscape launches in text mode (without gui) and expects command line parameters like filename and e.g. export options. Without any parameters there's 'Nothing to do!'.

You need to figure out why your $DISPLAY variable is not set.

[gaffa (crw-nosirrah)]

I didn't see X11 launch:
Inkscape was only in the Menu Bar and Dock for a very short time. In that space I didn't see X11 in the dock. It was not there afterwards which I assume it would be if it had launched.

From Terminal:
Last login: Sun Dec 20 07:04:57 on console
MBP:~ gaffa$ echo $DISPLAY

MBP:~ gaffa$
Which seem to confirm $DISPLAY not set.

I originally installed OS X 10.6 without X11. When I went to download X11 from the net it was 2.4.0 which Inkscape says doesn't work with 0.47 and Snow. Installed X11 2.3.4 from the 10.6 disk (navigated to the package on the disk and double clicked, as latest Pacifist gives me checksum errors when I try any install with it). Clean install indicated. Note, had upgraded to 10.6.1 in the meantime

[gaffa (crw-nosirrah)]

I'm now not sure where I should have launched Terminal from. Previous was from the icon in Applications. But I have seen that X11 has its own Applications menu, so I have launched Terminal from there. This is the result:
bash-3.2$ echo $DISPLAY
:0.0
bash-3.2$

[su_v (suv-lp)]

A) It shouldn't matter whether it's a osx terminal or x11 terminal (xterm) once X11 is running. You could test these steps:

1) logout
2) log back in
3) open osx terminal window, 'echo $DISPLAY'
4) launch X11, launch terminal (aka xterm) from X11 Applications menu, 'echo $DISPLAY'
5) change back to the osx terminal window: 'echo $DISPLAY'
6) Cmd+N to open second osx terminal window, 'echo $DISPLAY'

B) DISPLAY=:0.0 isn't good either afaict

You can test if Inkscape launches at all: change back to the xterm and type (assuming you installed Inkscape in /Applications):

  /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/MacOS/Inkscape

If $DISPLAY is set (':0.0'), this should successfully start Inkscape (the first launch takes some time until the font caches are built).

C) X11/Xquartz 2.4.0

Did you just download it or did you install it first and then later install the original X11 2.3.4 that comes with Snow Leopard?

Overall I suspect it has a similar cause as bug #433281 in that somewhere in your account $DISPLAY is changed so that the launchd mechanism to trigger X11 on demand fails. Can you test with a new user account if Inkscape fails to launch as well? If it works for another user, you have to search in your dot-files; if that fails too it would indicate an issue with your X11 installation and not with a custom configuration on the user level.

[gaffa (crw-nosirrah)]

I shut down last night and started up again this morning. The results of all the echo $DISPLAY tests were similar:
Last login: Mon Dec 21 06:33:46 on console
MBP:~ gaffa$ echo $DISPLAY
/tmp/launch-rIqmTF/:0
MBP:~ gaffa$

So I skipped the start of Inkscape from within X11 - quit X11 and started Inkscape from the icon. Came up quite fast.

For completeness, I didn’t download X11/Xquartz 2.4.0 at all as I had already read of the restriction. X11 2.3.4 was the first/only install.

Thanks for all the help.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Thank you for reporting back how this issue was resolved! I will mark this report as 'Invalid' since it does not appear to be a bug in Inkscape. Please add a comment and revert the bug status to 'New' if the issue re-occurs and you think the launcher script of Inkscape could be improved.

> MBP:~ gaffa$ echo $DISPLAY
> /tmp/launch-rIqmTF/:0

way better - that's what I'd expect $DISPLAY to look like with Apple's X11. Could it be that you didn't reboot yet after installing X11 for the first time on your system? In hindsight it seems plausible that the launch control services were not fully initialized before the reboot - resulting in those inconsistent $DISPLAY settings you experienced.

Please keep in mind that there are still some known issues with Inkscape 0.47-1 on Snow Leopard:
- copy&paste for vector objects needs a workaround as described in the FAQ (changing the pasteboard preferences of X11):
  <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#Copying_and_pasting_in_Inkscape_creates_pixellated_images_instead_of_copying_the_vector_objects>
- using the opt/alt key for Inkscape keyboard shortcuts needs a custom X11 key mapping:
  <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_to_make_the_Alt_key_work_.3F>
- extensions that depend on the python modules lxml and numpy don't work out-of-the-box. The osx packagers are working on this issue and it will be hopefully resolved with a second 0.47 package for Snow Leopard
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/482993>

[gaffa (crw-nosirrah)]

My humble apologies.

As I installed X11 sepatately from the 10.6 install disk I didn't get a message saying reboot was necessary. And I didn't even think it might be.

So thanks for your forbearance, and I will keep in mind the other issues you listed.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> My humble apologies.
No problem, really! I learned another item to watch out for when triaging bug reports from Snow Leopard (as I still haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard myself) and - more important - since I never had tried to launch Inkscape with an unset $DISPLAY before: 'Nothing to do!' is one of the most pleasant error messages I have seen in the console so far ;)

I hope you enjoy Inkscape despite the bumpy start!