Launcher/TaskManager applet not loading

[utdemir]

* Distribution name and version
         Arch Linux i686 - Updated
* Method of installing Awn (if via repository, which repository? If from source, via tarball or bzr? any other distribution-specific configuration with regards to these packages?)
         Via repository, and bzr. Both have same problem
* Awn version (if from bzr, which branch and which revision?)
         0.4.0-5
* Window manager used when running Awn
         xfvm4, compositing enabled. (on XFCE)
* Video card and driver name/version (for example, nvidia GeForce2 GTS/Pro, nvidia binary drivers version 7182)
         ATI Technologies Inc RV505 [Radeon X1550 Series] - Using opensource drivers named "xf86-video-ati" on repository.

First, sorry for my bad English.

I installed AWN, and first time i run it, everything was perfect. And after I reboot my system, the AWN itself loads well but the TaskManager applet seems loading. But it never loads. There is nothing at console output except "Applet spawned: ..." messages. When it loading, there is a non-stopping sound coming from my hdd.

Attached the screenshot.
And there is the strace output:

http://www.birseyler.org/awn.txt

[Michal Hruby (mhr3)]

I suppose your system normally uses thunar-vfs, right? Awn depends on libdesktop-agnostic which provides vfs backend for us, you most likely need to install libdesktop-agnostic-vfs-thunar-vfs, and not use gio.

[utdemir (utdemir)]

"libdesktop-agnostic 0.3.90-1" installed at my system. This is only package contains "agnostic" on repositories. I reinstalled it, but nothing changed.

[Andru (andru-kun)]

The same bug on ArchLinux x86_64. DE - GNOME 2.30, WM - metacity/compiz, but this info not important. libdesktop-agnostic installed.

[Michal Hruby (mhr3)]

I suppose all affected people are on XFCE? Please contact your Arch libdesktop-agnostic packager and tell him that he needs to provide package with thunar-vfs backend.

[Michal Hruby (mhr3)]

Or the other option is using gconf config backend, which obviously is missing in the package too.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Is the archlinux lda package documented somewhere? Specifically what modules are distributed, and whether the
desktop-agnostic.ini file has been modified from the default?

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Michal,

I suspect it's not related to thunar-vfs not being used. I've had hundreds of hours of testing with an xfce4 session with a gio backend (it was my primary desktop when working on taskman) and never seen this issue. My suspicion is that it's more likely related to the keyfile backend. Or maybe it's a combination of keyfile backend and XFCE.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Also, am I correct to assume that the arch packages do _not_ include the gconf configuration backend?

[Ghost1227 (ghost1227-old)]

I am the maintainer of lda and awn for arch. In answer to the asked questions, we do not modify the ini file in any way and currently lda is built with --config-backends=keyfile --vfs-backends=gio --desktop-entry-backends=glib. Any suggestions are welcome.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Ghost1227,

At this point my, strong, suspicion is that this is related --config-backends=keyfile. The combination --config-backends=gconf --vfs-backends=gio --desktop-entry-backends=glib has been relatively well tested. I'm going to mark this as affecting libdesktop-agnostic for the moment, though it might end being specific to taskmanager.

From the description of the issue it sounds like one of two likely possibilities, either it's going into an endless loop or a memory allocation is going massively awry. The keyfile backend has had far less testing than gconf.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Could someone who is experiencing this please attach

$HOME/.config/desktop-agnostic/awn-applet-taskmanager.ini

and
$HOME/.config/desktop-agnostic/avant-window-navigator.ini

To this bug report?

Thanks

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Also please try the following as a possible fix.

1) Exit awn.
2) Delete all files (and subdirectories) under $HOME/.config/desktop-agnostic/ (Note that this will reset to a default config).
3) Start awn.

[Ghost1227 (ghost1227-old)]

I was trying to keep the gnome deps to a minimum (many arch users who don't use gnome try to avoid gconf). However, if it is the only way to resolve this than so be it...

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Ghost1227,

Well we would like to find the root cause for this. So please don't switch to gconf for that reason only. I think the suggest packaging for lda would be to provide the gconf and keyfile backends as separate packages and only require the user to install one of them.

[Michal Hruby (mhr3)]

Please see also http://www.planetblur.org/hosted/awnforum/index.php?shard=forum&action=g_reply&ID=2397&page=1&isLive=true it's the same problem and there are some unanswered questions. (feel free to answer them here)

[utdemir (utdemir)]

I attached that ini files. And tried @moonbeams solution, and it worked!

[utdemir (utdemir)]

And after deleting the Firefox launcher from Launcher-Taskmanager applet preferences on AWN-Settings and restarting, same problem happens again. Without deleting launcher, everything is fine.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

Confirmed.

Using the keyfile backend, if the last launcher is removed through Awn Settings then it appears that the launcher_paths key is removed from .config/desktop-agnostic/awn-applet-taskmanager.ini completely, which leads to a failure to load the next time taskman is started.

There is no issue if the launcher_paths list in the ini is edited and set to
launcher_paths=

And it also appears that there is no issue performing these actions with the gconf backend.

[moonbeam (rcryderman)]

malept,

This appears to be a bug in lda? Seems we are experiencing different behaviours based on the backend in use.

[Povilas Kanapickas (p12)]

Closing for AWN -- based on my testing, this is definitely a libdesktop-agnostic bug.