emacs fails to start: X protocol error

[Liam Dunn]

Binary package hint: emacs23

Full error:
baddog@lithium:~$ emacs
X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) on protocol request 2

emacs window appears for a brief instant, then closes

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: emacs23 23.1+1-4ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.34-3.10-generic 2.6.34
Uname: Linux 2.6.34-3-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue May 25 10:54:48 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: emacs23

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

The problem starts happening with the following upgrade (and goes away with the corresponding downgrade):

[UPGRADE] gtk2-engines-pixbuf 2.20.0-0ubuntu4 -> 2.21.0-1ubuntu2
[UPGRADE] libgail-common 2.20.0-0ubuntu4 -> 2.21.0-1ubuntu2
[UPGRADE] libgail18 2.20.0-0ubuntu4 -> 2.21.0-1ubuntu2
[UPGRADE] libgtk2.0-0 2.20.0-0ubuntu4 -> 2.21.0-1ubuntu2

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

Another workaround is ‘export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1’.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

Also, emacs23-lucid is unaffected (note: that’s the Lucid user interface frontend, not the Ubuntu release codename), so this problem is specific to the GTK+ frontend.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

It also works with libgtk2.0-0 2.21.0-1ubuntu1, which you can get from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/2.21.0-1ubuntu1 . So the client-side decoration patch in 2.21.0-1ubuntu2 is what broke this.

(Apparently Emacs isn’t the only application that broke: bug 491521, bug 584228.)

[Liam Dunn (ldunn)]

Hm, thanks a lot :)

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I set this to "medium" because it breaks unrelated applications. If more than emacs breaks it should IMO be set to "high".

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This problem is still present with gtk+2.0 2.21.1-1ubuntu1 (as was probably expected).

[Richard Gobeille (rich-envision7)]

This also breaks Vuze (and potentially other apps using SWT?):

Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'Vuze' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
  (Details: serial 975 error_code 8 request_code 153 minor_code 4)

[Jérôme Laheurte (fraca7)]

This breaks Task Coach as well (Python application using wxPython).

[salva (sfandino)]

besides that, when I run emacs in a remote machine via ssh with X tunneled I also get this error:

X protocol error: RenderBadPicture (invalid Picture parameter) on protocol request 148

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have the same problem on my Maverick box, both local or sshing in from a Karmic box.

The workaround in comment #3 solves the problem for me. Thank you, Anders,

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This is fixed in gtk+2.0 2.21.2-0ubuntu2.

gtk+2.0 (2.21.2-0ubuntu2) maverick; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/065_attach_widget.patch:
    - notify the "attach-widget" property when a menu is attach to a widget
  * debian/patches/064_client_side_decoration.patch:
    - don't use rgba and csd for now, we got testing and bugs filed to work on
      but it's not a priority for alpha2 so let's bring gtk in a stable state
      until we have ressources to deal with those issues

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:31:05 +0200

Should this bug be closed, or do you want it left open to track the work that remains to be done before reenabling the patch?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

let the bug open, we still want to get rgba enable this cycle and we will work on those bugs before getting in back there

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

dropping the milestone since csd will not be for this cycle

[SZÉKELYI Szabolcs (cc-mail)]

This bug is still present in libgtk2.0 2.22.0-0ubuntu1. Emacs23 fails to start with the same error message.

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

This bug affects Ubuntu 10.10, Maverick Meerkat. Maverick has reached end-of-life and is no longer supported, so I am closing the bugtask for Maverick. Please upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu.
More information here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2012-April/000158.html