emacs snap has many errors on startup - how to report snap-related bugs?
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
emacs (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
[This is a reposting of Bug#1898083, which I reported against Emacs. I don't know what package to report for Emacs snap bugs, so I am initially guessing that the package should be "snap" in the form. If "snap" is wrong, please reassign it to the appropriate package, which apparently is not "emacs".]
I just upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04 and my first shell command was 'emacs'. The response was:
Command 'emacs' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo snap install emacs # version 27.1, or
sudo apt install e3 # version 1:2.71-2
sudo apt install emacs-gtk # version 1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2
sudo apt install emacs-lucid # version 1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2
sudo apt install emacs-nox # version 1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2
sudo apt install jove # version 4.17.2.7-1
See 'snap info emacs' for additional versions.
So I tried the first command 'sudo snap install emacs'. So I tried it:
$ sudo snap install emacs
[sudo] password for eggert:
error: This revision of snap "emacs" was published using classic confinement
and thus may perform arbitrary system changes outside of the security
sandbox that snaps are usually confined to, which may put your system at
risk.
If you understand and want to proceed repeat the command including
--classic.
That didn't look promising, but I was stubborn, and continued as follows:
$ sudo snap install --classic emacs
emacs 27.1 from Alex Murray (alexmurray) installed
Great! Now I can run Emacs. But the experience was not good at all:
$ emacs notes
(emacs:5050): Gtk-WARNING **: 09:40:34.782: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:1521:23: 'font-feature-
(emacs:5050): Gtk-WARNING **: 09:40:34.786: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:3460:25: 'font-feature-
(emacs:5050): Gtk-WARNING **: 09:40:34.787: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:3922:23: 'font-feature-
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/
I then did a bit of reading to discover what snaps were and how they're controversial in Ubuntu and perhaps are not ready for prime-time, and thought, OK, I'll use apt instead. I did this:
$ sudo snap remove emacs
emacs removed
$ sudo apt install emacs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
dwz gcc-8-base:i386 gir1.2-
libdbusmenu-qt5-2 libdca0 libdrm-dev libdvdread4 libebml4v5 libfaad2 libffi6:i386 libfile-
libgfortran4 libglew2.0 libgtkglext1 libixml10 libjavascriptco
libkf5codecs-data libkf5configwid
libkf5notific
libmicrodns0 libmysqlclient20 libobjc-7-dev libomp5 libpangox-1.0-0 libpostproc54 libprotobuf-lite10 libproxy-tools libpsl-dev libqgsttools-p1
libsidplay2 libsndio7.0 libsoup2.4-dev libspatialaudio0 libsrt1 libssh2-1 libstdc++-7-dev libsub-
libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-dri3-dev libxcb-glx0-dev mesa-common-dev php7.2-common php7.2-readline po-debconf python-cairo python-enum34
python-gobject-2 python-idna python-libxml2 python-urllib3 qemu-efi-arm qemu-system-arm qemu-system-misc qemu-user qtcore4-l10n
x11proto-
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
emacs-bin-common emacs-common emacs-el emacs-gtk
Suggested packages:
mailutils emacs-common-
The following NEW packages will be installed:
emacs emacs-bin-common emacs-common emacs-el emacs-gtk
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 32.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 128 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://
Get:2 http://
Get:3 http://
Get:4 http://
Get:5 http://
Fetched 32.9 MB in 2s (15.4 MB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package emacs-common.
(Reading database ... 329381 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../emacs-
Unpacking emacs-common (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package emacs-bin-common.
Preparing to unpack .../emacs-
Unpacking emacs-bin-common (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package emacs-gtk.
Preparing to unpack .../emacs-
Unpacking emacs-gtk (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package emacs.
Preparing to unpack .../emacs_
Unpacking emacs (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package emacs-el.
Preparing to unpack .../emacs-
Unpacking emacs-el (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up emacs-common (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up emacs-el (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up emacs-bin-common (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
update-
update-
update-
Setting up emacs-gtk (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
update-
Install a2ps for emacs
Install cmake-data for emacs
Install emacsen-common for emacs
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs
Install dictionaries-common for emacs
install/
Setting up emacs (1:26.3+1-1ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for install-info (6.7.0.dfsg.2-5) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu3) ...
Fine. Now I can run Emacs, right? Wrong:
$ emacs
bash: /snap/bin/emacs: No such file or directory
$ type emacs
emacs is hashed (/snap/bin/emacs)
The fix was to start up a new shell:
$ exec bash
$ emacs
And I finally got a nice Emacs that didn't have so many problems. Yay!
Now, the Emacs I'm running is 26.3, whereas the snap version is 27.1. I'd rather be running 27.1, but not if it has that many problems.
OK, now I'd like to file a bug report against the Emacs 27.1 snap. There seems to be no way to do it. apport doesn't seem right, since my snap isn't installed. I spent a lot of time Googling for how to file a bug report. I eventually find https:/
So, my suggestions:
1. Make it clear how to report bugs against snaps. The current bug-reporting mechanism is so vague that I expect you're missing a lot of useful bug reports. People just give up and don't report many snap-related bugs.
2. For Emacs, when one types 'emacs' and it's not installed, suggest the snap at the end not at the start, since the snap for Emacs is not ready for ordinary users.
3. Fix the Emacs snap so that it works, without having all the problems that put all those diagnostics on my terminal.
Thanks.
After filing this I see that my 3rd suggestion is also in <https:/ /github. com/alexmurray/ emacs-snap/ issues/ 10> and apparently there's no real solution now (which is not a good thing for snap Emacs). My suggestions 1 and 2 are new, though.