Gdeklets unusable in intrepid - session crash

[Frodon]

Binary package hint: gdesklets

Since the upgrade from intrepid Gdesklets experience has become a real nightmare.

Using Gdesklets pager or just right clicking on a gdesklets makes session to crash badly and login screen prompt appear again.

Corresponding syslog message :

Nov 11 13:20:07 trax gdm[5997]: WARNING: gdm_slave_xioerror_handler : erreur X fatale - Redémarrage de :0

[Bjoern Koch (h.humpel)]

Well, I cannot confirm this bug to be a "general" gDesklets bug as I am using gDesklets on ubuntu intrepid without any errors.

So we need more information, like:
- what does "using gDesklets pager" exactly mean
- what desklets are you using and are ALL of them crashing when right clicking on them
- the log file (can be found in ~/.gdesklets/logs/)
- etc.

[Frodon (frodon)]

I confirm this too as it is session which crash and not gDesklet it seems.

Right clicking any gDesklet of any sort makes xsession to explode and go back to login screen immediately.

I've made an interesting experience which leads me to the conclusion that metacity is the problem.

Because if i replace metacity by xfwm4 (xfce WM) then i can use gDesklet without any issue so this as to do with metacity in some way i am now sure.

[Bjoern Koch (h.humpel)]

Including metacity to this bug.

[Frodon (frodon)]

Thanks.

Since dapper gDesklet is just working great and i never experienced any issue upgrading since dapper so i really wonder why it crashes so badly now with metacity and only with metacity.

As a side note xfwm4 have embedded compositing where metacity hasn't (not activated by default) so i wonder if compositing has something to do with this.

Do you run successfully gDesklet through metacity without compositing ?

[Bjoern Koch (h.humpel)]

Well, let's put it this way: I never did anything do enable compositing ;). So, yes, I think I am using metacity without compositing.
And gDesklets does not support compositing yet (AFAIK).
Even worse: I think to remember that there were problems running gDesklets with compositing on... :(.
A quote from here (http://www.susegeek.com/graphics/gdesklets-desklets-for-your-desktop-in-opensuse/):
"Does not work on Ubuntu with nVidia drivers and compositing enabled."

What happens if you turn compositing off ?

[Frodon (frodon)]

I will try to do some more testing once at home, as for compositing i don't use it with metacity so i should be in the same configuration than you.

I will check too in gDesklets options (gdesklets configure) if I've not enabled something i shouldn't.

I've searched everywhere users with similar issue and the only similar thing i've been able to find is the following ubuntuforums thread :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=140365

I'm scared to have an unusual issue.

[Bjoern Koch (h.humpel)]

OK, I checked it: so far compositing has been turned off.

So I turned it on following this guide: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/2008/02/10/turn-on-the-compositing-feature-of-metacity.html and everything is still fine. Rebooted: still running without any problem.
So I turned compositing off again (and compiz on): still running.

So at least here it seems to be un-related to compositing.

[Frodon (frodon)]

Be ready for the irony :

If i enable metacity compositing gDesklets works with no issue through metacity (with compositing) then if i disable metacity compositing and restarts gdesklets then it crashes.

It might be related to transparency or compositing only since for metacity i have verified that activating compositing fix the issue or at least it is true from my quick testing.