Uninstalled character sets in Karmic make gFTP freeze when using them in Preferences

[David Cavallini]

Binary package hint: gftp

SYMPTOMS

My problem: on my brand new Karmic Koala, I cannot anymore use gFTP to connect to my favorite FTP server because when it welcomes me in French with accentuated characters encoded in ISO-8859-1, gFTP freezes eating all the CPU and looping sending continuously the following messages to the standard output:

Error converting string '220- Vos enregistrements se trouvent dans le répertoire :
' from character set to character set UTF-8: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input

STEP TO REPRODUCE

1/
Find an FTP server with a welcome message in accentuated ISO-8859-x charset, or configure your favorite. By example for vsftpd, edit /etc/vsftpd.conf and add a welcome message with an accentuated character:
ftpd_banner=Welcome message with an accent: é.
(save as ISO-8859-x)
$ file /etc/vsftpd.conf
/etc/vsftpd.conf: ISO-8859 English text
$ kill -HUP <pid_for_vsftpd>

2/
Verify that your system has no ISO-8859-x in /var/lib/locales/supported.d (which is the default for me after upgrading to Karmic)
$ cat /var/lib/locales/supported.d/*
en_HK.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_DK.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_IN UTF-8
en_ZW.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_NZ.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_PH.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_NG UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_SG.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_BW.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_AG UTF-8
en_ZA.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_CA.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_IE.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_LU.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_CA.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_CH.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_BE.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_FR.UTF-8 UTF-8

3/
Launch gFTP and in Preferences / Remote character sets, indicate: ISO-8859-15
Try to connect to your server and get the problem

Note that if you leave this preference blank (default), you still don't get the welcome message properly by gFTP does not freeze. It just logs the error message once:
Error converting string '220 Welcome message with an accent: é.
' from character set (null) to character set UTF-8: Invalid byte sequence in conversion input

(gftp-gtk:7285): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_buffer_emit_insert: assertion `g_utf8_validate (text, len, NULL)' failed

WORKAROUND

Add a new supported locale based on ISO-8859-x to your system, for exemple:
in /var/lib/locales/supported.d/fr, add a row: fr_FR.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15
Then run: sudo locale-gen
Then you can use this charset in gFTP Preferences / Remote character sets and it works well.

FIRST ANALYSIS

- gFTP does not behave gracefully when you type in an unknown charset in Preferences / Remote character sets
- Something changed in the out of the box support for ISO-8859-x between Jaunty and Karmic