gnome-panel crashes with a BadPixmap X error

Bug #463168 reported by Gilles Gagniard
32
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNOME Panel
Expired
Critical
gnome-panel (Debian)
Fix Released
Unknown
gnome-panel (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Low
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

Regularly, gnome-panel crashes and is then restarted immediately. It still noticeable because some icons in the notification area are lost ...

Here are some interesting logs in the .xsession-errors :

The program 'gnome-panel' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadPixmap (invalid Pixmap parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 30701 error_code 4 request_code 54 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

There are so far two different things causing this crash :

* Wine applications having a notification area icon
The regular crash is caused by Lotus Notes running in Wine showing up a notification area icon upon receiving a new mail. Since I disabled this notification, no more crashes.

* Quitting Transmission through it's notification area icon, as described by the referenced debian bug.

So this BadPixmap error is definitely linked to the notification area, probably by client applications corrupting their notification area icon.

However, there should be enough sanity checks in gnome-panel (or the notification area applet) so that it doesn't crash.

Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

This is on up-to-date Ubuntu Karmic.

$ gnome-panel --version
GNOME gnome-panel 2.28.0

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

Changed in gnome-panel (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

Could you please give me instructions on how to run the session gnome-panel in gdb and automatically create a break point on gdk_x_error() when it starts ? I'm not a gnome specialist unfortunately, I'm a gnome user.

Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

I think it's a duplicate of debian bug #549959 (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=549959).

I can also crash the panel when closing Transmission from the notification area : it's 100% reproductible. You have to enable the notification area icon from the Transmission preferences, then close the main window and quit by right-clicking the transmission icon in the notification area.

Changed in gnome-panel (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

you can start a non GNOME session and run gnome-panel there for example

Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

Actually I used the --replace option to replace the session gnome-panel with the one started from gdb. It works pretty well and enabled me to collect the attached trace.

Changed in gnome-panel (Debian):
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

Updated the description. Crashes are not linked to Liferea after all, but to Wine and Transmission.

description: updated
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :
Changed in gnome-panel (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Changed in gnome-panel (Debian):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Christian Rudh (crudh) wrote :

I get it when I close Opera or Spotify (running in Wine). Both have notification icons.

Revision history for this message
Kiri (kiri) wrote :

I just got it with VLC. I have insufficient disk space to load gnome debugging symbols.

I recommend compiling with the
-ggdb1
compiler flag. That puts in enough symbol information for a backtrace.
I recommend compiling all GCC compiled software with debugging symbols until completion of beta stage.

Revision history for this message
Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson) wrote :

This looks like the same underlying issue as the one which caused bug 446395, and has been fixed in GTK by this commit: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/commit/?id=0748cf563d0d0d03001a62589f13be16a8ec06c1, which will appear in Lucid soon

Revision history for this message
Anders Aagaard (aagaande) wrote :

This fix really needs to find its way into karmic, it's an issue I've run into quite often, also while running supported programs.

Revision history for this message
Gilles Gagniard (gilles-gagniard) wrote :

I confirm this is fixed in lucid ... wine apps can display notification icons now. However, this is still an annoying problem on karmic.

Changed in gnome-panel:
importance: Unknown → Critical
status: Unknown → New
Changed in gnome-panel:
status: New → Expired
Changed in gnome-panel (Debian):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Changed in gnome-panel (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Invalid
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