Power manager fails to start

[Guy Van Sanden]

Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager

$ gnome-power-manager (08-20 11:30)

Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'gnome-power-manager' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadAtom (invalid Atom parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 165 error_code 5 request_code 154 minor_code 15)
  (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.)
aborting...
[1] 3883 trace trap (core dumped) gnome-power-manager

This is on a clean Maverick install

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: gnome-power-manager 2.31.90-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-16.22-generic 2.6.35.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Aug 20 11:24:25 2010
GnomeSessionIdleInhibited: Yes
GnomeSessionInhibitors: 1: AppId = rhythmbox, Flags = 8, Reason = Playing
GnomeSessionSuspendInhibited: No
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100819)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Precision M4400
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.35-16-generic root=/dev/mapper/hostname-root ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LC_CTYPE=C
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: gnome-power-manager
dmi.bios.date: 10/30/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A18
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA18:bd10/30/2009:svnDellInc.:pnPrecisionM4400:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Precision M4400
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Dana Goyette (danagoyette)]

This same BadAtom also happens for me with the open-source Radeon driver, yet does not happen with the binary driver.
It looks like the problem most likely lies in the "fallback" brightness-control methods used when the xrandr backlight property is not supported.
Note that fglrx supports xbacklight, but radeon does not.

See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/534677

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the stable release - Oneiric Ocelot. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed. You can find out more about it at http://www.ubuntu.com/download . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]