metacity assert failure: metacity:ERROR:core/bell.c:211:bell_flash_window_frame: assertion failed: (window->frame != NULL)

[Umang Varma]

Binary package hint: metacity

I don't know what happened. It just crashed. I was using Chrome when it happened and I just upgraded to Karmic today.

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: i386
AssertionMessage: metacity:ERROR:core/bell.c:211:bell_flash_window_frame: assertion failed: (window->frame != NULL)
Date: Sun Nov 1 11:45:57 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/metacity
Package: metacity 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu1
ProcCmdline: metacity
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
Signal: 6
SourcePackage: metacity
StacktraceTop:
 __kernel_vsyscall ()
 raise () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
 abort () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
 g_assertion_message () from /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
 g_assertion_message_expr () from /lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
Title: metacity assert failure: metacity:ERROR:core/bell.c:211:bell_flash_window_frame: assertion failed: (window->frame != NULL)
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev sambashare scanner tape video
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:3172): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:3192): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:3195): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:3206): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window
 (chrome:3337): Gdk-WARNING **: XID collision, trouble ahead

[Konrad Voelkel (konradvoelkel)]

Exactly the same for me. Seems to be related to Google Chrome & entering somethin in forms (it happens only when I'm editing my blog posts).

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

The same for me! I'm using chromium, not chrome, but the problem is very similar, I can see that assert message in .xsession-errors too. It happens almost every day once or more. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 on 32 bit.

I think bug 434389 is quite similar to this one, though.

metacity:
  Installed: 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
chromium-browser:
  Installed: 4.0.246.0~svn20091112r31785-0ubuntu1~ucd1
  Candidate: 4.0.246.0~svn20091112r31785-0ubuntu1~ucd1
  Version table:
 *** 4.0.246.0~svn20091112r31785-0ubuntu1~ucd1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Maybe the problem, that Chromium (and also Chrome) does not have window border/decoration (by window manager) by default? :)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=27654

"chrome:3337): Gdk-WARNING **: XID collision, trouble ahead"

However I don't know it's chromium or metacity bug then, metacity shouldn't crash by a client though, at least imho.

[derat (dan-launchpad-erat)]

I attached a patch to fix this in metacity at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=601907 .

[derat (dan-launchpad-erat)]

(I think that one can also work around this by changing the "Visual alert" setting in Sound Preferences -> Sounds to something other than "Flash window".)

[Asheesh Laroia (paulproteus)]

Since chromium-browser and metacity are packaged in Ubuntu, can we see an updated metacity package that has this (very simple) patch applied?

[Mark Stosberg (markstos)]

This metacity crasher has been fixed upstream by Gnome. I nominate it for release in the karmic updates channel.