gnome-terminal failure after X server restart catalyst

Asked by Superkuh

preface: I had not restarted X for about 3 days and have installed many random metapackages, but all from the base repositories.

Feisty 64bit; After restarting the X server to load minor changes, probably not the cause but only the catalyst, I find that I cannot open gnome-terminal via launcher methods. Alt-F2 and 'xterm'; I try to run 'gnome-terminal' and recieve the error: "BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation), serial 105 error_code 2 request_code 78". I've tried reinstalling gnome-terminal via synaptic to no avail. I installed multi-gnome-terminal for kicks but it too fails, complaining of Gdk-CRITIAL errors. Any ideas as to how I might pin the problem down further than vauge ideas about gdk library issues?

I am not really aware of what other applications share libraries with gnome-terminal to try and infer what might be wrong, but everything I've tried to run, from simple gtk+ apps to gconf-editor to Opera to Totem playing divx works fine.

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Ubuntu gnome-terminal Edit question
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Bashwork
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- (a--deactivatedaccount) said :
#1

well 'ldd /usr/bin/gnome-terminal' will show shared library dependencies.

can you launch gnome-terminal via the menu ok ?

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#2

Thank you for the heads up on ldd.

No. gnome-terminal will not launch from xterm or from indirect methods like alt-f2 or the launcher in the main applications menu.

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- (a--deactivatedaccount) said :
#3

well try switching to a console terminal

ctrl +alt + F2 and log in

then run, 'strace gnome-terminal'

see what errors it throws up, maybe pipe it into a text file.

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#4

I am learning how to interpet and use strace now, but have yet to fix my problem.

 In the meantime, the result was quite long so I have put it on pastebin instead (of here): http://pastebin.ca/613046

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- (a--deactivatedaccount) said :
#5

Ok try this for me

echo $DISPLAY

and tell me the results please.

then try

DISPLAY=":0" gnome-terminal

and tell me the results

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#6

I have dual monitors running nvidia restricted drivers with xinerama on (AGP Geforce 5700LE). My xorg.conf is here: http://pastebin.ca/618051

$ echo $ DISPLAY
:0.0
$ DISPLAY=":0" gnome-terminal
The program 'gnome-terminal' received and X Window System error.
This probably refrlects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
(Details: serial 105 error_code 2 request_code 78 minor_code 0)
(Note to programmers....etc)

I tried most possible (sane) permutations of "$DISPLAY(~=\(O)*(\.)*(0)*\) by hand, and some not so sane. Most displayed the above error. A few like ":0." and ":.0" failed with "(gnome-terminal:14753): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:"

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- (a--deactivatedaccount) said :
#7

This is really a tricky one for me, have you asked on #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net?

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#8

Still ticky for me too. I have asked ~10 times over as twice as many days (I idle on freenode). When I find a solution that is not reformating I will, obviously, post it here.

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- (a--deactivatedaccount) said :
#9

did you get this sorted out ?

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#10

No. But I also never ran into issues with other programs so I have just abandoned gnome-terminal. Instead I have begun using a xrvt-unicode 8.3 compiled from source (it supports tabs and transparency) and changed my gnome configuration accordingly with gconf-editor under /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal , though I don't know if this matters.

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Best Bashwork (bashwork) said :
#11

This might be a bug with the nvidia driver; there are a few ideas in this thread
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.17/+bug/58232

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Superkuh (superkuh) said :
#12

Thanks Bashwork, that solved my question.