"Terminal" does not work in debian-9-dvm: it crashes after start. "XTerm" does work.

[Wikinaut]

Qubes OS version:

R4.0

Affected component(s):

Terminal is part of the default set of applications, but when following the instructions of https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dispvm-customization/ , Terminal crashes immediately after start in an debian-9-dvm.

XTerm works.

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Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Expected behavior:

Actual behavior:

General notes:

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Related issues:

[awokd]

@Wikinaut Which section of that document are you following? And if you are running "terminal", try "gnome-terminal" instead.

[awokd]

@Wikinaut Which section of that document are you following? And if you are running "terminal", try "gnome-terminal" instead.

[Wikinaut]

@awokd I followed this section https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dispvm-customization/#creating-new-disposable-vm-base-appvm and installed a debian-9-dvm.

The "Terminal" I mean is one of the four standard applications (Firefox, Terminal, Qube Settings and one more) which are installed and reachable via the App control icon (right click in the Qubes Menu in the upper left corner of Qubes-QS onto the debian-9-dvm machine icon).

[Wikinaut]

@awokd I followed this section https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dispvm-customization/#creating-new-disposable-vm-base-appvm and installed a debian-9-dvm.

The "Terminal" I mean is one of the four standard applications (Firefox, Terminal, Qube Settings and one more) which are installed and reachable via the App control icon (right click in the Qubes Menu in the upper left corner of Qubes-QS onto the debian-9-dvm machine icon).

[jimtahu]

I am seeing this as well, with both fedora-26-dvm and debian-9-dvm: gnome-terminal shortcut only starts the vm briefly and immediately closes, the xterm shortcut works as expected (new dvm and xterm running).

Running gnome-terminal in the resulting xterm works fine. Notably though, it seems the immediate invocation returns immediately, and closing the xterm shutsdown the vm (killing the gnome-terminal).

I am suspecting gnome-terminal returning immediately is tricking the disposable vm into thinking it should shutdown.

[jimtahu]

I am seeing this as well, with both fedora-26-dvm and debian-9-dvm: gnome-terminal shortcut only starts the vm briefly and immediately closes, the xterm shortcut works as expected (new dvm and xterm running).

Running gnome-terminal in the resulting xterm works fine. Notably though, it seems the immediate invocation returns immediately, and closing the xterm shutsdown the vm (killing the gnome-terminal).

I am suspecting gnome-terminal returning immediately is tricking the disposable vm into thinking it should shutdown.

[Wikinaut]

@jimtahu Yes, this is what I noticed. Qubes team should have a deeper look into this problem.

[Wikinaut]

@jimtahu Yes, this is what I noticed. Qubes team should have a deeper look into this problem.

[techgeeknz]

In order to mitigate this issue in future Qubes releases, I recommend replacing nautilus with thunar and gnome-terminal with either one of lxterminal or xfce4-terminal.

Each one of these software packages are capable but lightweight replacements for their Gnome counterparts (thunar even supports GVFS); and, more importantly, work well with DVMs.

[techgeeknz]

In order to mitigate this issue in future Qubes releases, I recommend replacing nautilus with thunar and gnome-terminal with either one of lxterminal or xfce4-terminal.

Each one of these software packages are capable but lightweight replacements for their Gnome counterparts (thunar even supports GVFS); and, more importantly, work well with DVMs.

[andrewdavidwong]

@jimtahu:

I am seeing this as well, with both fedora-26-dvm and debian-9-dvm: gnome-terminal shortcut only starts the vm briefly and immediately closes, the xterm shortcut works as expected (new dvm and xterm running).

Running gnome-terminal in the resulting xterm works fine. Notably though, it seems the immediate invocation returns immediately, and closing the xterm shutsdown the vm (killing the gnome-terminal).

I am suspecting gnome-terminal returning immediately is tricking the disposable vm into thinking it should shutdown.

#2581 is the issue for this.

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@Wikinaut:

I followed this section https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dispvm-customization/#creating-new-disposable-vm-base-appvm and installed a debian-9-dvm.

The "Terminal" I mean is one of the four standard applications (Firefox, Terminal, Qube Settings and one more) which are installed and reachable via the App control icon (right click in the Qubes Menu in the upper left corner of Qubes-QS onto the debian-9-dvm machine icon).

If the DispVM menu is using gnome-terminal instead of xterm by default, that sounds like an unintended regression (see #2581 (comment)). Please file a separate issue for this.

We'll keep the current issue about the documentation, which should be updated to direct users to use xterm instead of gnome-terminal for the reasons explained in the comments on #2581.

---

@techgeeknz:

In order to mitigate this issue in future Qubes releases, I recommend replacing nautilus with thunar and gnome-terminal with either one of lxterminal or xfce4-terminal.

We'd prefer not to resort to this, if it can be avoided:
https://www.qubes-os.org/faq/#what-is-qubes-attitude-toward-changing-guest-distros

[andrewdavidwong]

@jimtahu:

I am seeing this as well, with both fedora-26-dvm and debian-9-dvm: gnome-terminal shortcut only starts the vm briefly and immediately closes, the xterm shortcut works as expected (new dvm and xterm running).

Running gnome-terminal in the resulting xterm works fine. Notably though, it seems the immediate invocation returns immediately, and closing the xterm shutsdown the vm (killing the gnome-terminal).

I am suspecting gnome-terminal returning immediately is tricking the disposable vm into thinking it should shutdown.

#2581 is the issue for this.

---

@Wikinaut:

I followed this section https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dispvm-customization/#creating-new-disposable-vm-base-appvm and installed a debian-9-dvm.

The "Terminal" I mean is one of the four standard applications (Firefox, Terminal, Qube Settings and one more) which are installed and reachable via the App control icon (right click in the Qubes Menu in the upper left corner of Qubes-QS onto the debian-9-dvm machine icon).

If the DispVM menu is using gnome-terminal instead of xterm by default, that sounds like an unintended regression (see #2581 (comment)). Please file a separate issue for this.

We'll keep the current issue about the documentation, which should be updated to direct users to use xterm instead of gnome-terminal for the reasons explained in the comments on #2581.

---

@techgeeknz:

In order to mitigate this issue in future Qubes releases, I recommend replacing nautilus with thunar and gnome-terminal with either one of lxterminal or xfce4-terminal.

We'd prefer not to resort to this, if it can be avoided:
https://www.qubes-os.org/faq/#what-is-qubes-attitude-toward-changing-guest-distros