Cannot start evolution inside xpra

[totaam]

Issue migrated from trac ticket # 2034

component: server | priority: minor | resolution: invalid

2018-11-13 10:38:18: stdedos created the issue

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Neither

xpra start :999 --start-child=evolution --attach=yes --exit-with-children=yes

nor

xpra start :999 --start-child=xterm --attach=yes --exit-with-children=yes

work.

Directly starting evolution gives no output, while with xterm:
$ evolution

(evolution:29846): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_strsplit: assertion 'string != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Attached xpra info, and the crash dumps

[totaam]

2018-11-13 10:38:58: stdedos uploaded file cannot_start_evolution.tar.bz2 (3335.1 KiB)

[totaam]

2018-11-13 10:39:44: stdedos commented

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Direct invocation's crash dump cannot be attached due to file size limitations; please advise if needed

[totaam]

2018-11-13 11:34:28: antoine changed owner from antoine to stdedos

[totaam]

2018-11-13 11:34:28: antoine commented

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Please don't attach archives with yet more archives in them.
It's not clear what is what either and I don't have time to sift through all this to figure it out. The key information I spotted so far:

• client and server are running Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit
• xpra version 2.4.1-r20907

If evolution is crashing, then it may well be a bug in evolution. Please try to get a gdb backtrace from evolution.
I've tried with Ubuntu 16.04 and evolution launched correctly, showed me the welcome wizard dialog.

[totaam]

2018-11-30 10:22:59: antoine changed status from new to closed

[totaam]

2018-11-30 10:22:59: antoine set resolution to invalid

[totaam]

2018-11-30 10:22:59: antoine commented

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Likely an evolution bug, I cannot reproduce here.

[totaam]

2020-02-19 21:20:36: stdedos commented

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"Xpra-Python3-x86_64_4.0-[r25280](../commit/0c33b602f176df735f5288af28205f46a016e200)\xpra_cmd" attach ssh://user@ip/2 --ssh="plink -ssh -agent"

2020-02-19 22:50:13,407 Warning: OpenGL probe failed: timeout
2020-02-19 22:50:14,126 Xpra GTK3 client version 4.0-[r25280](../commit/0c33b602f176df735f5288af28205f46a016e200) 64-bit
2020-02-19 22:50:14,126  running on Microsoft Windows 10
2020-02-19 22:50:14,220 Warning: failed to import opencv:
2020-02-19 22:50:14,220  No module named 'cv2'
2020-02-19 22:50:14,220  webcam forwarding is disabled
2020-02-19 22:50:15,173 GStreamer version 1.16.2 for Python 3.8.1 64-bit
2020-02-19 22:50:15,454 keyboard layout code 0x409
2020-02-19 22:50:15,454 identified as 'United States - English' : us
2020-02-19 22:50:16,126  keyboard settings: layout=us
2020-02-19 22:50:16,126  desktop size is 1600x900 with 1 screen:
2020-02-19 22:50:16,126   Default (423x238 mm - DPI: 96x96) workarea: 1600x860
2020-02-19 22:50:16,126     (Standard monitor types) Generic PnP Monitor (309x174 mm - DPI: 131x131)
2020-02-19 22:50:20,891 enabled remote logging
2020-02-19 22:50:20,907 Xpra GTK3 X11 server version 3.0.6-[r25174](../commit/86fdb78c7bf461e68008d62bac8a4bf54dd5f12c) 64-bit
2020-02-19 22:50:20,907  running on Linux Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
2020-02-19 22:50:20,907 Attached to 172.16.57.121:22
2020-02-19 22:50:20,907  (press Control-C to detach)

Would this be helpful?

$ gdb evolution 
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 7.11.1-0ubuntu1~16.5) 7.11.1
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from evolution...Reading symbols from /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/fe/521e8c6a7a4597c88e510e7e077af94b9e72f7.debug...done.
done.
(gdb) c
The program is not being run.
(gdb) r
Starting program: /usr/bin/evolution 
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
[New Thread 0x7fffd3dfe700 (LWP 5031)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd35fd700 (LWP 5032)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd2dfc700 (LWP 5033)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd25fb700 (LWP 5034)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd1dfa700 (LWP 5035)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd15f9700 (LWP 5036)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd0df8700 (LWP 5037)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd05f7700 (LWP 5038)]
[Thread 0x7fffd15f9700 (LWP 5036) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd05f7700 (LWP 5038) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd0df8700 (LWP 5037) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd1dfa700 (LWP 5035) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd25fb700 (LWP 5034) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd2dfc700 (LWP 5033) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd35fd700 (LWP 5032) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffd3dfe700 (LWP 5031) exited]

(evolution:5010): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_strsplit: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

Thread 1 "evolution" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
__GI_____strtoul_l_internal (nptr=0x0, endptr=0x7fffffffcea8, base=10, group=<optimized out>, loc=0x7ffff370db60 <_nl_C_locobj>) at ../stdlib/strtol_l.c:293
293	../stdlib/strtol_l.c: No such file or directory.
(gdb) t a a bt

Thread 1 (Thread 0x7ffff7ee4ac0 (LWP 5010)):
#0  __GI_____strtoul_l_internal (nptr=0x0, endptr=0x7fffffffcea8, base=10, group=<optimized out>, loc=0x7ffff370db60 <_nl_C_locobj>) at ../stdlib/strtol_l.c:293
#1  0x00007fffe9f6b61d in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#2  0x00007fffe9f6b6db in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#3  0x00007fffe9f6b953 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#4  0x00007fffe9f69f5a in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#5  0x00007fffe9fa4947 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#6  0x00007fffe9f6c052 in cogl_context_new () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcogl.so.20
#7  0x00007fffea261ac6 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-1.0.so.0
#8  0x00007fffea27a523 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-1.0.so.0
#9  0x00007fffea28b979 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-1.0.so.0
#10 0x00007ffff49394b6 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-gtk-1.0.so.0
#11 0x00007ffff3769fd8 in g_option_context_parse () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
#12 0x00007ffff493962e in gtk_clutter_init_with_args () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclutter-gtk-1.0.so.0
#13 0x000055555555748a in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffd358) at main.c:467

[totaam]

2020-02-20 02:45:08: antoine commented

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Would this be helpful?
$ gdb evolution
...
There are no debug symbols and it only shows that evolution crashed.
It's crashing in libcogl so it's likely evolution is not happy with the software opengl rendering of the vfb. Try switching to Xvfb instead of Xdummy or vice versa. (see /etc/xpra/conf.d/55_server_x11.conf)
Or maybe try turning off opengl completely in the vfb (edit its command line) and maybe evolution will then fallback to a non-opengl rendering.
You could also just report it to the evolution project.