First call to 'xdotool search' from a graphical application returns BadWindow error

[marcelpaulo]

The 1st call to xdotool search from within a graphical application returns a BadWindow error:

X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  3 (X_GetWindowAttributes)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x4e011ca
  Serial number of failed request:  318
  Current serial number in output stream:  319

The 2nd and subsequent calls don't return errors. If called directly from bash, no errors are returned.

It's reproducible, suffice it to create a simple script with these lines:

#!/bin/bash
echo 'Attempt #1'
xdotool search --class puddletag
echo 'Attempt #2'
xdotool search --class puddletag

and then run it from bash and a graphical app (I called the script from plugin Custom Commands in quodlibet, or from a .desktop file as an external editor in geeqie). puddletag can be replaced with any other suitable app name. When called from bash directly, these were the (correct) results

Attempt #1
65011714
65011732
Attempt #2
65011714
65011732

but when called from either quodlibet or geeqie, the first search call failed and the second succeeded:

Attempt #1
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  3 (X_GetWindowAttributes)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x4e011ca
  Serial number of failed request:  318
  Current serial number in output stream:  319
Attempt #2
65011714
65011732

This error was not tied neither to quodlibet nor to geeqie: when called from any graphical application, whether GTK+ or Qt, xdotool search always failed with the BadWindow error on its first invocation.

I'm using:

xdotool 3.20130111.1-5
xserver-xorg 7.7+7ubuntu2
xfce 4.11
Xubuntu 14.10

[jordansissel]

I wonder if this is a race condition. search will list windows (via XQueryTree), then, for each window listed, queries the window's properties.

If a window is given by XQueryTree, and then before the window properties are queried, that window is deleted, then I could see how this error occurs.

The fix may be to have libxdo's search feature ignore BadWindow errors.

[marcelpaulo]

Is there any other circumstance that might cause a BadWindow error, or is this the only one ?

Would you have any suggestion on how I could debug this scenario so that I can give you more information to analyze ? Of course, if you need more information. I confess: my knowledge of X programming is 0.

[kenorb]

Workaround:

set +e
WINDOW_ID=$(xdotool search --name "Foo*")
set -e

[daver1691]

I'm getting the same problem on Ubuntu 18.04 with xdotool version 3.20160805.1.

If I start the PC, start Firefox, and then later run xdotool to find it, I get the error on the first attempt, then subsequent attempts are fine. The exact circumstances are somewhat difficult to pin down but it will sometimes reappear if I restart Firefox, (I always wait for it to start fully) and then the first attempt after that sometimes fails.

$  xdotool search --classname Navigator
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  15 (X_QueryTree)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x1a343ef
  Serial number of failed request:  402
  Current serial number in output stream:  402
$  xdotool search --classname Navigator
  56623120

I'm now running it twice, dumping errors from the first to /dev/null, but I can try to debug this if anybody's got suggestions as to how.

[ghost]

I have the problem on Linux Mint 19, with xdotool 3.+20180415.1.

[sabrehagen]

Slack window id from --search: 18874369
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  12 (X_ConfigureWindow)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x1200001
  Serial number of failed request:  18
  Current serial number in output stream:  20
X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  3 (X_GetWindowAttributes)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x1200001
  Serial number of failed request:  18
  Current serial number in output stream:  19

xdotool version 3.20160805.1
Ubuntu 19.04

[jlittlenz]

I've been getting this (the X_QueryTree error on first search) since I release upgraded to Kubuntu 19.10. But today, after a git pull and recompile, it's stopped happening. The previous version was built on 2019-10-03. I had scripted a retry on the first failure, after logging it.
No X windows were opening or closing when the error occurred. Yesterday it reproduced every time.

[tgharib]

I can confirm that I am getting the same issue on openSUSE tumbleweed with xdotool version 3.20160805.1.

I am running xdotool search --class "dota2" in a terminal bash script. It runs roughly once an hour. Randomly ~5% of the time, it fails with this output:

X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  15 (X_QueryTree)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x2404083
  Serial number of failed request:  489
  Current serial number in output stream:  489

[jlittlenz]

I now work around this by looping with

    errors=$(xdotool search --name whatever windowactivate 2>&1)
    if [[ -z "$errors" ]]; then
        .... no problem
        break
    fi
   .... log error

Presently, f I invoke the script from a widget in a panel, it fails once every time. The same script from the menu gets no error.

[willbelr]

The problem persist in xdotool 3.20160805.1-2. When 'xdotool search' is launched repeatedly from a PyQt app, it fails randomly, about 1 time out of 30. Calling the function more slowly, ie. each 2s vs continuous blocking calls) reduce the likelihood of the error, so it look like a race condition..

It can be worked around but it's not pretty

def _embed(self, ref):
        """ Find and embed the terminal window into a QWindow > QWidget > Layout """
        fetch = QtCore.QProcess(self)
        fetch.start(f"xdotool search --sync --classname {ref}")
        fetch.waitForFinished()
        wid = fetch.readAllStandardOutput().split("\n")[0]
        err = str(fetch.readAllStandardError().split("\n")[0])

        if wid:
            self.window = QtGui.QWindow.fromWinId(int(wid))
            self.widget = QtWidgets.QWidget.createWindowContainer(self.window, self)
            self.widget.setSizePolicy(QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.Expanding,QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.Expanding)
            self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.widget, 1, 0, 1, 3)
        elif err.count("BadWindow"):
            # Workaround for 'X Error of failed request: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)'
            # https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool/issues/60
            self._embed(ref)
        else:
            print(f"Null window id for '{self.name}': xdotool search --sync --classname {ref}")

[shvchk]

Made a simple sh wrapper to work around this: https://gist.github.com/shvchk/ecfcb9c43050a08cb55ece9efb935da9