Bug 478390 – x11-libs/gksu with x11-terms/gnome-terminal-3.8.4 - GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server exited with status 1

• Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Jan Vesely 2013-07-27 20:45:25 UTC]

$ gksu gnome-terminal
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server exited with status 1


$ /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server
Failed to register application: Unable to acquire bus name `org.gnome.Terminal'

I'd say it happens every time, but I have seen it work ok on several rare occasions.

Reproducible: Sometimes

[Comment 1 Alexandre Rostovtsev (RETIRED) 2013-07-29 15:25:47 UTC]

Are you running "gksu gnome-terminal" from gnome-terminal or from another terminal emulator (xterm etc.)?

What desktop environment are you in? Are you using systemd?

Please provide your "emerge --info" output.

[Comment 2 Jan Vesely 2013-07-29 22:18:43 UTC]

Created attachment 354556 [details]
emerge --info

(In reply to Alexandre Rostovtsev from comment #1)
> Are you running "gksu gnome-terminal" from gnome-terminal or from another
> terminal emulator (xterm etc.)?

the output is from gnome-terminal, but using the "Root terminal" launcher provided by gksu fails as well

> 
> What desktop environment are you in? Are you using systemd?

gnome 3.8 with systemd

> 
> Please provide your "emerge --info" output.

attached

[Comment 3 Alexandre Rostovtsev (RETIRED) 2013-07-30 03:49:49 UTC]

I can't reproduce the problem here :/

Does the following give any errors:

$ gksu /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server

[Comment 4 Jan Vesely 2013-07-30 07:41:18 UTC]

(In reply to Alexandre Rostovtsev from comment #3)
> I can't reproduce the problem here :/
> 
> Does the following give any errors:
> 
> $ gksu /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server

It asks for password but nothing happens, after few seconds control returns back to terminal

$ gksu /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.
#few seconds paus after entering the password
$ echo $?
0

system log says:
Jul 30 09:38:15 [su] pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user root by ...
Jul 30 09:38:25 [su] pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user root

[Comment 5 Jan Vesely 2013-08-03 14:18:44 UTC]

I dug around a bit more:

gksu gnome-terminal (either in another gnome-terminal or clicking the 'Root terminal' launcher) works ok after logon and as long as at least one of the launched root terminals is running.

after closing the last root terminal window the "Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server exited with status 1"
error appears.

[Comment 6 Lee Trager 2014-06-10 17:38:36 UTC]

I was able to fix this on my system. Somehow my locale was unset and it seems that newer versions of gnome-terminal require your locale to be set to UTF-8. I followed this guide http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Localization/HOWTO and made sure to run locale-gen when I was done. You might want to reboot as well to make sure your current environment has the right settings.

Maybe the ebuild should run a precheck that the locale is set to UTF-8?

[Comment 7 Pacho Ramos 2014-06-12 09:13:46 UTC]

It's a general problem: utf8 is needed
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GNOME/3.8-upgrade-guide#Unicode_.28i.e_UTF-8.29_locale_is_needed

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 481168 ***

[Comment 8 Jan Vesely 2014-06-12 17:40:19 UTC]

(In reply to Pacho Ramos from comment #7)
> It's a general problem: utf8 is needed
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GNOME/3.8-upgrade-guide#Unicode_.28i.e_UTF-8.
> 29_locale_is_needed
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 481168 ***

I believe this is incorrect. I don't know what problem Lee is referring to but mine cannot be solved by locale manipulation (I have always used utf8 locales)

here's a simple demonstration (terminal opened just after logon):
$ locale
LANG=en_US.utf8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.utf8
LC_TIME=en_US.utf8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MONETARY=en_US.utf8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.utf8"
LC_PAPER=en_US.utf8
LC_NAME="en_US.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.utf8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.utf8"
LC_ALL=
$ gksu locale
LANG=en_US.utf8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_US.utf8
LC_TIME=en_US.utf8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MONETARY=en_US.utf8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.utf8"
LC_PAPER=en_US.utf8
LC_NAME="en_US.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.utf8
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.utf8"
LC_ALL=
$ gksu gnome-terminal
$ gksu gnome-terminal
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Terminal exited with status 1
$

and with localectl (new window same session):

$ localectl
   System Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8
       VC Keymap: us
      X11 Layout: us,sk
     X11 Variant: ,qwerty
$ gksu localectl
   System Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8
       VC Keymap: us
      X11 Layout: us,sk
     X11 Variant: ,qwerty
$ gksu gnome-terminal
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Terminal exited with status 1
$

[Comment 9 Jan Vesely 2014-08-05 18:04:58 UTC]

This started working again in gnome 3.12, no idea what actually fixed it.
I no longer see any of te reported errors when launched from cmdline