Bug 347617 – gnome-extra/gnome-system-monitor fails to open when used from tightvnc

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description Robert Bradbury 2010-12-03 05:21:56 UTC]

Connecting from using vncviewer to tightvnc server on Gentoo AMD64 system running up-to-date gnome-session (pre 2.32.x).

Gnome-session is "mostly" OK (bottom panel fails to positions partially offscreen).  Terminals work ok, etc.  Top gnome-panel has "system-monitor" running properly displaying CPU/MEM/NET/DISK.  Clicking on system-monitor or right-clicking and selecting "Open System Monitor" produces a brief full system monitor window which immediately exits.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Setup tightvnc server (e.g. vncserver :6 -geometry 1020x690 -depth 16 -pixelformat rgb565) on host.
2. Connect from remote, e.g. vncviewer hostname:6
3. Host xstartup should end with "gnome-session &"
4. Add system-monitor to top gnome-panel and configure as desired.
5. Attempt to open expanded system monitor window.

Actual Results:  
Expanded system monitor window opens for an instant then exits.
No error messages appear to be produced in the system log files or the VNC log file.

Expected Results:  
System-monitor should open an expanded window for monitoring system activity more fully.

More extensive testing needs to be done with tightvnc (or x11vnc?).  Current system state appears marginal when attempting to produce a remote gnome session within a local gnome session (e.g. two top and two bottom panels but the inner panels on the "remote" and the outer panels on the "local" system.  In particular panel positioning and/or activating hidden panels is "iffy".

[Comment 1 Robert Bradbury 2010-12-03 05:22:34 UTC]

Created attachment 256208 [details]
emerge --info

[Comment 2 Pacho Ramos 2010-12-03 21:56:10 UTC]

What gnome-extra/gnome-system-monitor version are you running?

What does occur when manually running "gnome-system-monitor" from a terminal?

[Comment 3 Robert Bradbury 2010-12-04 00:45:25 UTC]

When I run gnome-system-monitor from an X-terminal via a direct login it works fine.

When I run gnome-system-monitor from a terminal under tightvnc (viewer) it starts up fine and all of the tabs except the resources tab appear to work ok.  Selecting the resources tab however causes it to abort with a stack trace:
  *** glibc detected *** gnome-system-monitor: malloc(): memory corruption: 0x00000000021c1ae0 ***
and the stack suggests the error occurred in libpixman-1.so.
Associated files will be attached.

[Comment 4 Robert Bradbury 2010-12-04 00:49:15 UTC]

Created attachment 256291 [details]
Output on stderr from gnome-system-monitor

Lots of gnome errors, perhaps related to the fact that the gnome-session isn't setup properly under tightvnc (via xstartup).  (Though other programs, e.g. xterm and chrome work reasonably well.)

[Comment 5 Robert Bradbury 2010-12-04 00:52:45 UTC]

Created attachment 256292 [details]
gnome-system-monitor stack trace regarding heap corruption

Stack trace which appears when attempting to access "Resources" tab of gnome-system-monitor under running via tightvnc.
Subset of libraries involved:
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/pixman-0.20.0  USE="mmx sse2 (-altivec) -static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/cairo-1.10.0-r3  USE="X debug directfb doc opengl qt4 svg xcb (-aqua) (-drm) (-gallium) (-openvg) -static-libs" 0 kB

[Comment 6 Pacho Ramos 2011-01-27 19:45:33 UTC]

Please try to get a better backtrace following:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/backtraces.xml

[Comment 7 Pacho Ramos 2011-02-24 17:53:03 UTC]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Please try to get a better backtrace following:
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/backtraces.xml
>