Bug 454536 – dev-util/meld-1.7.0 - meld: glib.GError: Configuration server couldn't be contacted: D-BUS error: Unable to store a value at key '/apps/gnome-settings/meld/history-fileentry

• Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 452930
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Juergen Rose 2013-01-29 13:25:58 UTC]

I try to compare two files with meld, which fails with:

root@leopard:/root(6)# meld .bash_profile ~rose/Txt/Configurations/.bash_profile 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/meld", line 154, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/meld", line 146, in main
    new_window = app.parse_args(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/meldapp.py", line 206, in parse_args
    tab = open_paths(args, options.auto_compare, options.auto_merge)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/meldwindow.py", line 696, in open_paths
    tab = self.append_diff(paths, auto_compare, auto_merge)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/meldwindow.py", line 664, in append_diff
    return self.append_filediff(paths)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/meldwindow.py", line 627, in append_filediff
    doc.set_files(files)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/filediff.py", line 957, in set_files
    self.fileentry[i].prepend_history(absfile)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/ui/historyentry.py", line 355, in prepend_history
    self.__gentry.prepend_text(text)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/ui/historyentry.py", line 135, in prepend_text
    self.__insert_history_item(text, True)
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/ui/historyentry.py", line 130, in __insert_history_item
    self._save_history()
  File "/usr/lib64/meld/meld/ui/historyentry.py", line 116, in _save_history
    self.__gconf_client.set_list(key, gconf.VALUE_STRING, gconf_items)
glib.GError: Configuration server couldn't be contacted: D-BUS error: Unable to store a value at key '/apps/gnome-settings/meld/history-fileentry', as the configuration server has no writable databases. There are some common causes of this problem: 1) your configuration path file /etc/gconf/2/path doesn't contain any databases or wasn't found 2) somehow we mistakenly created two gconfd processes 3) your operating system is misconfigured so NFS file locking doesn't work in your home directory or 4) your NFS client machine crashed and didn't properly notify the server on reboot that file locks should be dropped. If you have two gconfd processes (or had two at the time the second was launched), logging out, killing all copies of gconfd, and logging back in may help. If you have stale locks, remove ~/.gconf*/*lock. Perhaps the problem is that you attempted to use GConf from two machines at once, and ORBit still has its default configuration that prevents remote CORBA connections - put "ORBIIOPIPv4=1" in /etc/orbitrc. As always, check the user.* syslog for details on problems gconfd encountered. There can only be one gconfd per home directory, and it must own a lockfile in ~/.gconfd and also lockfiles in individual storage locations such as ~/.gconf


I can access both files without any problem with gedit. There is only one gconfd process for root:

root@leopard:/root(7)# psgrep gconfd
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
rose      8576  0.0  0.0  53208  2624 ?        S     2012   0:07 /usr/libexec/gconfd-2
root     24841  0.0  0.0  46512  2512 ?        S     2012   0:05 /usr/libexec/gconfd-2

I am sitting directly at leopard (no ssh-session from an other system). I tried to check the pathes from /etc/gconf/2/path, most are empty:

 root@leopard:/root(9)# cat /etc/gconf/2/path 
# This file stores the addresses of config sources for GConf
# When a value is stored or requested, the sources are scanned from top to 
# bottom, and the first one to have a value for the key (or the first one 
# to be writeable) is used to load/store the data.

# See the GConf manual for details

# Look first in systemwide mandatory settings directory
xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory

# To read in any mandatory settings that the Sys Admin may have created
# prior to a desktop system upgrade. The SysAdmin can stick read-only system
# wide sources in this file.
include /etc/gconf/2/local-mandatory.path

# Now see where users want us to look - basically the user can stick arbitrary 
# sources in a ~/.config/gconf.path file and they're inserted here
include "$(USERCONFIGDIR)/gconf/path"
# Legacy file location
include "$(HOME)/.gconf.path"

# Give users a default storage location,
# $(USERCONFIGDIR)/gconf (or $(HOME)/.gconf when it exists, for backward compatibility)
xml:readwrite:$(DEFAULTUSERSOURCE)

# Location for system-wide settings that are set by the defaults mechanism
xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.system

# To read in any defaults settings that the Sys Admin may have created
# prior to a desktop system upgrade. The SysAdmin can stick default values
# system-wide in this file.
include /etc/gconf/2/local-defaults.path

# Finally, look at the systemwide defaults
xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults




root@leopard:/root(10)# ll /etc/gconf/2/local-mandatory.path
/bin/ls: cannot access /etc/gconf/2/local-mandatory.path: No such file or directory
root@leopard:/root(11)# ll /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory
total 0
root@leopard:/root(12)# ll ~/.config/gconf.path
/bin/ls: cannot access /root/.config/gconf.path: No such file or directory
root@leopard:/root(13)# ll $(USERCONFIGDIR)/gconf/path
-su: USERCONFIGDIR: command not found
/bin/ls: cannot access /gconf/path: No such file or directory
root@leopard:/root(14)# ll $(HOME)/.gconf.path
-su: HOME: command not found


root@leopard:/root(16)# echo $HOME
/root
root@leopard:/root(17)# ll /root/.gconf.path
/bin/ls: cannot access /root/.gconf.path: No such file or directory
root@leopard:/root(18)# echo $DEFAULTUSERSOURCE

root@leopard:/root(19)# ll /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.system
total 0
root@leopard:/root(20)# ll /etc/gconf/2/local-defaults.path
/bin/ls: cannot access /etc/gconf/2/local-defaults.path: No such file or directory
root@leopard:/root(21)# ll /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults
total 1756
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 308461 Jan 27 05:56 %gconf-tree-de.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 327903 Jan 27 05:56 %gconf-tree-fr.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 305445 Jan 27 05:56 %gconf-tree-ru.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 827507 Jan 27 05:56 %gconf-tree.xml


root@leopard:/root(22)#  ll ~/.gconf*/*lock
/bin/ls: cannot access /root/.gconf*/*lock: No such file or directory

[Comment 1 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) 2013-01-29 17:04:14 UTC]

Are you filling duplicates of your own bugs ? See bug #452930

[Comment 2 Pacho Ramos 2013-01-29 21:53:41 UTC]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 452930 ***