FS#76413 - [glib2] 2.74.0 and newer breaks XFCE and most GUI applications (unable to start)

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Thursday, 03 November 2022, 23:42 GMT
Last edited by Antonio Rojas (arojas) - Wednesday, 16 November 2022, 10:05 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To No-one
Architecture All
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 1
Private No

Details

After days of troubleshooting I've figured out that, on this specific system,upgrading glib2 to 2.74.0 or any newer version (from the newest working version, 2.72.3-3) results in XFCE being unable to start from either lightdm or SDDM or even just plain startx. I am still able to start KDE from SDDM with no issues--only XFCE is affected.

It crashes instantly and silently. I can't spot any meaningful error message in either journalctl -u sddm.service or /var/log/Xorg.0.log, though I'm happy to share both logs.

I'm on Arch Linux, LTS kernel, and this issue seems to be consistent on every recent version of the LTS kernel. My unique hardware combination (which I imagine must have something to do with this, since I can't find any mention of this issue online) is: AMD Ryzen R7 2700X CPU, R9 Fury 4GB GPU, and an X470 chipset motherboard.

Possibly related behavior is, whenever I upgrade glib2 to a problematic version, it's not just that I cannot start XFCE on the following boot. Also, immediately on the current session as soon as the package is upgraded, most GUI applications including all GTK-based applications fail silently to open.

I've gone on #xfce-dev to report this and ask which component of XFCE I should report this to. They suggested this might not be specifically an XFCE bug, thanks to the previous paragraph. I'm also submitting this bug upstream in case that's where the problem is:
   sddm.journalctl (6.2 KiB)
   Xorg.0.log (76.4 KiB)
This task depends upon

Closed by  Antonio Rojas (arojas)
Wednesday, 16 November 2022, 10:05 GMT
Reason for closing:  Not a bug
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Thursday, 03 November 2022, 23:44 GMT
Whoops, forgot to include the upstream report link: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/2806
Comment by Doug Newgard (Scimmia) - Thursday, 03 November 2022, 23:55 GMT
We've had that version or newer for well over a month, if it was a systemic problem, we've had heard of it long before now. Run a problem app from the terminal, see what it says.
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Friday, 04 November 2022, 00:00 GMT
I've just been advised I'll need a stack trace for this to be solvable. How would I get one in this case? Does systemd or X dump that anywhere already?
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Friday, 04 November 2022, 00:03 GMT
When I run a problem app in the terminal on 2.74.0 or newer, all the output I get is a SIGTRAP.
Comment by loqs (loqs) - Friday, 04 November 2022, 00:10 GMT
See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Core_dump#Examining_a_core_dump
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Friday, 04 November 2022, 02:28 GMT
Here are some coredumps--of xfce4-session, and of an example application that I tried running immediately after upgrading the package (geany). Both terminated with SIGTRAP.

Also relevant: 3 seconds after xfce4-session's termination, /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-kde terminates with SIGABRT if using SDDM, or /usr/bin/lightdm-gtk-greeter with SIGTRAP if using lightdm.

The xfce4-session coredump ZST is >2MB, so here's a link to its upload on the GLib report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/uploads/c9b210943ed3be286567b758b493aadd/core.xfce4-session.1000.63382e1a229846a8a663e1bf59b1af5a.1469.1667516249000000.zst
   core.geany.1000.85af85d31e5f4... (1.12 MiB)
   coredumpctl-info-geany (11.4 KiB)
   coredumpctl-info-xfce4-session (23.9 KiB)
Comment by Toolybird (Toolybird) - Friday, 04 November 2022, 05:04 GMT
There is currently no general problem with glib2 or xfce4. Your log files are missing debug symbols. Please do the following:

1. ensure your system is fully up-to-date - without this the symbols won't work
2. run gdb like this:
`DEBUGINFOD_URLS="https://debuginfod.archlinux.org/" coredumpctl gdb'
3. Answer y when it asks to enable debuginfod for this session
4. `set logging enabled on'
5. `bt full'

Post gdb.txt
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Wednesday, 16 November 2022, 01:48 GMT
Here it is! System fully up to date as of today. The terminal output was nothing but a SIGTRAP.
   core.geany.1000.5b85bd85c4634... (1.12 MiB)
   coredumpctl-info-geany (3.9 KiB)
   coredumpctl-geany-gdb.txt (10.4 KiB)
Comment by Toolybird (Toolybird) - Wednesday, 16 November 2022, 05:54 GMT
The symbols from "gtk3" are missing. This suggests you have a "foreign" or self-compiled "gtk3" pkg installed on this system (or something along those lines) which could explain everything. Please re-install gtk3 from the official repos.
Comment by Jimi Bove (Jimi-James) - Wednesday, 16 November 2022, 09:42 GMT
Sorry, I forgot I'm using gtk3-classic. And, cheers! Switching it for gtk3 fixed the problem. Bug solved.

However, I really hate the modern file chooser, so I still need to try to fix this. ~~So I've filed this bug with gtk3-classic instead~~ it has already been filed and solved: https://github.com/lah7/gtk3-classic/issues/79

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