ports/50482: gnome-session will not start on 4.8-RC, X 4.3,

[Joe Kelsey]

Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-03-31 at 11:00, Joe Kelsey wrote:
> 
>>The following reply was made to PR ports/50482; it has been noted by GNATS.
>>
>>From: Joe Kelsey <joek at mail.flyingcroc.net>
>>To: freebsd-gnats-submit at FreeBSD.org, joe at zircon.seattle.wa.us
>>Cc:  
>>Subject: Re: ports/50482: gnome-session will not start on 4.8-RC, X 4.3,
>>Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 07:52:56 -0800
>>
>> I can send truss output.
>> 
>> There is absolutely no problem with fontconfig.  I re-install it and 
>> pango and everything else I can think of.  I run fc-cache -f -v multiple 
>> times.  I manually verify the font-cache-1 files.
>> 
>> The truss output clearly shows *something* opening and reading every 
>> single one of the font-cache files, so your blithe remarks about *it 
>> works for me" are completely useless and do nothing to solve the very 
>> real problems that I experience day in and day out.
> And your blithe "it doesn't work" bug reports are helping?

I am trying to be helpful.

I spent the entire day yesterday trying to solve the problem.  I 
installed your so-called pango fix, only to have my minimal gnome setup 
finally completely grind to a halt.

I have been living without gdm2 for the past two weeks, ever since 
installing X 4.3.  I have become intimately familiar with tracking down 
and deleteing font cache files on the system and running fc-cache so 
many times...

Now that, in addition to gdm2 not working, gnome-session refuses to 
start, my home system is completely useless.  I have to read mail at 
home by examining individual files in the Maildir.  It is very 
frustrating for me.

I do my best to not submit bug reporst unless I hav espent considerable 
time trying to fix it on my own.  I cannot find any information anywhere 
on how to debug either fontconfig or gnome-session or gdm2.  I am left 
with running truss...

I am very upset about gnome-session failing to work on my home system. 
I do not want to risk the same thing happening to my work system.  It is 
bad enough that gdm2 refuses to run on either system.  If I risk 
upgrading my work system, then I may be stuck with the same problem on 
two machines.
>> 
>> You have done nothing to help solve the multiple fontconfig problems 
>> appearing in the field.  fc-cache is not the solution.
> 
> 
> I'm open to suggestions.  I'm one guy, working for nothing, with a real
> job, doing my best to help hundreds of users.  I can't reproduce the
> problem locally, so what do you expect me to do?  Wave a magic wand and
> conjure up a solution?  I need more information!
> 
> Do this, set FC_DEBUG to 1023 in your environment, then run startx. 
> Send me the output.  You might also try removing ~/.fonts-cache-1, too.

I will see what happens when I get home this afternoon.  Unfortunately, 
I cannot perform this experiment remotely.

/Joe