Subject: Re: bug#4968: Emacs 23.1-gtk+ hangs Xwindows

From: Duncan Mercer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:48:41 +1100

Hi Jan.

> "Xwindows" doesn't really exist :-):
>
> " The  X.Org  Foundation  requests  that the following names be used when
> referring to this software:

Thanks for that. I have admit I wasn't really sure what the "official"
term was so I figured that "Xwindows" was generic and would be
understood (even if not correct ;-)

> But anycase, it sounds a lot like
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=392889. You have to scroll down a
> bit, initially it was about something else.

"My" bug certainly sounds  a lot like the one described by Rodney
Dawes (comment 11). Both resizing the window and Alt+Tab will cause
the "hang". Contrary to my previous post I do not actually need to
kill emacs to "unlock" X, if I just use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to a new
shell and then Ctrl+F7 to switch back to X then the system will be
functioning normally again.

Most of the rest of the discussion on the metacity bug that you
forwarded does not immediately enlighten me as to the root of my
problem. Guess I don't understand my WM to this level of detail  :-(

> Also, there are known issues with Emacs 23.1 and Gtk+ 2.18, but this sounds
> extreme.

I saw the same behaiour when I used the emacs 22 packages which also
ship with Karmic. So I thought that I should try version 23 to see if
that changed the situation.

> What window manager are you running?  Can you try Emacs CVS and see if it
> works?

It will probably be a couple of days before I have chance to test the
CVS version, but will let you know what I find.

>Are you sure it is X that locks up?  Can it be the window manager that grabs the >mouse and keyboard?  To check, go to a console prompt and do
>% xterm -display :0

If I switch to a new shell and then switch back as described above
then I have a working system again. Launching xterm from the shell
prompt (as root) does succeed but I guess since I get a working system
without the launch step, I guess this is less diagnostic.

Regards
Duncan

Best regards
Duncan

-- 
Dr Duncan Mercer
Australian Centre for Field Robotics
The Rose Street Building, J04
The University of Sydney.
2006 NSW, Australia
Tel:  +61 (0) 2 9036 7178
Fax: +61 (0) 2 9351 7474