Xpra: Ticket #334: Server fails to start up on Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit server

With revision r3385, I am getting this error when I try and start Xpra:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "root/usr/local/bin/xpra", line 6, in <module>
    sys.exit(xpra.scripts.main.main(__file__, sys.argv))
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/scripts/main.py", line 449, in main
    return run_server(parser, options, mode, script_file, args)
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/scripts/server.py", line 485, in run_server
    app.init(clobber, sockets, opts)
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/x11/server.py", line 162, in init
    X11ServerBase.init(self, clobber, sockets, opts)
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/x11/x11_server_base.py", line 65, in init
    self.x11_init()
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/x11/server.py", line 181, in x11_init
    self._wm = Wm("Xpra", self.clobber)
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/x11/gtk_x11/wm.py", line 214, in __init__
    self._wm_selection.acquire(mode)
  File "/home/jmartin/repos/Xpra.current/root/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/x11/gtk_x11/selection.py", line 102, in acquire
    ts_num, selection_xatom, self._xwindow, 0, 0)
  File "window_bindings.pyx", line 642, in xpra.x11.bindings.window_bindings.X11WindowBindings.sendClientMessage (xpra/x11/bindings/window_bindings.c:4821)
  File "window_bindings.pyx", line 447, in xpra.x11.bindings.window_bindings.X11WindowBindings.get_xatom (xpra/x11/bindings/window_bindings.c:2200)
OverflowError: can't convert negative value to unsigned long

The Xvfb-for-Xpra-:101 process is left running after the error and must be manually killed.

This is on a 64-bit Ubuntu 12.10 server installation.



Wed, 15 May 2013 02:58:43 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed

Well, that's an interesting one. Why would the atom be negative... Strange.


Sat, 20 Jul 2013 07:03:07 GMT - Antoine Martin: status, description changed; resolution set

Cannot reproduce with latest trunk, but in the process I found some other problems: r3896, r3895, r3894

Feel free to re-open if you still have issues. If so, I don't think it will tell us much more, but maybe running with "-d all" can help.


Fri, 16 Aug 2013 09:28:07 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution deleted

Also occurs in focus code on CentOS 6.3: ML: xpra 0.10.0 no keyboard input


Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:01:06 GMT - Antoine Martin: owner, status changed

I've tried very hard to reproduce this bug and I just cannot hit it, there must be something different in my env.


Can you please post the output with:

XPRA_X11_DEBUG=1 xpra start ... -d all

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 09:13:08 GMT - Nick Burrett: attachment set

Debug log from xpra session that accepts no keyboard imput


Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:20:23 GMT - Nick Burrett:

I've found that if I start /usr/bin/emacs, it may spawn an xterm to run 'lynx' when I click on the 'GNU Emacs' link. That spawned xterm does have working keyboard input, whilst the emacs window remains without any keyboard input.


Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:26:24 GMT - Antoine Martin:

That spawned xterm does have working keyboard input, whilst the emacs window remains without any keyboard input.


That's because there are two ways to give focus to an application (one of X11's quirks..), and those apps must be using different ones.

The one that was having problems should be fixed in r4185, but:

I have added a test script to show us the value of the x11_server_time in r4189 (that was the value that ended up being negative)


Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:38:02 GMT - Nick Burrett:

I applied the r4185 patch. I now have working keyboard entry.


Thu, 22 Aug 2013 04:17:57 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution set


Mon, 19 May 2014 12:34:22 GMT - Antoine Martin: milestone changed

(setting correct milestone the work was completed in)


Sat, 23 Jan 2021 04:51:59 GMT - migration script:

this ticket has been moved to: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/334