Xpra: Ticket #162: clipboard: pasting to josm fails: java.lang.NullPointerException: Failed to retrieve atom name.

(josm is the java openstreetmap editor)

Steps to reproduce: 1) xpra start :4 2) DISPLAY=:4 gnome-terminal & 3) xpra attach :4 & 4) josm 5) in gnome-terminal: select some text in and choose Edit->Copy 6) in josm: choose Files->Download from OSM

Expected results: 6) josm shows a dialog that lets you choose the location.

Actual results: 6) josm shows a dialog with "Unexpected Exception" and prints the following to stderr:

Atom was 0
java.lang.NullPointerException: Failed to retrieve atom name.
	at sun.awt.X11.XlibWrapper.XGetAtomName(Native Method)
	at sun.awt.X11.XAtom.getName(XAtom.java:186)
	at sun.awt.X11.XDataTransferer.getTargetNameForAtom(XDataTransferer.java:141)
	at sun.awt.X11.XDataTransferer.getNativeForFormat(XDataTransferer.java:130)
	at sun.awt.datatransfer.DataTransferer.getFlavorsForFormats(DataTransferer.java:785)
	at sun.awt.datatransfer.ClipboardTransferable.<init>(ClipboardTransferable.java:89)
	at sun.awt.X11.XClipboard.getContents(XClipboard.java:101)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.tagging.ac.AutoCompletingComboBox$AutoCompletingComboBoxDocument.insertString(AutoCompletingComboBox.java:117)
	at javax.swing.text.AbstractDocument.replace(AbstractDocument.java:672)
	at javax.swing.text.JTextComponent.setText(JTextComponent.java:1707)
	at javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalComboBoxEditor$1.setText(MetalComboBoxEditor.java:61)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicComboBoxEditor.setItem(BasicComboBoxEditor.java:77)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.tagging.ac.AutoCompletingComboBox.configureEditor(AutoCompletingComboBox.java:191)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicComboBoxUI$Handler.contentsChanged(BasicComboBoxUI.java:1821)
	at javax.swing.AbstractListModel.fireContentsChanged(AbstractListModel.java:117)
	at javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel.setSelectedItem(DefaultComboBoxModel.java:105)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.widgets.ComboBoxHistory.addElement(ComboBoxHistory.java:77)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.tagging.ac.AutoCompletingComboBox.setPossibleItems(AutoCompletingComboBox.java:228)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.download.PlaceSelection.buildSearchPanel(PlaceSelection.java:116)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.download.PlaceSelection.addGui(PlaceSelection.java:138)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.download.DownloadDialog.buildMainPanel(DownloadDialog.java:117)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.download.DownloadDialog.<init>(DownloadDialog.java:193)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.gui.download.DownloadDialog.getInstance(DownloadDialog.java:63)
	at org.openstreetmap.josm.actions.DownloadAction.actionPerformed(DownloadAction.java:35)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2012)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2335)
	at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:404)
	at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:374)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.doClick(BasicMenuItemUI.java:829)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI$Handler.mouseReleased(BasicMenuItemUI.java:873)
	at java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(AWTEventMulticaster.java:289)
	at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6268)
	at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3267)
	at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6033)
	at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2045)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4629)
	at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2103)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4455)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4633)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4297)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4227)
	at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2089)
	at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2517)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4455)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:649)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(EventQueue.java:96)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(EventQueue.java:608)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(EventQueue.java:606)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:105)
	at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:116)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:622)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(EventQueue.java:620)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(AccessControlContext.java:105)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:619)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:275)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:200)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:190)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:185)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:177)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:138)

More info: 1) If I click "Do Nothing", open a local (non-xpra) gnome-terminal and select some text from it I can continue using josm normally. 2) I'm using xpra 0.3.2+dfsg-1 from Debian unstable and josm 0.0.svn5267+dfsg1-1. gnome-terminal is 2.30.2-1.



Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:20:58 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed

Related tickets and changesets:

Will test.


Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:51:39 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Hmmm, I'll try again with the 0.3 branch but I cannot reproduce it with trunk so far.

Just to clarify, step (5) "in gnome-terminal" (this gnome terminal is not part of the xpra session, is it? - in any case, I tried both)

Does the error happen as soon as "Files->Download from OSM" is clicked? I've pasted the value I copied into the clipboard in various places without effect.

Also, can you please specify the bitness of both client and server? (64 vs 32) Does this still happen when running on the same box? (or a box with the same bitness)


Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:58:08 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

Step "2) DISPLAY=:4 gnome-terminal &" starts the gnome-terminal so that it will be accessed over xpra yes.

The error happens immediately when you click "Download from OSM", you will not get the expected dialog at all.

This is amd64, client and server are the same machine as you can guess from "3) xpra attach :4 &"


Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:30:57 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

Screencast to show exactly what happens:

http://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/screencast/xpra-bug-162.webm


Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:33:31 GMT - Antoine Martin:

The only thing I managed to get is this:

/xpra/platform/clipboard_base.py:247: GtkWarning: \
    IA__gdk_x11_atom_to_xatom_for_display: \
    assertion `ATOM_TO_INDEX (atom) < virtual_atom_array->len' failed \
    gtk.Invisible.do_selection_request_event(self, event)

Which I will investigate, as this may be the cause of the problem.


That is using debian testing with the following packages:

ii  gnome-terminal 3.4.1.1-1      GNOME terminal emulator application
ii  josm           0.0.svn5267+df Editor for OpenStreetMap
ii  xpra           0.3.2+dfsg-1   tool to detach/reattach running X programs

Also tested with xpra from 0.3.x branch... still no Java error.


Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:35:35 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Apparently this bug also happens when pasting into matlab.


Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:38:30 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Installed 'sid' in a VM and followed the instructions *exactly*. No errors, just the warning as per comment:5.

(from the bug description I was not 100% certain that josm was started within xpra or not so I tried both just in case)

Will have to close this bug if I can't reproduce it... Hopefully fixing the warning will fix the bug.


Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:51:30 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

Hmm, surely the screencast shows that josm was not started within xpra?

Should I start attaching virtual machine images next? What VMs are you using?


Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:26:54 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Hah, didn't think of checking the screencast again. Anyway, since I tried both options, this doesn't matter. I did it all again, side by side - at the same speed as the screencast... still no crash.

I am using a debian sid image which I created by cloning my wheezy image and "dist-upgrade"ing it to sid. I really don't know what to do next to reproduce the bug. Feel free to put your VM for download (compressed obviously).

Did you use josm before on this box? Maybe the bug requires existing/specific .josm/ data? Does it happen with a clean new user too?


Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:38:30 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

No it was a fresh installation so no .josm.


Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:23:32 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Found this bug which seems related: mozilla #495392: it mentions java apps (matlab), gtk atoms, etc

gtk_selection_data_get_data_type(selection_data) == gdk_atom_intern("TARGETS", FALSE) before calling gtk_selection_data_get_targets(), and, if so and gtk_selection_data_get_format(selection_data) == 32, assume XA_ATOM type and use gdk_x11_xatom_to_atom() to do the conversion to GdkAtom. (But the GTK bug should still be fixed.)"

lindi, can you confirm that the video was recorded on a plain machine, not a virtual machine, or something like that? No clipboard manager installed either?

Also, please provide client and server logs with r1145 and this change to clipboard_base.py:

debug = log.info
#debug = log.debug

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:29:02 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

Yeah no virtual machines used here. I am not sure if gnome3 counts as a clipboard manager or not.


Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:31:50 GMT - Antoine Martin: attachment set

full package list found on the sid VM


Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:32:22 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Attached above is the full package list from this sid VM.

(no: gnome3 does not count as a clipboard manager - I was thinking of things like klipper, which are known to cause problems by constantly messing with the clipboard, even when nothing is happening)


Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:35:44 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

I can reproduce the issue if I boot the following livecd:

http://lindi.iki.fi/lindi/xpra/live-build.debian.net/build/20120726.072537.172975686/binary.hybrid.iso

It's debian wheezy with task-gnome-desktop, xpra and josm packages.


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:07:04 GMT - Antoine Martin:

I cannot reproduce using this iso, only a warning. But now that the warning is also fixed, following the significant fixes from r1226 and r1219, I'm not going to spend much more time on this. I will just backport those fixes to 0.3.x and 0.4.x

r1224 and and r1225 also cleanup the code and all the recent changesets also make the debug logging more useful. If the problem still occurs, please apply the one-liner change from comment:11


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:32:54 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Although that still does not explain why I couldn't reproduce the bug, r1228 fixes a long standing bug with GdkAtom and ensures we do send the atom's names and not their values! (bloody variable names!)

It would cause exactly the kinds of bugs reported here.


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:31:47 GMT - Punx120:

I upgrade to the last version in SVN and I still have the problem with matlab.

Server log:

2012-07-31 10:26:40,066 do_selection_request_event(<gtk.gdk.Event at 0x7f8e29877f80: GDK_SELECTION_REQUEST selection=PRIMARY, target=TARGETS, property=XAWT_SELECTION>)
2012-07-31 10:26:40,067 do_selection_request_event(<gtk.gdk.Event at 0x7f8e29877f80: GDK_SELECTION_REQUEST selection=PRIMARY, target=TARGETS, property=XAWT_SELECTION>) target=TARGETS, selection=PRIMARY
2012-07-31 10:26:40,067 do_selection_get(<GtkSelectionData at 0x7fffc3d4d740>, 0, 1542692228)
2012-07-31 10:26:40,067 get clipboard from remote handler id=13
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 process clipboard packet type=clipboard-contents
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 process clipboard contents, selection=PRIMARY, type=ATOM, format=32
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 _munge_wire_selection_to_raw(integers, ATOM, 32, <type 'list'>:2)
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 wire selection to raw, encoding=integers, type=ATOM, format=32, len(data)=2
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 struct.pack(@LL, [49253, 49302])
2012-07-31 10:26:40,072 clipboard wire -> raw: ('ATOM', 32, 'integers', [49253, 49302]) -> 'e\xc0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x96\xc0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
2012-07-31 10:26:40,073 got clipboard contents(13)=16 (type=ATOM, format=32)
Atom was 0 10:26:40,073 get clipboard from remote result(13)={'data': 'e\xc0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x96\xc0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00', 'type': 'ATOM', 'format': 32}
2012-07-31 10:26:40,073 do_selection_get(<GtkSelectionData at 0x7fffc3d4d740>,0,1542692228) calling selection_data.set(ATOM, 32, <type 'str'>:16)

I couldn't find the log on the client (windows), the file in my %USERPROFILE%/Application Data/Xpra is old.


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:40:37 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Hah, here's a piece of the puzzle I did not have: you're connecting from a windows pc, right? What I am seeing in the debug log (thanks!) looks exactly like the bug I've just fixed (except the fix is not used in the windows codepath..)

I'll see what I can do on MS Windows. Can you confirm that matlab does not have problems with up-to-date xpra on non-windows clients?


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:45:51 GMT - Punx120:

Well i don't have a non windows clients at end ... I guess I could connect a client via a Forward X11 session ... let me see what I can do !


Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:58:31 GMT - Punx120:

Here's what i did:

  1. Start the server and launch matlab on it
  2. Start a XMing on my windows, open an xterm and SSH to the server
  3. Start gedit via X11 forwarding, copy some test in the gedit window and paste it (via middle click) in matlab
  4. It works !!!

here's the log

2012-07-31 10:56:43,889 process clipboard packet type=clipboard-request
2012-07-31 10:56:43,889 process clipboard request, request_id=9, selection=PRIMARY, local name=PRIMARY, target=TARGETS
2012-07-31 10:56:43,889 get_contents(TARGETS,<function got_contents at 0x10e9a28>)
2012-07-31 10:56:43,900 got_contents(ATOM, 32, <type 'str'>:96) data=[123, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 119, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 122, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 125, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 126, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 71, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 127, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 128, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 31, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 129, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 130, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 131, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], str(data)={wz}~G����
2012-07-31 10:56:43,900 _do_munge_raw_selection_to_wire(TARGETS, ATOM, 32, <type 'str'>:96) atoms=[<GdkAtom 0x7b = 'TIMESTAMP'>, <GdkAtom 0x77 = 'TARGETS'>, <GdkAtom 0x7a = 'MULTIPLE'>, <GdkAtom 0x7d = 'GTK_TEXT_BUFFER_CONTENTS'>, <GdkAtom 0x7e = 'application/x-gtk-text-buffer-rich-text'>, <GdkAtom 0x47 = 'UTF8_STRING'>, <GdkAtom 0x7f = 'COMPOUND_TEXT'>, <GdkAtom 0x80 = 'TEXT'>, <GdkAtom 0x1f = 'STRING'>, <GdkAtom 0x81 = 'text/plain;charset=utf-8'>, <GdkAtom 0x82 = 'text/plain;charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968'>, <GdkAtom 0x83 = 'text/plain'>], atom_names=['TIMESTAMP', 'TARGETS', 'MULTIPLE', 'GTK_TEXT_BUFFER_CONTENTS', 'application/x-gtk-text-buffer-rich-text', 'UTF8_STRING', 'COMPOUND_TEXT', 'TEXT', 'STRING', 'text/plain;charset=utf-8', 'text/plain;charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968', 'text/plain']
2012-07-31 10:56:43,901 clipboard raw -> wire: ('ATOM', 32, '{\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00w\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00z\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00}\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00~\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00G\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x7f\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x1f\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x81\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x82\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x83\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00') -> ('atoms', ['TIMESTAMP', 'TARGETS', 'MULTIPLE', 'GTK_TEXT_BUFFER_CONTENTS', 'application/x-gtk-text-buffer-rich-text', 'UTF8_STRING', 'COMPOUND_TEXT', 'TEXT', 'STRING', 'text/plain;charset=utf-8', 'text/plain;charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968', 'text/plain'])
2012-07-31 10:56:43,919 process clipboard packet type=clipboard-request
2012-07-31 10:56:43,919 process clipboard request, request_id=10, selection=PRIMARY, local name=PRIMARY, target=STRING
2012-07-31 10:56:43,919 get_contents(STRING,<function got_contents at 0x10e9aa0>)
2012-07-31 10:56:43,930 got_contents(STRING, 8, <type 'str'>:4) data=[116, 111, 116, 111], str(data)=toto
2012-07-31 10:56:43,930 _do_munge_raw_selection_to_wire(STRING, STRING, 8, <type 'str'>:4)
2012-07-31 10:56:43,930 clipboard raw -> wire: ('STRING', 8, 'toto') -> ('bytes', 'toto')

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:27:15 GMT - Antoine Martin:

r1234 fixes it for win32 clients too - this fix is in the 0.3.x and 0.4.x branches only as I will try to come up with a better solution for trunk (likely to be more invasive)


Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:22:52 GMT - Timo Juhani Lindfors:

<lindi-> totaam: at least in my quick test the issue does not seem to occur anymore with r1319


Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:00:43 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution set

ok, will follow up in #176 with backports for 0.3.x and 0.4.x branch.


Sat, 23 Jan 2021 04:47:13 GMT - migration script:

this ticket has been moved to: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/162