Some apps don't work anymore :/

Recently, I have noticed that many applications don’t start anymore. For example, if I click Empathy in the Applications menu, nothing happens.
Then I try to start it from the command line and I get:


**thomas@the-matrix:~ $ empathy**
The program 'empathy' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length erro'.
  (Details: serial 29 error_code 16 request_code 136 minor_code 17)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)\

The same happens with Armegatron, Quadrapassel, and several others.

It seems as if my “openSuSE Ship” is starting to sink. Is it time for a new one(openSuSE install)?

Thanks,
Thomas

it sounds like you installed something by hand that is incompatible

so

what did you install or uninstall last ?
did you “upgrade” from 11.2 to 11.3 or 11.3 to 11.4 ?

Install: The MySQL Server

Nope, I started out with 11.3.
Oddly enough, openSuSE started to act up after I installed Ubuntu next to it.
Perhaps that is somehow related?

On 06/09/2011 06:06 AM, thomas23272 wrote:
>
> Oddly enough, openSuSE started to act up after I installed Ubuntu next
> to it.
> Perhaps that is somehow related?

are you sharing /home and all the configure files/directories therein?

which, is probably a bad idea!

personally, i don’t let KDE and Gnome share the same /home/[user]


dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10
Acer Aspire One D255, 1.66 GHz Atom, 1 GB RAM, Intel Pineview graphics

  • When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction! *

It’s coincidence, unless you dumped one on top of the other!

No, I have the /home and the / on different partitions. I also don’t have KDE, just Gnome.

On 06/09/2011 09:06 PM, thomas23272 wrote:
> No, I have the /home and the / on different partitions. I also don’t

so you have two different /home partitions? like:

1 partition for Ubuntu /root
1 partition for Ubuntu /home
1 partition for openSUSE /root
1 partition for openSUSE /home
1 partition for swap

and, are you running
both Gnome2 and Gnome3?
or Unity and Gnome2?
or Unity and Gnome3?


dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10
Acer Aspire One D255, 1.66 GHz Atom, 1 GB RAM, Intel Pineview graphics

  • When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction! *

Ubuntu is on the same partition. openSuSE is on different ones. And I don’t know about swap. Probably on its own partition as well(although I almost never use more than 8KB of it).

Only Gnome2 on both, I think.
I certainly don’t have Gnome3, and I’ve never heard of nity, so probably not.

It dose not look like Ubuntu is the issue
so Mysql
from the suse repos or by hand

zypper in mysql

or
MySQL :: MySQL Downloads (Generally Available)

On 06/09/2011 11:06 PM, thomas23272 wrote:
>
>> so you have two different /home partitions? like:
>>
>> 1 partition for Ubuntu /root
>> 1 partition for Ubuntu /home
>> 1 partition for openSUSE /root
>> 1 partition for openSUSE /home
>> 1 partition for swap
>>
> Ubuntu is on the same partition. openSuSE is on different ones. And I
> don’t know about swap. Probably on its own partition as well(although I
> almost never use more than 8KB of it).

these commands in a terminal will point out what is being used in either
operating system:


df -h
sudo /sbin/fdisk -l
cat /proc/partitions
cat /etc/fstab
mount

i’d guess you have to run it in both openSUSE and Ubuntu to see if you
are mounting the same /home partition in each system…

if you are, then you are sharing the configuration files in your home
directory with two different systems…which is much more ‘dangerous’
than sharing the same /home with two different DEs (which i mentioned is
something i won’t do–and, wouldn’t think of sharing the same between
two distros…though some do, but that is too many variables for me)…

at any rate, my answer to your question “Perhaps that [two systems side
by side] is somehow related?” is: yes, i’d guess the problem is
definitely related if the two systems share any partition in addition
to /swap


dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10
Acer Aspire One D255, 1.66 GHz Atom, 1 GB RAM, Intel Pineview graphics

  • When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction! *

Thank you all for your help. I upgraded to 11.4, and now it all works!

On 06/15/2011 06:06 AM, thomas23272 wrote:
>
> Thank you all for your help. I upgraded to 11.4, and now it all works!

but, if you are still using the same /home i predict trouble will come
again, eventually…


dd
http://is.gd/bpoMD