Bug#309118: capplets: gnome-background-properties crashes repeatedly, not workaroundable by novice users

[Fabian Pietsch]

Package: capplets
Version: 1:2.8.2-3
Followup-For: Bug #309118

As stated a bit unspecifically in the original report,
gnome-background-properties crashes immediately after being started when
there are entries in ~/.gnome2/backgrounds.xml with an empty <filename>
(and <name>) tag. It seems that such entries are added when the user
tries to add an image with special characters in the file name.

"Crashes" here means "gets a segfault, obscured by an automatically
started GNOME bug reporting tool". It was also reported to me that
gnome-background-properties hung indefinitely just after trying to add
such an image, but the system was already a bit unresponsive because of
high load at that time, so the user might have been too impatient.
It seems that the user killed gnome-background-properties after that,
probably "by force" / using GNOME's "doesn't respond" dialog.

The image was displayed correctly as desktop background after setting
the value of gconf's /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename
manually. gnome-background-properties stopped crashing after removing
the offending "empty" entry in ~/.gnome2/backgrounds.xml manually.

The special characters in question were German umlauts ue and oe,
encoded as UTF-8, in an ISO-8859-1 locale. Strangely enough, nautilus
and gnome-background-properties (after setting the background manually)
display the characters correctly all the same.

The net result of this bug is that novice users have no chance to change
their desktop background after trying *once* to set an image with
special characters in the file name, as the UI for changing desktop
backgrounds just keeps crashing.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-2-k7
Locale: LANG=de_DE, LC_CTYPE=de_DE (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages capplets depends on:
ii  capplets-data         1:2.8.2-3          configuration applets for GNOME 2 
ii  gnome-control-center  1:2.8.2-3          The GNOME Control Center for GNOME
ii  gnome-desktop-data    2.8.3-2            Common files for GNOME 2 desktop a
ii  gnome-icon-theme      2.8.0-4            GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gnome-panel           2.8.3-1            launcher and docking facility for 
ii  gnome-session         2.8.1-6            The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii  libart-2.0-2          2.3.17-1           Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0           1.8.0-4            The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0         0.2.6-6            Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0          2.8.1-2            Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0        2.8.1-2            The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                 2.3.2.ds1-22sarge3 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libeel2-2             2.8.2-1            Eazel Extensions Library (for GNOM
ii  libesd0               0.2.35-2           Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared 
ii  libfontconfig1        2.3.1-2            generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6          2.1.7-2.5          FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgail-common        1.8.4-1            GNOME Accessibility Implementation
ii  libgail17             1.8.4-1            GNOME Accessibility Implementation
ii  libgconf2-4           2.8.1-6            GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt11           1.2.0-11.1         LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0           1:2.4.2-2          library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0          2.6.4-1            The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-desktop-2    2.8.3-2            Utility library for loading .deskt
ii  libgnome-keyring0     0.4.2-1            GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgnome2-0           2.8.1-2            The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0     2.8.0-1            A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0          2.8.1-3            The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0        2.8.4-4            The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnutls11           1.0.16-13.2        GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgpg-error0         1.0-1              library for common error values an
ii  libgstreamer-plugins0 0.8.8-2            Various GStreamer libraries and li
ii  libgstreamer0.8-0     0.8.9-2            Core GStreamer libraries, plugins,
ii  libgtk2.0-0           2.6.4-3.1          The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6               6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62             6b-10              The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  libmetacity0          1:2.8.8-1          Common library of lightweight GTK2
ii  libnautilus2-2        2.8.2-2            libraries for nautilus components 
ii  liborbit2             1:2.12.2-1         libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0         1.8.1-1            Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0              1.7-5              lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 X Window System Session Management
ii  libstartup-notificati 0.8-1              library for program launch feedbac
ii  libtasn1-2            0.2.10-3sarge1     Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libx11-6              6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxext6              6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxft2               2.1.7-1            FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxklavier8          1.03-1             X Keyboard Extension high-level AP
ii  libxml2               2.6.16-7           GNOME XML library
ii  libxrandr2            6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 X Window System Resize, Rotate and
ii  libxrender1           1:0.9.0.2-0bpo1    X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  nautilus              2.8.2-2            file manager and graphical shell f
ii  xlibs                 6.9.0.dfsg.1-5bpo2 X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g                1:1.2.2-4.sarge.2  compression library - runtime

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