Bug#474693: gnome-terminal: error creating child process message not detailed enough

Paul Wise pabs at debian.org
Mon Apr 7 09:14:58 UTC 2008


Package: gnome-terminal
Version: 2.22.0-1
Severity: normal

Today I found my open gnome-terminal could not create new terminal tabs:

There was an error creating the child process for this terminal

This message is not detailed enough, it should give some indication of
the error from libc or where-ever the error came from.

In my case, it was because gnome-terminal was using lots of memory and
as a result couldn't fork to run bash:

gettimeofday({1207558622, 492909}, NULL) = 0
geteuid32()                             = 1000
getuid32()                              = 1000
getegid32()                             = 1000
getgid32()                              = 1000
access("/bin/bash", X_OK)               = 0
writev(11, [{"GIOP\1\2\1\0\235\0\0\0", 12}, {" \26\234\277\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\34\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\335\300\370"..., 157}], 2) = 169
poll([{fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=11, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI, revents=POLLIN}, {fd=12, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 4, -1) = 1
read(11, "GIOP\1\2\1\1\\\0\0\0", 12)    = 12
read(11, " \26\234\277\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\f\0\0\0\1\1\1\1\1"..., 92) = 92
write(18, "\6\0\0\0", 4)                = 4
read(18, "\1\0\0\0", 4)                 = 4
read(18, "\220\367\4\10", 4)            = 4
recvmsg(18, {msg_name(0)=NULL, msg_iov(1)=[{"\277\351{\267w\1\0\0\360M^@\0\0\0\0\200&}\267\10\'2\32"..., 2048}], msg_controllen=16, {cmsg_len=16, cmsg_level=SOL_SOCKET, cmsg_type=SCM_RIGHTS, {15}}, msg_flags=0}, 0) = 1
recvmsg(18, {msg_name(0)=NULL, msg_iov(1)=[{"\277\351{\267w\1\0\0\360M^@\0\0\0\0\200&}\267\10\'2\32"..., 2048}], msg_controllen=16, {cmsg_len=16, cmsg_level=SOL_SOCKET, cmsg_type=SCM_RIGHTS, {31}}, msg_flags=0}, 0) = 1
pipe([36, 37])                          = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0xb6d23768) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
close(36)                               = 0
close(37)                               = 0
close(15)                               = 0
close(31)                               = 0
open("/dev/ptmx", O_RDWR)               = 15
fcntl64(15, F_GETFL)                    = 0x2 (flags O_RDWR)
fcntl64(15, F_SETFL, O_RDWR)            = 0
ioctl(15, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(15, TIOCGPTN, [20])               = 0
stat64("/dev/pts/20", {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 20), ...}) = 0
ioctl(15, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(15, TIOCGPTN, [20])               = 0
stat64("/dev/pts/20", {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 20), ...}) = 0
statfs("/dev/pts/20", {f_type="DEVPTS_SUPER_MAGIC", f_bsize=4096, f_blocks=0, f_bfree=0, f_bavail=0, f_files=0, f_ffree=0, f_fsid={0, 0}, f_namelen=255, f_frsize=4096}) = 0
ioctl(15, TIOCSPTLCK, [0])              = 0
pipe([31, 36])                          = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0xb6d23768) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
close(31)                               = 0
close(36)                               = 0
close(15)                               = 0

Please fix this message to be more detailed and therefore useful. A
Google search shows that there are numerous causes to this error
message, and in all instances they are mysterious to end-users.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-1-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-terminal depends on:
ii  gnome-control-center       1:2.22.0-2    utilities to configure the GNOME d
ii  gnome-terminal-data        2.22.0-1      Data files for the GNOME terminal 
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.22.0-1      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0               2.22.0-1      Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libc6                      2.7-10        GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgconf2-4                2.22.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0                1:2.6.2-1     library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.16.2-1      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0                2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomeui-0               2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.12.9-2      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  liborbit2                  1:2.14.12-0.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
hi  libpango1.0-0              1.20.0-1      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libstartup-notification0   0.9-1         library for program launch feedbac
ii  libvte9                    1:0.16.13-1   Terminal emulator widget for GTK+ 
ii  libx11-6                   2:1.0.3-7     X11 client-side library
ii  libxrender1                1:0.9.4-1     X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  scrollkeeper               0.3.14-16     A free electronic cataloging syste

Versions of packages gnome-terminal recommends:
ii  yelp                          2.22.0-1   Help browser for GNOME 2

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
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