Bug#710855: gdk-pixbuf: Cannot open pixbuf loader module file '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache'

[Justin B Rye]

A different Justin wrote:
> Just throwing my story in here as well.

Me too.  And it seems to me that pretty much everything about this
message is misleading.

> Processing triggers for gnome-icon-theme (3.10.0-1) ...
> 
> (gtk-update-icon-cache-3.0:13210): GdkPixbuf-WARNING **: Cannot open
> pixbuf loader module file
> '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache': No such
> file or directory

This seems to be mistaken: the file (or the .../i386-linux-gnu/...
equivalent in the case of my old testbed machine) did exist.
 
> This likely means that your installation is broken.

If this is talking about my installation of Debian GNU/Linux, it's a
wild and scurrilous lie - at the moment, the only thing wrong with
this system is that something called GdkPixbuf is emitting inaccurate
errors.

If it means my installation of gnome-icon-theme is nonfunctional,
that's not a problem, since that package is only installed on this
machine because of overenthusiastic dependencies.  I'm running FVWM,
and as far as I can tell my system can survive indefinitely without
GNOME desktop icons.

If it means my installation of something else, it needs to say what
it's talking about.

> Try running the command
>   gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders >
> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache
> to make things work again for the time being.

This is wrong advice: gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders is installed under
/usr/lib/$arch/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/, so I'll just get a "command not
found".  It might also mention that I'll need root privileges.

But even if the message was correct, emitting it like this would still
be bad, since you're expecting users to memorise it before it gets
pushed off the screen by other messages.  "Something about query
caching buffers being... overloaded?  I need to run something
beginning with gd-, but the only matching command is gdiffmk..."

Remember that this message is being read by people who are not
software developers, and won't recognise GDK-Pixbuf as the name of a
graphics library.  How are they supposed to guess what sort of
brokenness they need to be on the lookout for?
-- 
JBR	with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
	sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package