Gdk-ERROR **: BadValue ...serial 921 error_code 2...

["R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar" <chandra@ee.uwa.edu.au>]

Dear Folks,

Any help with the problem outlined below is gratefully appreciated.

Please copy reply to

chandra@ee.uwa.edu.au

since I am noyt subscribed to this list.

Thanks in advance.

Chandra
08 Apr 05
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Dear Folks,

Recently, I successfully installed VMware-workstation-4.5.2-8848 on a
Debian Linux PC host running a custom 2.6.9 kernel with KDE 3.3 as
window manager.  I was also able to install and run a Windows XP guest
OS on this machine without any difficulty.

I have run periodic

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

on my machine since the vmware installation.

Today, I have been unable to run vmware and get the error:

****
Gdk-ERROR **: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
  serial 921 error_code 2 request_code 45 minor_code 0
****

I realize that this is a non-specific error caused by some Debian
package(s) that was/were upgraded recently.  Looking around on the web,
I have found the following possible solutions:

1. Downgrade version of msttcorefonts:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=19&threadID=8209&messageID=66886#66886

removing the package and running VMware did not help.  Neither did
reverting to a previous version available at /var/cache/apt/archives.

My present installation has msttcorefonts-1.2.  If this is known to
cause problems, I would appreciate knowing.

2. Uninstall all truetype fonts you have installed, and then try adding
them one after another until you'll find all fonts which kill your
system:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=19&threadID=8567&messageID=71278#71278

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=19&threadID=8465&messageID=70717#70717

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=234994

Because removing all TTF fonts would break many packages, I listed all
packages that had the words "font" or "ttf" in their names that had
been installed in the last five days (before which my VMware machine
was working):

find /var/cache/apt/archives -ctime -5 | grep font

gives

/var/cache/apt/archives/gsfonts_8.14+v8.11+urw-0.1_all.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/xfonts-base_4.3.0.dfsg.1-12_all.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/xfonts-100dpi_4.3.0.dfsg.1-12_all.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/xfonts-75dpi_4.3.0.dfsg.1-12_all.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/xfonts-scalable_4.3.0.dfsg.1-12_all.deb

all of which were reverted to their previous package versions, with no 
effect.

find /var/cache/apt/archives -ctime -5 | grep ttf

gives

/var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-opensymbol_1.1.3-8_all.deb

which again gave no change with reversion to status quo ante.


3. Wrong libraries

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=19&threadID=8465&messageID=70251#70251

Doing

ldd /usr/local/lib/vmware/bin/vmware

gives

        libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/libdl.so.2 (0xb7fcd000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/tls/libm.so.6 (0xb7faa000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xb7ee3000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xb7ed5000)
        libXi.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6 (0xb7ecd000)
        libgdk_pixbuf.so.2 => /usr/lib/libgdk_pixbuf.so.2 (0xb7eb8000)
        libglib-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libglib-1.2.so.0 (0xb7e97000)
        libgmodule-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgmodule-1.2.so.0 (0xb7e93000)
        libgdk-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgdk-1.2.so.0 (0xb7e5b000)
        libgtk-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgtk-1.2.so.0 (0xb7d13000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7d04000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0xb7bd0000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fea000)

The file /etc/ld.so.conf does not contain any reference to
/usr/local/lib/vmware/bin/vmware and adding the line did not help.

Doing

find /var/cache/apt/archives -ctime -5 | grep lib

gives me 97 lines of results.  It is tedious to track the cause down
further to say the least.

It is my suspicion that some configuration file, perhaps in /etc/...,
must have been changed: the difficulty is in tracking it down.  I think
I was prompted for a changed fontconfig configuration file, but cannot
recall whether it was before or after the Gdk-ERROR problem.  Perhaps a
file in the XFree86 cohort may be responsible instead.

Meanwhile, I cannot use my virtual machine.

Can anyone help, please?

TIA.

Chandra
07 Apr 05

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