[Triumf-linux-managers] SL6 bugs: gnome terminal running out of file descriptors & thunderbird gui issues

[Simon Claret]

Hi,

I have run into two annoying bugs on SL6.

BUG #1

The first problem is with gnome terminal, which refuses to start after a 
few weeks of normal gnome usage.

The error it gives is "Failed to create pipe for communicating with 
child process (Too many open files)":

http://trshare.triumf.ca/~sclaret/sl6_bugs/too_many_open_files.png

For a frequent shell user, this is highly annoying.

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BUG #1 DIAGNOSIS

I think it's this bug:

*https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=667539*
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=632257

Since my per-process file descriptor limit is the default 1024:

sclaret at neut19 /etc/security> ulimit -a | grep files
open files                      (-n) 1024

and gnome-terminal seems to be pushing that limit:

sclaret at neut19 /etc/security> ps -AF | grep gnome-term
sclaret   6151     1  0 124155 29860  0 Jun27 ?        00:04:40 
gnome-terminal

sclaret at neut19 /etc/security> ls /proc/6151/fd | wc -l
1024

sclaret at neut19 /proc/6151/fd> ls -alh | tail -n 4
lrwx------ 1 sclaret users 64 Jul 13 14:14 996 -> /dev/pts/501
lrwx------ 1 sclaret users 64 Jul 13 14:14 997 -> /dev/ptmx
lrwx------ 1 sclaret users 64 Jul 13 14:14 998 -> /dev/pts/485
lrwx------ 1 sclaret users 64 Jul 13 14:14 999 -> /dev/ptmx

The overall number of open file descriptors on the system doesn't seem 
too crazy:

sclaret at neut19 /etc/security> lsof | wc -l
8553

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BUG #1 WORKAROUNDS

Restarting gnome fixes it (just restarting gnome-terminal may too), but 
is disruptive.

Using a different terminal lets you continue working (i.e. alt-f2 xterm).

Hopefully, increasing the file descriptor limits and restarting gnome 
will keep it at bay for longer:

[root at neut19 security]# emacs -nw /etc/security/limits.conf
sclaret soft nofile 8192
sclaret hard nofile 10240

Activating unlimited scrollback may also avoid it (though I haven't 
tried, because it would require a restart).  And unlimited scrollback 
could be problematic in its own right, if it starts eating a lot of memory.

Presumably, Centos / Scientific Linux will patch gnome-terminal 
somewhere down the line.

-----

BUG #2

Thunderbird occasionally becomes unusable, with javascript errors and 
GUI problems:

http://trshare.triumf.ca/~sclaret/sl6_bugs/js_bug.png
http://trshare.triumf.ca/~sclaret/sl6_bugs/gui_problem.png

It can happen 5 or 6 times in a day, and seems to have started 2-3 weeks 
ago.

It seems to be triggered by gui interaction (i.e. composing an email).

The only way to continue using thunderbird is to kill and restart it.

Mozilla and redhat seem to have embarked on a sort of long term support 
arrangement, so I'm hopeful they will patch thunderbird and this'll 
disappear.

One way to work around might be to delete the metadata in ~/.thunderbird 
or ~/.mozilla (haven't tried yet - be careful not to delete your browser 
preferences).

-----

Cheers,

Simon
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