bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

[Óscar Fuentes]

After connecting to a machine running emacs as a server, on a remote
xterm:

$ emacsclient -c
Waiting for Emacs...
*ERROR*: Display :1123 can't be opened
$ emacs
<works correctly>
$ echo $DISPLAY
:1123

When `emacsclient -c' is executed on the remote xterm, a local shell
prints:

No protocol specified



In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, X toolkit)
 of 2013-12-05 on qcore
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11403000
System Description:	Ubuntu 13.10

Configured using:
 `configure --without-toolkit-scroll-bars --with-x-toolkit=lucid'

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  whitespace-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  flx-ido-mode: t
  ido-hacks-mode: t
  ido-everywhere: t
  evil-leader-mode: t
  evil-paredit-mode: t
  paredit-mode: t
  evil-mode: t
  evil-local-mode: t
  global-undo-tree-mode: t
  undo-tree-mode: t
  global-anzu-mode: t
  anzu-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent input:
M-x s e r v e r s t a r <return> e m a c s C-g <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu> <send-emacs-bug
-report>

Recent messages:
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/ofv-lp0.el (source)...done
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/ofv-wordnet.el (source)...done
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/tkidb.el (source)...
Loading /home/oscar/files/idb-login.el (source)...done
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/tkidb.el (source)...done
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/ofv-org.el (source)...done
Loading /home/oscar/elisp/.emacs...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Restarting server
progn: End of buffer
Quit [2 times]

Load-path shadows:
~/elisp/magit/.dir-locals hides /home/oscar/dev/emacs/emacs/lisp/gnus/.dir-locals
~/elisp/evil/lib/ert hides /home/oscar/dev/emacs/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/ert

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug sendmail whitespace etags-select etags
org-crypt lp0-mode paren paredit-menu yasnippet help-mode psvn wid-edit
pp elp vc-git org-magit org org-macro org-footnote org-pcomplete
org-list org-faces org-entities noutline outline org-version
ob-emacs-lisp ob ob-tangle org-src ob-ref ob-lob ob-table ob-keys ob-exp
ob-comint ob-core ob-eval org-compat org-macs org-loaddefs find-func
cal-menu calendar cal-loaddefs magit-key-mode magit view iswitchb
pcomplete esh-var esh-io esh-cmd esh-opt esh-ext esh-proc esh-arg eldoc
esh-groups eshell esh-module esh-mode esh-util ediff-merg ediff-wind
ediff-diff ediff-mult ediff-help ediff-init ediff-util ediff dired-x
dired grep compile comint epa epg epg-config diff-mode ansi-color
git-rebase-mode rx git-commit-mode server log-edit message format-spec
rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse
rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mailabbrev mail-utils gmm-utils
mailheader pcvs-util add-log flx-ido warnings flx ido-hacks ido
ace-jump-mode evil-leader evil-paredit paredit evil evil-integration
evil-maps evil-commands ffap url-parse auth-source eieio byte-opt
bytecomp byte-compile cconv eieio-core gnus-util mm-util mail-prsvr
password-cache url-vars evil-types evil-search evil-ex evil-macros
evil-repeat evil-states evil-core evil-common undo-tree derived diff
windmove rect evil-digraphs evil-vars ring edmacro kmacro diminish anzu
easy-mmode cl-macs gv thingatpt cl cl-loaddefs cl-lib
solarized-light-theme solarized-dark-theme solarized package advice
help-fns time-date tooltip electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt
fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode prog-mode register page
menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock
syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang
vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek
romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer nadvice
loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay
sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process gfilenotify
dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting x-toolkit x
multi-tty emacs)

bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

[Stefan Monnier]

> $ emacsclient -c
> Waiting for Emacs...
> *ERROR*: Display :1123 can't be opened
> $ emacs
> <works correctly>
> $ echo $DISPLAY
> :1123

My crystal ball tells me that "echo $XAUTHORITY" in the above shell
session does not give you the same answer as M-: (getenv "XAUTHORITY") RET

IOW it's a pain in the ass introduced by gdm3.  Please complain loudly,
so that maybe at some point they'll see that the "solution" they chose
is worse than the problem they tried to fix.

> When `emacsclient -c' is executed on the remote xterm, a local shell
> prints:
> No protocol specified

My crystal ball stayed mute for this one, sorry,


        Stefan

bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

[Óscar Fuentes]

[My ISP refuses to send email to 16064@debbugs.gnu.org so I'm posting on
the mailing list through gmane. Hope this is not lost.]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> My crystal ball tells me that "echo $XAUTHORITY" in the above shell
> session does not give you the same answer as M-: (getenv "XAUTHORITY") RET

"echo $XAUTHORITY" prints nothing, and (getenv "XAUTHORITY") returns
nil.

> IOW it's a pain in the ass introduced by gdm3.  Please complain loudly,
> so that maybe at some point they'll see that the "solution" they chose
> is worse than the problem they tried to fix.

gdm3 is not installed here (this is a Kubuntu system,) and if anyone
thinks on the famous GTK bug that prevents remote Emacs terminals,
please note that this Emacs uses Lucid.

This worked for a long time but it is the first time that I need to use
a remote session since more than a year ago, so it is either something
introduced by an OS upgrade or by Emacs. I'll try to bisect it (which is
pain because IIRC the build method changed on this timeframe plus the
Emacs VC graph used to be a mess.)

Some more random data points:

$ emacs -nw

M-: (make-frame (list '(window-system . X)))
Debug entered-Lisp error: (error "Don't know how to create a frame on
window system X")

M-x abort-recursive-edit

M-: (make-frame (list '(window-system . X) (dispay . ":1124")))
Debug entered-Lisp error: (void-function display)

> My crystal ball stayed mute for this one, sorry,

No need to be sorry. Thanks for trying.

bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

[Óscar Fuentes]

For some reason KDE was setting XAUTHORITY to a file it creates in /tmp.

With

$ export XAUTHORITY=$HOME/.Xauthority
$ emacs --daemon

creating a frame on a remote session with `emacsclient -c' works fine.

No idea why xterm and other applications worked. More KDE magic,
perhaps.

bug#16064: 24.3.50; emacsclient fails on remote X session

[Andreas Schwab]

Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> writes:

> For some reason KDE was setting XAUTHORITY to a file it creates in /tmp.

I'd guess it was inherited by the display manager (I think gdm is doing
this).

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, SUSE Labs, schwab@suse.de
GPG Key fingerprint = 0196 BAD8 1CE9 1970 F4BE  1748 E4D4 88E3 0EEA B9D7
"And now for something completely different."