bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

For a blow-by-blow account, see
https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/36612/emacs-hung-with-error-running-timer-blink-cursor-start?noredirect=1#comment99937_36612

Summary:
====================================================================
The moment I start Emacs, I get the error message

Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start': (wrong-type-argument listp
0.5)

It then refuses all keyboard input; for example C-x d gets the error
message Wrong type argument: listp 10
====================================================================

I managed to run Emacs without the suggested -Q just enough to open the
messages buffer with the mouse and grab the contents. Then quit and run
again with -Q and paste the message contents into a file to save
it. This is what it says:

Loading 00debian-vars...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50asymptote.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
Loading debian-ispell...
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el 
(source)...done
Loading debian-ispell...done
Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el 
(source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...
Loading cjk-enc...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-thai.el (source)...done
Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50texlive-lang-english.el (source)...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 10
Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
0.5) [2 times]
setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
0.5) [5 times]
Mark set
Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7 [2 times]
Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
0.5) [4 times]

But I don't know where blink-cursor-start is called, or why it's
failing, but from comments in the emacs.se discussion, frame.el may be
involved.

The error is evident in the recent Linuxes I have installed from Ubuntu
17 onwards (currently present in Mint 19 and 20).
It is NOT connected with my personal .emacs because the error is present
even when there is no .emacs in the user account (or anywhere else).

user31744 just posted a confirmation that they get the identical error:

> I don't have an answer, I'm just posting to add another piece to the
> puzzle. I just upgraded my MacBook Pro to Catalina. Before this, I've
> had no problems with emacs. Now, when I start it without -Q, I have
> the 'blink-cursor-start' issue. It doesn't matter whether I'm starting
> emacs-app or the emacs you get if you do port install emacs
> +x11. Doing a (set debug-on-error) as the first statement in my
> .emacs, I get the following traceback. Debugger entered--Lisp error:
> (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) cdr(0.5) (setq time (cdr time)) (prog1
> time (setq time (cdr time))) (car-safe (prog1 time (setq t – user31744
> Feb 10 at 1:43

Update: I have managed to get around it temporarily with the following
Bash script which uses xdotool to open my .emacs and do an eval-buffer
(yes I know, gag).
> #! /bin/bash
> 
> /usr/bin/emacs -Q $1 $2 $3 &
> sleep 8
> EWIN=`xdotool search --class Emacs | tail -1`
> 
> xdotool windowactivate $EWIN
> #key ctrl+x ctrl+f type ~/.emacs key ctrl+j type yes
> 
> # xdotool key --window $EWIN "ctrl+x" "d" "ctrl+j"
> xdotool key "ctrl+x" "ctrl+f"
> xdotool type "~/.emacs"
> xdotool key "ctrl+j"
> xdotool type "yes"
> xdotool key "ctrl+j"
> xdotool key --delay 20 "Escape" "x"
> xdotool type "eval-buffer"
> xdotool key --delay 20 "ctrl+j"
> xdotool key --delay 20 "ctrl+x" "k" "ctrl+j"

Maybe there is a timing error somewhere in what Emacs is loading from
its own config.

Stay safe
Peter

=====================================================================

In GNU Emacs 25.2.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.21)
  of 2017-09-22, modified by Debian built on lgw01-amd64-050
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11906000
System Description:	Linux Mint 19.2 Tina

Configured using:
  'configure --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr
  --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
  --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
  --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes
 
--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
  --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --build x86_64-linux-gnu
  --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
  --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
  --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes
 
--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
  --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --with-x=yes --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
  --with-toolkit-scroll-bars 'CFLAGS=-g -O2
  -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/emacs25-jYekUr/emacs25-25.2+1=. 
-fstack-protector-strong
  -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall' 'CPPFLAGS=-Wdate-time
  -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY
ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11

Important settings:
   value of $LANG: en_IE.UTF-8
   locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Dired by date

Minor modes in effect:
   shell-dirtrack-mode: t
   tooltip-mode: t
   global-eldoc-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
   blink-cursor-mode: t
   auto-composition-mode: t
   auto-encryption-mode: t
   auto-compression-mode: t
   buffer-read-only: t
   line-number-mode: t
   transient-mark-mode: t

Recent messages:
Setting up indent for shell type bash
Indentation variables are now local.
Indentation setup for shell type bash
Mark saved where search started [2 times]
Mark set
Mark saved where search started
Mark set [5 times]
scroll-up-command: End of buffer [5 times]
Saving file /home/peter/Downloads/packages...
Wrote /home/peter/Downloads/packages

Load-path shadows:
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/css-mode hides 
/usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/textmodes/css-mode
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/package hides 
/usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/emacs-lisp/package
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-pkg hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-pkg
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-sysdep hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-sysdep
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-api hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-api
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-lucid hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-lucid
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-dtd hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-dtd
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-ids hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-ids
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-other hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-other
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-autoloads hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-autoloads
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-parse hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-parse
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-maint hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-maint
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-fs hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-fs
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-info hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-info
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-debug hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-debug
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-edit hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-edit
/home/peter/.emacs.d/elpa/psgml-1.4.1/psgml-charent hides 
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/psgml/psgml-charent

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message idna format-spec rfc822 mml
mml-sec password-cache epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies
mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail
rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr mail-utils
pcmpl-unix tex-mode latexenc tdtd-font tdtd xslide-process xslide-font
xslide-abbrev xslide-data etags xref project eieio byte-opt bytecomp
byte-compile cconv eieio-core cl-macs imenu compile xslide css-mode cl
gv apropos sh-script smie executable doc-view subr-x jka-compr
image-mode shell pcomplete comint ansi-color ring dired-aux psgml-edit
psgml-dtd psgml-parse psgml-api psgml-ids psgml-other psgml-sysdep
sgml-mode psgml cl-seq cl-extra help-mode edmacro misearch multi-isearch
kmacro nxml-uchnm rng-xsd xsd-regexp rng-cmpct rng-nxml rng-valid
rng-loc rng-uri rng-parse nxml-parse rng-match rng-dt rng-util rng-pttrn
nxml-ns nxml-mode nxml-outln nxml-rap nxml-util nxml-glyph nxml-enc
xmltok dired package derived remem php-mode cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess
cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine cc-vars cc-defs
cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe easymenu
vc-dispatcher vc-svn time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify
ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd
tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment
elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer
select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan
thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian
slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer
cl-preloaded 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 dbusbind inotify
dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk
x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 429962 41896)
  (symbols 48 37375 1)
  (miscs 40 5465 1442)
  (strings 32 102963 52254)
  (string-bytes 1 3110234)
  (vectors 16 46287)
  (vector-slots 8 1640432 21497)
  (floats 8 309 559)
  (intervals 56 23021 0)
  (buffers 976 46))
-- 
Peter Flynn
Cork 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇪🇺

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:

> Summary:
> ====================================================================
> The moment I start Emacs, I get the error message
>
> Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start': (wrong-type-argument listp
> 0.5)
>
> It then refuses all keyboard input; for example C-x d gets the error
> message Wrong type argument: listp 10
> ====================================================================

[...]

> But I don't know where blink-cursor-start is called, or why it's
> failing, but from comments in the emacs.se discussion, frame.el may be
> involved.

Could you put

(setq debug-on-error t)

in your .emacs file?  That should give you a backtrace when the function
fails, which should tell us more about where the error is.

> In GNU Emacs 25.2.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.21)
>  of 2017-09-22, modified by Debian built on lgw01-amd64-050

Emacs 25.2 is pretty old -- do you also see this in more recent Emacs
versions?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>
> Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2021 23:09:25 +0000
> 
> For a blow-by-blow account, see
> https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/36612/emacs-hung-with-error-running-timer-blink-cursor-start?noredirect=1#comment99937_36612
> 
> Summary:
> ====================================================================
> The moment I start Emacs, I get the error message
> 
> Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start': (wrong-type-argument listp
> 0.5)
> 
> It then refuses all keyboard input; for example C-x d gets the error
> message Wrong type argument: listp 10
> ====================================================================
> 
> I managed to run Emacs without the suggested -Q just enough to open the
> messages buffer with the mouse and grab the contents. Then quit and run
> again with -Q and paste the message contents into a file to save
> it. This is what it says:
> 
> Loading 00debian-vars...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50asymptote.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
> Loading debian-ispell...
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el 
> (source)...done
> Loading debian-ispell...done
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el 
> (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...
> Loading cjk-enc...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-thai.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50texlive-lang-english.el (source)...done
> For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 10
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
> 0.5) [2 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
> 0.5) [5 times]
> Mark set
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7 [2 times]
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 
> 0.5) [4 times]

Please try "emacs -q" (lower-case "q", not "Q").  If the problem
happens with -q as well, then its cause is somewhere in all those
site-start.d/50*.el files Emacs loads at startup -- those come from
your system's Emacs distro.

If the problem doesn't happen with -q, then its cause is in your init
file, ~/.emacs.

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 18/02/2021 11:51, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:

[sorry for the delay]

> Could you put
> 
> (setq debug-on-error t)
> 
> in your .emacs file?  That should give you a backtrace when the function
> fails, which should tell us more about where the error is.

That did something (.emacs containing just that line and nothing else:

> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument listp 10)
>   cdr(10)
>   (setq time (cdr time))
>   (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time)))
>   (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))
>   (let* ((time t2) (high2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low2 micro2 type2) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) (if time (setq micro2 (car time) type2 2) (setq micro2 0 type2 1))) (setq low2 time micro2 0 type2 0)) (progn (setq high (+ high high2) low (+ low low2) micro (+ micro micro2) type (max type type2)) (if (>= micro 1000000) (progn (setq low (1+ low) micro (- micro 1000000)))) (if (>= low 65536) (progn (setq high (1+ high) low (- low 65536)))) (encode-time-value high low micro type)))
>   (let* ((time t1) (high (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low micro type) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) (if time (setq micro (car time) type 2) (setq micro 0 type 1))) (setq low time micro 0 type 0)) (let* ((time t2) (high2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low2 micro2 type2) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time ...)))) (if time (setq micro2 (car time) type2 2) (setq micro2 0 type2 1))) (setq low2 time micro2 0 type2 0)) (progn (setq high (+ high high2) low (+ low low2) micro (+ micro micro2) type (max type type2)) (if (>= micro 1000000) (progn (setq low (1+ low) micro (- micro 1000000)))) (if (>= low 65536) (progn (setq high (1+ high) low (- low 65536)))) (encode-time-value hi
 gh low micro type))))
>   time-add(nil 10)
>   timer-relative-time(nil 10)
>   run-at-time(10 nil undo-auto--boundary-timer)
>   undo-auto--boundary-ensure-timer()
>   undo-auto--undoable-change()
>   command-line-1(nil)
>   command-line()
>   normal-top-level()

> Emacs 25.2 is pretty old -- do you also see this in more recent Emacs
> versions?

That's what comes with Mint 19, unfortunately. I'm looking to upgrade 
the machines to Zorin 15, which I have tested from a boot USB; and one 
of the tests was to see if Emacs still exhibited the same problems, 
which it does. So I replaced .emacs on the test machine with the line 
above, and got this:

> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument listp 10)
> cdr(10)
> (setq time (cdr time))
> (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time)))
> (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))
> (let* ((time t2) (high2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low2 micro2 type2) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) (if time (setq micro2 (car time) type2 2) (setq micro2 0 type2 1))) (setq low2 time micro2 0 type2 0)) (progn (setq high (+ high high2) low (+ low low2) micro (+ micro micro2) type (max type type2)) (if (>= micro 1000000) (progn (setq low (1+ low) micro (- micro 1000000)))) (if (>= low 65536) (progn (setq high (1+ high) low (- low 65536)))) (encode-time-value high low micro type)))
> (let* ((time t1) (high (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low micro type) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) (if time (setq micro (car time) type 2) (setq micro 0 type 1))) (setq low time micro 0 type 0)) (let* ((time t2) (high2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time (cdr time))))) low2 micro2 type2) (if (consp time) (progn (setq low2 (car-safe (prog1 time (setq time ...)))) (if time (setq micro2 (car time) type2 2) (setq micro2 0 type2 1))) (setq low2 time micro2 0 type2 0)) (progn (setq high (+ high high2) low (+ low low2) micro (+ micro micro2) type (max type type2)) (if (>= micro 1000000) (progn (setq low (1+ low) micro (- micro 1000000)))) (if (>= low 65536) (progn (setq high (1+ high) low (- low 65536)))) (encode-time-value high
  low micro type))))
> time-add(nil 10)
> timer-relative-time(nil 10)
> run-at-time(10 nil undo-auto--boundary-timer)
> undo-auto--boundary-ensure-timer()
> undo-auto--undoable-change()
> command-line-1(nil)
> command-line()
> normal-top-level()

That sacrificial machine is running:

In GNU Emacs 25.2.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.21)
  of 2017-09-22, modified by Debian built on lgw01-amd64-050
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12008000
System Description:	Zorin OS 15.3

Configured using:
  'configure --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr
  --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
  --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
  --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes
 
--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
  --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --build x86_64-linux-gnu
  --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
  --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
  --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes
 
--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
  --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --with-x=yes --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
  --with-toolkit-scroll-bars 'CFLAGS=-g -O2
  -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/emacs25-jYekUr/emacs25-25.2+1=. 
-fstack-protector-strong
  -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall' 'CPPFLAGS=-Wdate-time
  -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY
ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11

Important settings:
   value of $LC_MONETARY: en_US.UTF-8
   value of $LC_NUMERIC: en_US.UTF-8
   value of $LC_TIME: en_US.UTF-8
   value of $LANG: en_GB.UTF-8
   value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
   locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
   tooltip-mode: t
   global-eldoc-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
   blink-cursor-mode: t
   auto-composition-mode: t
   auto-encryption-mode: t
   auto-compression-mode: t
   line-number-mode: t
   transient-mark-mode: t

Recent messages:
remem.el: (lambda (buf) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (format) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (e) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (scope) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (line) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (s) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (filename) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
remem.el: (lambda (scopeinfo) ...) quoted with ' rather than with #'
Loading /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/remem.el (source)...done
Making completion list...

Load-path shadows:
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/css-mode hides 
/usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/textmodes/css-mode
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/package hides 
/usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/emacs-lisp/package

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message idna dired format-spec rfc822
mml mml-sec password-cache epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies
mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail
rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns help-mode mail-prsvr
mail-utils package derived remem php-mode cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess
cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine cc-vars cc-defs
cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe easymenu
vc-dispatcher vc-svn time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify
ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd
tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment
elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer
select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan
thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian
slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer
cl-preloaded 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 dbusbind inotify
dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk
x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 249253 7779)
  (symbols 48 27871 0)
  (miscs 40 189 143)
  (strings 32 67589 68563)
  (string-bytes 1 1888847)
  (vectors 16 19997)
  (vector-slots 8 504729 15181)
  (floats 8 177 84)
  (intervals 56 270 11)
  (buffers 976 19))


Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 613 bytes --]

On 18/02/2021 14:05, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

[sorry for the delay]

> Please try "emacs -q" (lower-case "q", not "Q").  If the problem
> happens with -q as well, then its cause is somewhere in all those
> site-start.d/50*.el files Emacs loads at startup -- those come from
> your system's Emacs distro.

The problem still occurs (see screenshot).

(No idea why all applications open full-screen on all new Linux distros)

> If the problem doesn't happen with -q, then its cause is in your init
> file, ~/.emacs.

As I said in the report, this is not possible: the error occurs still 
when .emacs is deleted.

Peter

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bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Glenn Morris]

(time-add nil 0.5)

fails with an error in Emacs versions before 25.1.

FWIW, my guess is that something in site-lisp clobbers the definition of
one or more builtin time- functions with old versions.

I wonder what this says:
C-h f time-add

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 18/02/2021 23:03, Glenn Morris wrote:
> 
> (time-add nil 0.5)
> 
> fails with an error in Emacs versions before 25.1.
> 
> FWIW, my guess is that something in site-lisp clobbers the definition of
> one or more builtin time- functions with old versions.
> 
> I wonder what this says:
> C-h f time-add

It says

> time-add is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.
> 
> (time-add A B)
> 
> Return the sum of two time values A and B, as a time value.
> A nil value for either argument stands for the current time.
> See ‘current-time-string’ for the various forms of a time value.


Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Glenn Morris]

Peter Flynn wrote:

>> time-add is a built-in function in 'C source code'.
>>
>> (time-add A B)

Surprising, since the backtrace you posted seems to correspond to the
older lisp definition of time-add from Emacs 24.2 or earlier (since it
has no pico field).

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 18/02/2021 23:31, Glenn Morris wrote:
> Peter Flynn wrote:
> 
>>> time-add is a built-in function in 'C source code'.
>>>
>>> (time-add A B)
> 
> Surprising, since the backtrace you posted seems to correspond to the
> older lisp definition of time-add from Emacs 24.2 or earlier (since it
> has no pico field).

I just repeated that on a third machine (Dell desktop with Mint 19) 
using emacs -Q and no .emacs present, and got the same response:

> time-add is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.
> 
> (time-add A B)
> 
> Return the sum of two time values A and B, as a time value.
> A nil value for either argument stands for the current time.
> See ‘current-time-string’ for the various forms of a time value.
> 
> [back]

Same version, same OS.

> In GNU Emacs 25.2.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.21)
>  of 2017-09-22, modified by Debian built on lgw01-amd64-050
> Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11906000
> System Description:	Linux Mint 19 Tara


Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 18/02/2021 14:05, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
[...]
> Please try "emacs -q" (lower-case "q", not "Q").  If the problem
> happens with -q as well, then its cause is somewhere in all those
> site-start.d/50*.el files Emacs loads at startup -- those come from
> your system's Emacs distro.

On a bare-bones Mint 19 with no .emacs and using emacs -Q (capital Q) 
the *messages* buffer contains:

> For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
> mwheel-scroll: End of buffer
> mwheel-scroll: Beginning of buffer [7 times]
> Note: file is write protected
> View mode: type C-h for help, h for commands, q to quit.
> Mark set
> Checking for load-path shadows...
> Checking 255 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp...
> Checking 41 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/vc...
> Checking 33 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/url...
> Checking 44 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/textmodes...
> Checking 87 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/progmodes...
> Checking 25 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/play...
> Checking 106 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/org...
> Checking 24 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/nxml...
> Checking 66 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/net...
> Checking 26 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/mh-e...
> Checking 34 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/mail...
> Checking 1 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/leim...
> Checking 38 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/language...
> Checking 43 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/international...
> Checking 130 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/gnus...
> Checking 29 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/eshell...
> Checking 35 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/erc...
> Checking 17 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/emulation...
> Checking 84 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/emacs-lisp...
> Checking 12 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/cedet...
> Checking 30 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/calendar...
> Checking 44 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/calc...
> Checking 60 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/obsolete...
> Checking for load-path shadows...done
> Auto-saving...done

With emacs -q (lowercase) it never gets as far as the banner screen or 
the scratch buffer. Instead, the message area at the bottom just says

 > Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)

The *messages* buffer contains:

> Loading 00debian-vars...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50asymptote.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50cmake-data.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...
> Loading debian-ispell...
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-default.el (source)...done
> Loading debian-ispell...done
> Loading /var/cache/dictionaries-common/emacsen-ispell-dicts.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...
> Loading cjk-enc...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-common.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50latex-cjk-thai.el (source)...done
> Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50texlive-lang-english.el (source)...done
> For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 10
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [2 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7 [3 times]
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [3 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [3 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7 [4 times]
> mwheel-scroll: Beginning of buffer [13 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.35 [3 times]
> mwheel-scroll: End of buffer [3 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.35 [3 times]
> mwheel-scroll: Beginning of buffer [3 times]
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [3 times]
> setq: Wrong type argument: listp, 0.7 [2 times]
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
> Mark set
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [2 times]
> progn: Buffer is read-only: #<buffer *Messages*>
> w is undefined
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5) [7 times]
> Mark activated
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)
> next-line: End of buffer [8 times]
> Error running timer ‘blink-cursor-start’: (wrong-type-argument listp 0.5)

All those errors are the results of mouse-button clicks.

Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:

>>   (let* ((time t1) (high (car-safe (prog
>>   time-add(nil 10)

OK, so your `time-add' is definitely an Emacs Lisp function.  But:

> It says
>
>> time-add is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.
>> (time-add A B)

Your Emacs claims that `time-add' is a built-in C function.  So something
is very odd here.

And:

> On a bare-bones Mint 19 with no .emacs and using emacs -Q (capital Q)
> the *messages* buffer contains:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > Checking for load-path shadows...
> > Checking 255 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp...
> > Checking 41 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/vc...
> > Checking 33 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/url...

Your Emacs is issuing some messages that Emacs do not normally do on
loadup -- even with an "emacs -Q", which should be impossible.

I can only guess at what's going on, but the most likely explanation for
these very strange behaviours is that the people who have packed up your
Emacs version (in Mint 19) have done some highly non-standard things.
So you should perhaps report this as a bug with the Mint people instead.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 19/02/2021 12:40, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:
> 
>>>    (let* ((time t1) (high (car-safe (prog
>>>    time-add(nil 10)
> 
> OK, so your `time-add' is definitely an Emacs Lisp function.  But:
> 
>> It says
>>
>>> time-add is a built-in function in ‘C source code’.
>>> (time-add A B)
> 
> Your Emacs claims that `time-add' is a built-in C function.  So something
> is very odd here.

I rely on your knowledge here.

> And:
> 
>> On a bare-bones Mint 19 with no .emacs and using emacs -Q (capital Q)
>> the *messages* buffer contains:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> Checking for load-path shadows...
>>> Checking 255 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp...
>>> Checking 41 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/vc...
>>> Checking 33 files in /usr/share/emacs/25.2/lisp/url...
> 
> Your Emacs is issuing some messages that Emacs do not normally do on
> loadup -- even with an "emacs -Q", which should be impossible.

Aha. I was certainly puzzled that there were messages when using -Q

> I can only guess at what's going on, but the most likely explanation for
> these very strange behaviours is that the people who have packed up your
> Emacs version (in Mint 19) have done some highly non-standard things.
> So you should perhaps report this as a bug with the Mint people instead.

Who typically packages debs for a distro: Emacs people doing it for 
their fav distro, or distro people doing it cos they want Emacs?

I'm baffled that the entire Emacs-using community on Mint (or perhaps 
that should be the Mint-using community of Emacs users) hasn't found 
this and lodged a bug report.

And there was that additional comment on the emacs.se site from a Mac 
user who got the identical messages.

I'm going to try some other distros from USB and see what their emacsen 
do. The Emacs on other platforms exhibits the same bug, I'll be back :-)

Thanks for all your help.

Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 19/02/2021 14:14, Peter Flynn wrote:
[...]
> I'm going to try some other distros from USB and see what their emacsen 
> do. The Emacs on other platforms exhibits the same bug, I'll be back :-)

Although as I said earlier, Emacs from Zorin 15's repos show exactly 
this error, so I'm dubious that it's a packaging problem.

Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Glenn Morris]

You've said that this does not happen with -Q; therefore the problem is
in your user or site customizations.

You've said that it does happen with -q; therefore the problem is not in
your user customization.

Therefore the problem is in your site customization.
Ie it should not occur with: emacs --no-site-file --no-site-lisp

Ie, you need to look for the cause in /etc/emacs/site-start.d and other
such places (which seems to include, from --enable-locallisppath
/etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:
/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp:
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp)

This would explain why other Mint users don't see your problem, eg
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=1599898#p1599898

(Are you sure the "C-h f time-add" information came from an Emacs
session where the error occurs?)

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 19/02/2021 16:33, Glenn Morris wrote:>
> You've said that this does not happen with -Q; therefore the problem
> is in your user or site customizations.
> 
> You've said that it does happen with -q; therefore the problem is not
> in your user customization.
> 
> Therefore the problem is in your site customization. Ie it should not
> occur with: emacs --no-site-file --no-site-lisp

That appears to be correct. Thank you for navigating this.

> Ie, you need to look for the cause in /etc/emacs/site-start.d and
> other such places (which seems to include, from
> --enable-locallisppath 
> /etc/emacs25:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp: 
> /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/25.2/site-lisp: 
> /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp)

/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp, which contains my own collection of 
elisp packages, was moved elsewhere during tests on my own machine, and 
of course was not in existence on any of the test installations from USB.

But yes, somewhere in there — except the rest of the directories all 
appear to have been created by the system as a result of installing emacs.

> This would explain why other Mint users don't see your problem, eg 
> https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=1599898#p1599898

I think it may be specific to the 19.0 I am running.

> (Are you sure the "C-h f time-add" information came from an Emacs 
> session where the error occurs?)

Yes, this was done on the same unmodified raw system. Anyone can 
reproduce this by running the OS from live USB, opening a terminal, and 
doing a sudo apt update; sudo apt install emacs

However, today's experiment is very revealing.

Bug absent: current releases of Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mint (20.1)

Bug present: current releases of Bodhi and Zorin, and my installed Mint 
19 and 20

I'm guessing that not all distros compile their own binaries, even if 
they wrap up their own debs.

I'm about to upgrade all machines anyway. In view of your excellent and 
useful analysis I think this bug 46607 should be marked WONTFIX.

Thank you all very much.

Peter

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:

> Who typically packages debs for a distro: Emacs people doing it for
> their fav distro, or distro people doing it cos they want Emacs?

The distro people build the packages.  It may be slightly different with
snap-based packages -- then the package may be built by a third party
and included in many distributions.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:

> I'm about to upgrade all machines anyway. In view of your excellent
> and useful analysis I think this bug 46607 should be marked WONTFIX.

OK, closing.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#46607: 25.2; Emacs hangs with Error running timer 'blink-cursor-start'

[Peter Flynn]

On 20/02/2021 12:28, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> writes:
> 
>> I'm about to upgrade all machines anyway. In view of your excellent
>> and useful analysis I think this bug 46607 should be marked WONTFIX.
> 
> OK, closing.

Thank you.

Since then I have one weirdness to add to the mix, but if this is closed 
I probably can't post it here — should I open a new report?

Doing the install of Mint 20.1 and then immediately installing Emacs is 
DIFFERENT on

HP Envy 7t laptop (where the Emacs works)
DELL XPS 15 (where the Emacs fails)

Obviously there are going to be HW diffs meaning a different subset of 
OS packages, but I have logged on both machines the initial apt update 
followed by apt install emacs if anyone wants to see them.

Peter