Ubuntu
emacs22 package

emacs broken in jaunty (and intrepid) on ec2

Bug #358678 reported by Geoff Bache
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emacs22 (Ubuntu)
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Bug Description

Binary package hint: emacs

I cannot start emacs using the most recent jaunty or intrepid 32-bit desktop AMIs on Amazon's ec2. I don't know if the problem is specific to the cloud or is a wider issue as I haven't upgraded locally, largely because of this issue... I am using NX to connect to the instance. Emacs works fine on Hardy on the cloud.

If I install emacs and start it, it just says 'Undefined color: "black".
Now this seems to be some problem with "rgb.txt", which is indeed missing from /etc/X11 as various posts and bugs indicate. But just copying my Hardy file there doesn't help. In any case, there seems to be an rgb.txt file inside the emacs package, shouldn't it be using that?

On jaunty, it also says:
Xlib: extension "Generic Event Extension" missing on display ":1001.0" lots of times
but it also does this with many programs that otherwise work correctly.

Tags: emacs22 freenx nx
Revision history for this message
zorzella (zorzella) wrote :

I've been looking for help on this issue since Intrepid, but without success. There are plenty of 2.5-year-old bugs with the same symptom, but their solution seems inadequate to this (they want me to create symlinks from files that don't exist etc).

I think it makes a difference that this is happening when launching emacs under freenx.

tags: added: emacs22 freenx nx
Revision history for this message
Hugo Heden (hugoheden) wrote :

I am pretty sure this is a compatibility problem with NX and the various Ubuntu versions. It is not emacs that is using the rgb.txt file, it is the nxserver I think.. And nxserver assumes that this file exists in various hardcoded locations on the system..? See http://jugboy.wordpress.com/2006/06/21/freenx-rgbtxt-configuration/

Recent NX worked ok with Hardy. With Intrepid, one had to copy an rgb.txt file to somewhere (like /etc/X11/rgb.txt) from somewhere (can't remember) (or create the corresponding sym-link) .. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/300935 .

Hence, I do not think this has anything to do with Amazon ec2. Would you agree to that, zorzella? (I would think so judging from the tags you added). Also, the "Generic Event" warnings is a separate issue (which can be ignored I think).

With Jaunty, I haven't yet been able to make emacs work in NX for some reason, even though I create copy rgb.txt to various places and restart the nxserver..

Revision history for this message
zorzella (zorzella) wrote :

Yes, I don't think this is an Amazon/ec2 problem per se, but rather a Jaunty vs NX problem.

Revision history for this message
Hugo Heden (hugoheden) wrote :

I finally got a workaround working. See the links mentioned in my previous comment for background. Note that this is NoMachine NX, not FreeNX. The solution for me was to just add /etc/X11/rgb.txt and restart the nxserver

  $ sudo cp /usr/share/emacs/23.0.93/etc/rgb.txt /etc/X11/rgb.txt

Notes:

(1)

  $ strings /usr/NX/bin/* | grep /rgb
  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb
  /usr/share/X11/rgb
  /etc/X11/rgb

 -- so the files /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt and /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt may also be needed (for something. I don't know).

(2) The file rgb.txt ships with many packages, see for example

  $ apt-file search rgb.txt

  It can probably also be downloaded from the Internet. However, do *not* use the one that ships with NX itself ( /usr/NX/share/rgb.txt ), that one did not work for me for some reason.

All in all, I think this is a duplicate of bug #300935 . Any objections?

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