Bug 1060388

Created attachment 858016 [details]
errors from an attempt to execute /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server

Description of problem:

gnome-terminal refuses to start in a gnome-session either from "Type to search" or from Alt-F2 or as an autostart program or from a file browser.  All attempts are silently ignored.  OTOH when trying this feat from a command line in xterm (or in journalctl output if you know for what to look) it is possible to see this:

Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server exited with status 1

An attempt to execute just /usr/libexec/gnome-terminal-server from a shell in xterm produces numerous errors in this style (full list attached):

(gnome-terminal-server:4073): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_settings_get: the format string may not contain '&' (key '<KEY>' from schema 'org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Keybindings'). This call will probably stop working with a future version of glib.

Interestingly enough in gsettings output this "forbidden" character is nowhere to be found in 'org.gnome.Terminal.Legacy.Keybindings' sheme; it can be found but only in these keys: "org.gnome.gnumeric.printsetup header", "org.gnome.gnumeric.printsetup footer" and "org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files index-recursive-directories" (none of which I touched on this test installation).

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-terminal-3.11.0-2.fc21.x86_64

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Hit Alt-F2
2.type 'xterm' in an entry field to start it
3.type 'gnome-terminal' and watch fireworks

Actual results:
see above

Expected results:
working gnome-terminal

Additional info:
I do not know for how long this lasts.  I noticed a while ago that gnome-terminal is broken but I did not investigate hoping that this is a "general rawhide mess" and it will go away after a while.  But this does not seem to be the case.

It IS possible to open a gnome-terminal in the following way:
  - login to a gnome-session
  - login to the same account from a remote and in a shell type
      gnome-terminal --display=:0 
   (or whatever display you need to use) and that opens a gnome-terminal window.

There is also another WARNING which shows up before "Error constructing proxy" kicks in:

** (gnome-terminal:4040): WARNING **: Couldn't register with accessibility bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

But this seems to be "traditional" and existed for long time (see bug 1056820 and zillion Google hits).