[25845] in Athena Bugs
linux 9.3.8: gconf race condition
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jmorzins@mit.edu)
Fri Jul 23 04:09:13 2004
Message-Id: <200407230809.i6N893k6006329@opus.mit.edu>
To: bugs@mit.edu
From: jmorzins@mit.edu
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 04:09:03 -0400
cc: jmorzins@mit.edu
Errors-To: bugs-bounces@mit.edu
System name: opus.mit.edu
Type and version: i686 9.3.8 (with mkserv)
Display type: nVidia Corporation NV5 [RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro] (rev 15)
Shell: /bin/athena/tcsh
Window manager: sawfish
Hello,
I've noticed that on the Athena Linux machines, there appears to be a
race condition in regard to what size font is used for the initial
terminal window. This is a purely cosmetic bug, but sometimes public
perception is shaped by cosmetics.
The default font used by gnome-terminal is monospace-10, and
/etc/athena/gconf/schemas/desktop_gnome_font_rendering.schemas
sets the default dpi to 96. Gnome-terminals launched from the
button on the toolbar have the correct font. The gnome-terminal
launched when the user logs in, however, is sometimes correctly-sized,
and sometimes too small.
It's hard to tell why the initial gnome-terminal is too small; I don't
know if it is being launched with the wrong font-pointsize, the wrong
font-dpi, or some combination of factors. I can reproduce the
erroneous size of the gnome-terminal window with either of the
following fontconfig specifiers:
xterm -fa monospace-7.5:dpi=96
xterm -fa monospace-10:dpi=72
(Pointsize of 10pt and dpi of 72 seems like a likely suspect.)
I don't know enough about Gnome's startup-sequence to be able to debug
from here. Maybe when gnome-terminal starts there is an incorrect set
of values in the gconf database, and then later on the gconf tree gets
filled in with different values.
Someone who knows gconf well might know what values control the
gnome-terminal font size. I don't know which ones do. Possibly
relevant names that I can find in the list of all names are:
/desktop/gnome/font_rendering/dpi
/desktop/gnome/monospace_font_name
/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/font
/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/use_system_font
-Jacob Morzinski
