Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

If I try to launch certain gui programs from the terminal, I get this error:

# leafpad
leafpad: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_pattern_spec_copy

This happens for instance with rox, fatdog-control-panel.sh, mtpaint, and others.
Examples that do work, are: geany, libreoffice, mtp-browser.sh, galculator, vlc.

I have found that if I unload the devx, the problem goes away. Might be library mismatch somewhere, but note that the programs always start correctly from the menu entry, so it is not a major problem (and no-one else has mentioned it). It is only on the command line where I get the error.

I can't reproduce your experience, no errors for me with rox, control panel and so on in a terminal. You said it goes away when you unload devx. Is the right devx sfs loaded? Do you have other sfs files loaded? If so try unloading them.

it could also be a misconfigured LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in your terminal shell. Run echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Mine looks like this

/lib64:/usr/lib64:/usr/local/lib64:/usr/lib64/seamonkey:/lib:/usr/lib:/lib32:/usr/lib32:/usr/local/lib:/usr/local/lib32:/opt/qt5/lib64

You can test leafpad with custom LD_LIBRARY_PATH values, for instance:

env LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/lib64:/usr/lib64:/usr/local/lib64" leafpad &

and see if the error message goes away.

step

I have just rebooted, devx loaded, and lo and behold it is behaving normally again. I have had this problem before, and have never worked out what triggers it, or why it goes away.
My library path is the same as yours. The devx is up to date - I had even re-downloaded to make sure.
This has happened if I change window manager though (jwm or something I've added myself). Returning to openbox always results in lxpanel failing to start. Can usually be started manually, but sometimes I got the error I reported. Couldn't cure it last time, so ended up starting from scratch, and haven't switched WMs again so that's not related.
The only other sfs I have loaded is the 32bit compatability sfs.
I might set up a fresh install at some time, and see if I can reproduce it. I would have thought someone else may have spotted it if it was a common error, which is why I never mentioned it before.
Just beats me why a menu entry will work, but not from the terminal.

Keef wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:58 pm

Just beats me why a menu entry will work, but not from the terminal.

That could be because a menu entry runs with the default LD_LIBRARY_PATH value originally set in /etc/profile.
If you happen to kill the panel and restart it from a terminal, then from that point on new menu entries will run with the LD_LIBRARY_PATH set in your terminal, which may differ from the default value...

Spoke too soon. Error has come back, and unloading the devx has no effect, even after a reboot. Wasn't expecting it, so no too sure what I did just before. Must be something I've done, will have to investigate further. But not tonight. got beer to drink.

/usr/lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0 is a symlink. Make sure it points to the correct version of the library.

# ls -l /usr/lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 Jul 18  2023 /usr/lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0 -> libgobject-2.0.so.0.7400.5