Arch Linux: Some snaps take a long time to show a GUI

phw · April 3, 2018, 9:48am

I have some trouble opening a couple of Snaps on my Arch Linux. The issue started sometimes mid last year, but I can still reproduce it with snapd 2.32.2.

E.g. I install corebird with

snap install gnome-3-26-1604
snap install corebird

Everything works fine, the snap seems to get setup correctly. But when I try to launch it it never shows a GUI window, it just starts, gives out some warnings and then keeps running, but without any window being displayed. This is the output:

~ $ snap run corebird                

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: style.css:20:13: The 'icon-shadow' property has been renamed to '-gtk-icon-shadow'

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: style.css:231:16: The 'outline-radius' property has been renamed to '-gtk-outline-radius'

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: style.css:237:19: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: style.css:238:25: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(corebird:4229): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: style.css:243:36: The :insensitive pseudo-class is deprecated. Use :disabled instead.

(corebird:4229): corebird-WARNING **: Corebird.vala:377: Could not add window for account 'phwolfer'

(corebird:4229): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_get_window_type: assertion 'GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

I can reproduce this on two systems, the second one is a rather fresh install with a fresh setup of snapd. Some other snaps run just fine, e.g. gnome-calculator.

I have the very same issue with my own “peek” (no longer available) and gradio (also no longer available).

phw · April 3, 2018, 9:51am

Ok, lol. Just while writing this I had the “snap start” command running in the background. It turns out the UI will show up eventually, it just takes a stupid long time (over 30 seconds). That’s especially confusing as the application itself starts, as can be seen by the output. But displaying any window is delayed. I updated the title to reflect this.

mborzecki · April 3, 2018, 11:09am

FWIW it’s near instantaneous here. However, on the first run I do see it’s trying to download something, see the log:

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  505k  100  505k    0     0   715k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  715k

(gst-plugin-scanner:27008): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/snap/corebird/65/usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0/libgstalsa.so': libasound.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

(gst-plugin-scanner:27008): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/snap/corebird/65/usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0/libgstalsa.so': libasound.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
...

Edit:

This is what it’s trying to fetch:

27758 execve("/snap/corebird/65/usr/bin/curl", ["curl", "-o", "/home/maciek/snap/corebird/65/openh264/libopenh264.so.bz2", "http://ciscobinary.openh264.org/libopenh264-1.7.0-linux64.4.so.bz2"], ...)

phw · April 3, 2018, 12:01pm

Interesting, yes. But I got the same issue with Peek, and at least Peek itself is not downloading anything on start. On subsequent runs both corebird and Peek now start fast, not yet sure how it will behave after a reboot.

This is the output of Peek, again taking over half a minute to start the first time. But I don’t think there is anything telling in this log:

~ ! snap run peek                                                                                                                                                                                                                         130 

(peek:4928): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Using screen recorder backend ffmpeg
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 34: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 35: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 35: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 35: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 36: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf", line 36: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 8: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 4: unknown element "its:rules"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 5: unknown element "its:translateRule"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'translate'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 5: invalid attribute 'selector'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'xmlns:its'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf", line 6: invalid attribute 'version'

lucyllewy · April 3, 2018, 12:04pm

That is to ensure your usage of H.264 is permitted under cisco’s licensing grant allowing you fully licensed free usage of the codec without paying licensing fees to the patent holders, and are not breaking the law by using H.264 without a valid license.

phw · April 3, 2018, 12:13pm

Some more testing with peek:

The initial start on my system took 31 seconds
Once it has started at least once it starts instantly afterwards
The fast startup also happens after a complete reboot
If you uninstall the peek snap and reinstall it again, the long first startup is back
If you interrupt the startup during this half minute at any point and try again, it will take again half a minute

The same is true for corebird. But not for gnome-calculator, that always starts instantly. I took Peek for testing since I know it is doing no downloading itself. Or is that downloading part of the gnome-3-26-1604 platform snap?

lucyllewy · April 3, 2018, 12:19pm

The long initial startup time is due to the requirement for the desktop-launch script to build caches of various things into $SNAP_USER_DATA. There is currently no way to speed this up or negate it, but it only happens on installation or refresh of a snap.

phw · April 3, 2018, 1:39pm

Ok, but I am still a little confused what exactly is happening. I would understand it, if there was some things to do before the app actually gets launched. But as it behaves it launches the app pretty quickly (and does perform some code and output), but the app hangs right on or just before the create window part.

I think that behavior is part of the reason I took this for a bug. I usually start the peek snap from command line, as I am just using it for testing. So when I saw peek actually starting and then getting stuck on the show window part I assumed some bug, never would it have occurred to me that creating the window just takes half a minut . So after wating 15 seconds or so at best I closed the app and tried with a different snap, just to see the same issue.

If the application itself would have not even started I would have assumed snap just takes some time to initialize. There should be better communication about the status with the user.

Alculete · April 4, 2018, 5:55am

Couldn’t this be done in the background, after application is installed and before running?

pachulo · April 4, 2018, 6:29am

Could what @jamesh explains here Snaps seem slow to launch and here Improving first run performance of desktop app snaps be applied?