Huh, X-Forwarding on Linux broke.

Lofwyr23 · 08-24-2017, 02:42 PM

Quick preamble: I have a few smaller systems, older of age and a little dusty sometimes, which I use as servers for some purpose or other. Mostly consisting of hardware I got donated, because XYZ doesn't need it anymore.

I've added a new donation to the landscape, which I decided might make a nice server for calibre. Large storage, 4gigs of RAM, decent processor.

I added the system to my landscape, after installing linux on it (yes, I know... I'm a fanboy, and so forth...)... Tried to start via x-forwarding, hangs, only kill -9 helps.

So, basically, unless I attach a screen (which defeats the headless thing I want to do) or make my way through the CLI for adding new books and manage my devices, I have no way to manage calibre :F

Is there a way to fix that?

Details:

OS - Manjaro Linux (17.02)
Calibre Version - 3.5.0

Error code:

Spoiler:

calibre >> calibre-crash
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (-402653024,0) are not possible
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (0,-626349394) are not possible
QWidget::setMaximumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (-402128897,16777215) are not possible
QWidget::setMaximumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (0,-609572179) are not possible
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/QLabel) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215)
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/QWidget) Negative sizes (-492131605,55) are not possible
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 2 (BadValue), sequence: 391, resource id: 0, major code: 1 (CreateWindow), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 392, resource id: 2097156, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 393, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 394, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 395, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 397, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 398, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 399, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 402, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 406, resource id: 2097156, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 407, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 408, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 409, resource id: 2097156, major code: 20 (GetProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 413, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 414, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 417, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 420, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0

Everything else works just fine, which is rather odd...

kovidgoyal · 08-24-2017, 11:26 PM

That's an error from Qt. Qt has trouble with some types of X servers. Whatever you are using for forwarding is presumably one of them. I typically use tigervnc which Qt works fone with.

Lofwyr23 · 08-25-2017, 03:10 AM

I'm trying to run this on the normal x stack (so, X11).

I've hooked up a screen to get to the machine normally, calibre doesn't start either, console not showing anything as well. Since VNC just remotes the local desktop, chances are, VNC won't work either...

I'll see and raise an issue within the distribution community, let's see if that'll work <.<

kovidgoyal · 08-25-2017, 03:40 AM

I use VNC with calibre all the time, so I know that it does work. I dont use X forwarding however -- I typically find it far more useful to have full desktop access rather than single app at a time.

mariosipad · 08-25-2017, 05:14 AM

just my contribution to the topic........

I installed Calibre 3.7 on a Debian Stretch server with rather old hardware but decent processor (dual core) and ram (4+ Gb).

Then from an OSX terminal (XQuartz installed) I logged in to the server with ssh.
Then started calibre on the Debian server.
It takes some time, but then I get the familiar screens of the calibre application, the splash screen was a mess so I disabled it.

Calibre/Debian throws the following error, but all seems to function as expected. It just explains why it takes some time (up to a minute) before calibre shows up.

Code:

ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.3:/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: 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.

Lofwyr23 · 08-25-2017, 11:50 AM

The issue at hand is that the X-Server even fails to display even locally (read: no forwarding), so I assume an argument between my x-server version and calibre or one of its underlying components, I'll push an update once it comes through. Shouldn't take too long, what with rolling release and stuff...

@mariosipad: Your DBus error should be easily explained. DBus tries to open a connection on your OSX system (which does NOT run DBus, or blocks remote DBus messages), and fails.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I use VNC with calibre all the time, so I know that it does work. I dont use X forwarding however -- I typically find it far more useful to have full desktop access rather than single app at a time.

Yeah, normally it is nice to have a full desktop, I even have one setup on the machine, since I have physical access, but even when trying to use the local desktop, calibre decides to NOT work. Which it did in this configuration, before I installed it on a different machine. The odd one out so to speak, because I tried and installed two other QT programs, and they work ootb with the system supplied libs...

But I'm in the process of getting this to the manjaro maintainer to get some knownledge under the belt and maybe spot what's broke...

The reason I set this up as it is: I'm trying to store my library on the network, and manage it with calibre, trying to evade the command line. Since I have enough spare parts and donated hardware, I've pieced together a headless system so I could run calibre with X-Forwarding so I don't have to go through adding, editing and converting through the command line :F

Lofwyr23 · 08-25-2017, 12:10 PM

Lookie what the cat dragged in... a core dump... An update and reboot later, we got a step further :X

mariosipad · 08-25-2017, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lofwyr23

@mariosipad: Your DBus error should be easily explained. DBus tries to open a connection on your OSX system (which does NOT run DBus, or blocks remote DBus messages), and fails.

This is possible (even likely) however calibre 3.7 on Debian Stretch on Virtualbox on Windows 7 does not give this error.

So I think it's the hardware (there are more "strange" / "unexpected" errors).

Never mind.

I just tried to write that it's probably not a calibre problem that X-forwarding does (did?) not work for you.

Lofwyr23 · 08-25-2017, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariosipad

This is possible (even likely) however calibre 3.7 on Debian Stretch on Virtualbox on Windows 7 does not give this error.

Probably because you run the command directly in VBox, DBus is responding locally and connection is made.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariosipad

So I think it's the hardware (there are more "strange" / "unexpected" errors).

I've tested other QT related apps, they run fine. Core dump points to python being the culprit. For whatever reason. I'm no reverse engineer, but it seems to choke on an import failing... <.<

kovidgoyal · 08-25-2017, 10:15 PM

You can always compile calibre from source, then it will use the system Qt and should work.

Lofwyr23 · 08-26-2017, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can always compile calibre from source, then it will use the system Qt and should work.

I would, but it seems that something decided to fuck me over hard. Looking at the core dump I posted above, I'd say it fails on importing something I've yet to determine.

I'll clean this up,do a reimage, pull a fresh copy of my library,and see if things are going fine afterwards.

Lofwyr23 · 08-27-2017, 07:36 AM

So, finally found a workaround (as this does NOT feel like a proper solution):

This is verified working on a Windows 7 Ultimate installation:

Boot up the windows machine
start x-server (cygwin-x does the trick for me)
connect to x-forwarding enabled ssh-instance on target machine
Start your FULL desktop environment (I chose xfce)
from there, start calibre as you would on the machines' local desktop
grin and profit.

From there on, calibre works as usual. Everything else works nifty as usual.

Something that shot through my mind, I have no idea how hard it might be:

Seperate the library handling and the gui with device handling from each other (server/client).

An example on how I would use it:

I have my library stored on a dedicated machine, running the server component and want to download new books on my reader. I power up a laptop I have setup in my network, start the client, connect my reader to the laptop, and it is recognized as it is now. The server sends the book to the client, which directly streams to the reader.

kovidgoyal · 08-27-2017, 08:18 AM

https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...e/srv/TODO.rst

Lofwyr23 · 08-27-2017, 08:24 AM

(I've yet to look at calibre's source, so this is just me flinging around ideas, stop me if I steer too far off a feasible approach)

I've used the calibre-server standalone for some time now, wouldn't extending it with some kind of REST API (and polling said API) work for remote management?

kovidgoyal · 08-27-2017, 08:56 AM

You can already maange remote libraries via the calibredb command line tool. It only remains to add GUI integration, the two possible approaches for that are outlined in the document I linked to before.

08-24-2017, 02:42 PM	#1
Lofwyr23 Poker of bits and books Posts: 70 Karma: 12662 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Tolino Vision 5	Huh, X-Forwarding on Linux broke. Quick preamble: I have a few smaller systems, older of age and a little dusty sometimes, which I use as servers for some purpose or other. Mostly consisting of hardware I got donated, because XYZ doesn't need it anymore. I've added a new donation to the landscape, which I decided might make a nice server for calibre. Large storage, 4gigs of RAM, decent processor. I added the system to my landscape, after installing linux on it (yes, I know... I'm a fanboy, and so forth...)... Tried to start via x-forwarding, hangs, only kill -9 helps. So, basically, unless I attach a screen (which defeats the headless thing I want to do) or make my way through the CLI for adding new books and manage my devices, I have no way to manage calibre :F Is there a way to fix that? Details: OS - Manjaro Linux (17.02) Calibre Version - 3.5.0 Error code: Spoiler: calibre >> calibre-crash QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (-402653024,0) are not possible QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (0,-626349394) are not possible QWidget::setMaximumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (-402128897,16777215) are not possible QWidget::setMaximumSize: (/Wizard) Negative sizes (0,-609572179) are not possible QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/QLabel) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/QWidget) Negative sizes (-492131605,55) are not possible QXcbConnection: XCB error: 2 (BadValue), sequence: 391, resource id: 0, major code: 1 (CreateWindow), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 392, resource id: 2097156, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 393, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 394, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 395, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 397, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 398, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 399, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 402, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 406, resource id: 2097156, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 407, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 408, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 409, resource id: 2097156, major code: 20 (GetProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 413, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 414, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 417, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 420, resource id: 2097156, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 Everything else works just fine, which is rather odd... Last edited by Lofwyr23; 08-24-2017 at 02:45 PM.

08-25-2017, 05:14 AM	#5
mariosipad Guru Posts: 719 Karma: 10738 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: iPad & iPhone with Marvin 2 + 3 & Kobo Glo HD	just my contribution to the topic........ I installed Calibre 3.7 on a Debian Stretch server with rather old hardware but decent processor (dual core) and ram (4+ Gb). Then from an OSX terminal (XQuartz installed) I logged in to the server with ssh. Then started calibre on the Debian server. It takes some time, but then I get the familiar screens of the calibre application, the splash screen was a mess so I disabled it. Calibre/Debian throws the following error, but all seems to function as expected. It just explains why it takes some time (up to a minute) before calibre shows up. Code: ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.3:/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: 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. Last edited by mariosipad; 08-25-2017 at 05:14 AM. Reason: typo(s)

08-27-2017, 07:36 AM	#12
Lofwyr23 Poker of bits and books Posts: 70 Karma: 12662 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Tolino Vision 5	So, finally found a workaround (as this does NOT feel like a proper solution): This is verified working on a Windows 7 Ultimate installation: Boot up the windows machine start x-server (cygwin-x does the trick for me) connect to x-forwarding enabled ssh-instance on target machine Start your FULL desktop environment (I chose xfce) from there, start calibre as you would on the machines' local desktop grin and profit. From there on, calibre works as usual. Everything else works nifty as usual. Something that shot through my mind, I have no idea how hard it might be: Seperate the library handling and the gui with device handling from each other (server/client). An example on how I would use it: I have my library stored on a dedicated machine, running the server component and want to download new books on my reader. I power up a laptop I have setup in my network, start the client, connect my reader to the laptop, and it is recognized as it is now. The server sends the book to the client, which directly streams to the reader. Last edited by Lofwyr23; 08-27-2017 at 07:41 AM.

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08-24-2017, 11:26 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	That's an error from Qt. Qt has trouble with some types of X servers. Whatever you are using for forwarding is presumably one of them. I typically use tigervnc which Qt works fone with.

08-25-2017, 03:10 AM	#3
Lofwyr23 Poker of bits and books Posts: 70 Karma: 12662 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Tolino Vision 5	I'm trying to run this on the normal x stack (so, X11). I've hooked up a screen to get to the machine normally, calibre doesn't start either, console not showing anything as well. Since VNC just remotes the local desktop, chances are, VNC won't work either... I'll see and raise an issue within the distribution community, let's see if that'll work <.<

08-25-2017, 03:40 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I use VNC with calibre all the time, so I know that it does work. I dont use X forwarding however -- I typically find it far more useful to have full desktop access rather than single app at a time.

08-25-2017, 12:10 PM	#7
Lofwyr23 Poker of bits and books Posts: 70 Karma: 12662 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Tolino Vision 5	Lookie what the cat dragged in... a core dump... An update and reboot later, we got a step further :X

08-25-2017, 10:15 PM	#10
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can always compile calibre from source, then it will use the system Qt and should work.

08-27-2017, 08:18 AM	#13
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...e/srv/TODO.rst

08-27-2017, 08:24 AM	#14
Lofwyr23 Poker of bits and books Posts: 70 Karma: 12662 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Glo HD, Tolino Vision 5	(I've yet to look at calibre's source, so this is just me flinging around ideas, stop me if I steer too far off a feasible approach) I've used the calibre-server standalone for some time now, wouldn't extending it with some kind of REST API (and polling said API) work for remote management?

08-27-2017, 08:56 AM	#15
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,857 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can already maange remote libraries via the calibredb command line tool. It only remains to add GUI integration, the two possible approaches for that are outlined in the document I linked to before.