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On 07/02/2011 03:05 AM, Nikos Chantziaras wrote: |
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> This is driving me nuts. Since a few days ago, glibc will abort programs |
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> with a: |
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> |
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> *** glibc detected *** program: free(): invalid pointer: ... *** |
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> |
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> or similar error message. I have no idea which package was updated that |
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> triggered this. I did *not* emerge glibc (qlop confirms that I emerged |
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> glibc 3 months ago.) |
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> |
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> The crashing programs *are* buggy. The problem is that I can't shut up |
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> glibc and prevent it from interfering. It's extremely annoying and I |
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> feel the urge to kill baby bunnies. Please help! |
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Argh, I found the problem in an unlikely place. It's KDE 4.7 RC1 (!). |
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It seems there's an environment variable called MALLOC_CHECK_ that |
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instructs glibc to perform runtime checks on every program that runs. |
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|
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kde-base/kdebase-startkde-4.6.90 installs a /usr/bin/startkde that sets |
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MALLOC_CHECK_=3. This results in every program that runs after starting |
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KDM to be runtime checked. It also makes the system slower (Kwin here |
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felt very sluggish and I also got a hefty performance loss when running |
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another OS in a virtual machine.) |
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|
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Note to others running 4.7 RC1: setting MALLOC_CHECK_=0 does not solve |
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the performance problem; glibc still checks, but just doesn't abort or |
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print errors. To get rid of this, you need to edit /usr/bin/startkde |
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and remove the 'if' section that sets MALLOC_CHECK_. |
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