fontconfig-voodoo crashed with DBusException in call_blocking(): org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Get" with signature "ss" on interface "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" doesn't exist

Confirmed during dist-upgrade. Setting to triaged.

on Oneiric i386, got warning while upgrading. Output from terminal:

oem@oem-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall language-selector-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 mis à jour, 0 nouvellement installés, 1 réinstallés, 0 à enlever et 0 non mis à jour.
Il est nécessaire de prendre 253 ko dans les archives.
Après cette opération, 0 o d'espace disque supplémentaires seront utilisés.
Réception de :1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main language-selector-common all 0.45 [253 kB]
253 ko réceptionnés en 0s (424 ko/s)
(Lecture de la base de données... 198875 fichiers et répertoires déjà installés.)
Préparation du remplacement de language-selector-common 0.45 (en utilisant .../language-selector-common_0.45_all.deb) ...
Dépaquetage de la mise à jour de language-selector-common ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour « man-db »...
Paramétrage de language-selector-common (0.45) ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/fontconfig-voodoo", line 102, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/fontconfig-voodoo", line 88, in main
    fc.setConfigBasedOnLocale()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/LanguageSelector/FontConfig.py", line 114, in setConfigBasedOnLocale
    lang = self.li.getUserDefaultLanguage()[1]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/LanguageSelector/LocaleInfo.py", line 245, in getUserDefaultLanguage
    firstLanguage = iface.Get('org.freedesktop.Accounts.User', 'Language')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 68, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 143, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 630, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Get" with signature "ss" on interface "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" doesn't exist

Got this while doing a normal apt-get upgrade

Just doing a standard upgrade using the update manager.

Got this doing a standard upgrade using apt-get.

Martin,

It's probably line 244 in LanguageSelector/LocaleInfo.py that suddenly stopped working yesterday. I haven't been able to figure out why yet, partly because python suddenly does not want to import gettext for me:

gunnar@gunnar-oneiric:~$ python
Python 2.7.2+ (default, Aug 16 2011, 07:24:41)
[GCC 4.6.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import gettext
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 49, in <module>
    import locale, copy, os, re, struct, sys
ValueError: bad marshal data (unknown type code)
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 58, in apport_excepthook
    import re, tempfile, traceback
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/tempfile.py", line 34, in <module>
    from random import Random as _Random
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 42, in <module>
    from __future__ import division
ValueError: bad marshal data (unknown type code)

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 49, in <module>
    import locale, copy, os, re, struct, sys
ValueError: bad marshal data (unknown type code)
>>> quit()
gunnar@gunnar-oneiric:~$

Got this after a completely fresh install of 11.04 and then an update-manager -d to upgrade to 11.10. Lenovo Thinkpad X301.

I don't if this related or not but when it happens it freezes compiz and makes Unity unresponsive for a while and crashes in the end.

Got this while starting the installation for Ubuntu 11.10 Daily Build (17-08-2011 14:23 GMT+1:00) from a live cd boot in VirtualBox.

Notes to self:

Reproducer:

  python -c "import dbus; o=dbus.SystemBus().get_object('org.freedesktop.Accounts', '/org/freedesktop/Accounts/User/1000'); i=dbus.Interface(o, dbus_interface='org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties'); print i.Get('org.freedesktop.Accounts.User', 'Language')"

gives

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 68, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 143, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 630, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Get" with signature "ss" on interface "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" doesn't exist

Hang on, that was an error of mine, it's "User1000", not "User/1000":

$ python -c "import dbus; o=dbus.SystemBus().get_object('org.freedesktop.Accounts', '/org/freedesktop/Accounts/User1000'); i=dbus.Interface(o, dbus_interface='org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties'); print i.Get('org.freedesktop.Accounts.User', 'Language')"
de

The real reason is that this crashes as root, when os.getuid() == 0, and Accounts/User0 does not exist.

This bug was fixed in the package language-selector - 0.46

---------------
language-selector (0.46) oneiric; urgency=low

  * LanguageSelector/LocaleInfo.py: Fix crash if accountsservice does not know
    information for the invoking user. (LP: #827176)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:44:22 +0200

Reproduced during user session startup with language-selector 0.47:
apt-cache show language-selector
Package: language-selector
Priority: optional
Section: universe/admin
Installed-Size: 48
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: all
Version: 0.47
Depends: language-selector-gnome
Filename: pool/universe/l/language-selector/language-selector_0.47_all.deb
Size: 3324
MD5sum: abedc5fbab6d29ce6f878e72b35b6586
SHA1: 98e27a8c4a7256fd317b9390e1117a9f265940c4
SHA256: 4f61dca0a05097f5cf34161dd63f0a4bccb42c93159c1921037f33f89232260b
Description: Language selector for Ubuntu (transitional package)
 This package is a transitional package that can safely be removed
 after you have installed language-selector-gnome
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu

@jf
Can you please let us know the exact error message you get. I ask because a few days ago Martin fixed it so that a failure at the only spot where the string "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" occurs won't result in a fatal error.