"launchd's env var DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET does not exist"

[Jim DeLaHunt]

I think it's a problem with MacPorts' dbus @1.2.12_5. Using dbus 
@1.2.12_4 works around the problem, and gnucash gets its 
configuration correctly.

At 5:08 PM -0700 5/20/09, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
>Hi, folks:
>
>Sigh, I thought I was past this problem, but it occurred again.
>Yesterday, I was using Gnucash happily (gnucash 2.2.8 from MacPorts
>on Mac OS X 10.5.7).
>
>Today, when I start up gnucash, I get a message that GnuCash had an
>error while loading or saving configuration information. GnuCash
>can't find the file I was editing yesterday.
>
>Here's the gist of the error message
>Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are
>that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have
>stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See
>http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1:
>Failed to get connection to session: launchd's env var
>DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET does not exist)

Here's the steps I think a MacPorts gnucash user can take to work 
around the dbus problem, and verify it worked.

% sudo port deactivate dbus @1.2.12_5
--->  Deactivating dbus @1.2.12_5
% sudo port activate dbus @1.2.12_4
--->  Activating dbus @1.2.12_4
% launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
[Macintosh-4:~] jdlh% ps auxwww | grep dbus 
jdlh     10877   0.0  0.0   599780    392 s000  R+    6:57PM 
0:00.00 grep dbus
jdlh     10875   0.0  0.0   600140    620   ??  S     6:57PM 
0:00.01 /opt/local/bin/dbus-daemon --nofork --session

[JDLH: when launchctl... command runs with no error message, and the 
ps.... command has a line with dbus-daemon, then gnucash should be 
able to get its configuration.]

Want more information? Here's a summary of a command-line session 
which persuades me that MacPorts' dbus @1.2.12_5 is causing the 
problem, and that rolling back to dbus @1.2.12_4 is a suitable fix. 
My comments are marked with "[JDLH: ...]".


% launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
nothing found to load
% ps auxwww | grep dbus
jdlh       365   0.0  0.0   599780    392 s000  R+    6:21PM 
0:00.00 grep dbus

[JDLH: "nothing found to load" looks like a sign of the problem with 
dbus. When this sign happens, gnucash also fails to get its 
configuration information.]

% sudo port uninstall dbus
Password:
--->  The following versions of dbus are currently installed:
--->  	dbus @1.2.12_4
--->  	dbus @1.2.12_5 (active)
Error: port uninstall failed: Registry error: Please specify the full 
version as recorded in the port registry.

% sudo port deactivate dbus @1.2.12_5
--->  Deactivating dbus @1.2.12_5
% sudo port activate dbus @1.2.12_4
--->  Activating dbus @1.2.12_4

[JDLH: now we're using _4 revision of dbus, which works]

% launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
% ps auxwww | grep dbus
jdlh       454   0.0  0.0   599780    460 s000  R+    6:34PM 
0:00.00 grep dbus
jdlh       452   0.0  0.0   600140    620   ??  S     6:34PM 
0:00.01 /opt/local/bin/dbus-daemon --nofork --session

[JDLH: launchctl load runs with no "nothing found to load" message, 
and afterwards there is a dbus-daemon process. I think this is a sign 
of a good situation.]

[Macintosh-4:~] jdlh% sudo port -v deactivate dbus @1.2.12_4
--->  Deactivating dbus @1.2.12_4
[Macintosh-4:~] jdlh% sudo port -v activate dbus @1.2.12_5
--->  Activating dbus @1.2.12_5

[JDLH: Now we're back to the _5 revision of dbus. Verify the problem 
happens again.]

% launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
% ps auxwww | grep dbus
jdlh     10833   0.0  0.0   599780    404 s000  R+    6:54PM 
0:00.00 grep dbus
% launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
nothing found to load
% ps auxwww | grep dbus                                     jdlh 
10842   0.0  0.0   599780    392 s000  R+    6:55PM   0:00.00 grep 
dbus
% sudo launchctl unload 
/Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
launchctl: Error unloading: org.freedesktop.dbus-session

[JDLH: "nothing found to load " message shows problem now occurs again.]

I'll post this to the macports-users list also, once I get registered 
with them. 
<http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macports-users>
-- 
     --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh at jdlh.com     http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
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