[GNC] Crash in Scheduled transactions --> Mortgage and Loan Repayment tool on Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon

[Tommy Trussell]

Please copy everything to the list. I know little about this, especially the Locale, so the list is the place to post this information. (I've copied the list.)

In my humble opinion, if there's a locale setting that can cause a segfault, it's somewhat more serious than some other types of bugs.

Since you know what triggers the bug, I hope you will open a bug report for it. Unfortunately https://bugs.gnucash.org had to be locked down due to abuse from 'bots, so you'll need to request an account if you didn't already have one.


On August 6, 2026 4:38:18 PM CDT, guardian <guardian4096-protector at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello Tommy,
>
>Thank you for replying to my post.
>
>Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): The error I experienced seems to be caused by the locale being set to “C.UTF-8.” When I changed the locale from “C.UTF-8” to “en_US.UTF-8” the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI worked as expected.
>
>Hence, no changes to the source code are needed.
>
>Tommy, question for you: should I include the following information (located below) in my replay post? (Given the realization that the cause of my error is the Linux system's default locale setting)
>...............................................................................
>
>The following information is included to answer any remaining questions and for completeness.
>
>...............................................................................
>
>I experienced this crash (segmentation fault) with gnucash version 5.5 and version 5.16 on Linux mint 22.1 with cinnamon desktop.
>
>I posted my initial post for two reasons:
>
>1. to confirm that others were (or were not) experiencing this type of crash on linux (and possibly on windows and/or mac os)
>and
>2. If individuals were experiencing this type of crash, then would the potential solution I provided be helpful / useful in correcting the crash causes.
>
>Note: the crash occurred when I tried to use the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI under 
>          Actions - Schedule Transactions - Mortgage & Loan Repayment.
>
>Update: tried using the flatpak build of gnucash version 5.16 on Linux Mint 22.1 with the Cinnamon desktop and also experienced a crash when I tried to use the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>
>Update: I tried gnucash version 5.14 on an older Windows 11 computer and “did not” experience a crash when using the  “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>
>Update: I tried gnucash version 5.10 on Debian 13 and MX Linux … and gnucash “did not” crash when using the  “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>
>Update: I tried gnucash version 5.16 on MX Linux … and gnucash “did not” crash when using the  “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>
>Note: I do not have an Apple computer to test on.
>
>Further research showed that Linux Mint 22.1 with the Cinnamon Desktop has a default locale setting of “C.UTF-8”. The C.UTF-8 setting seems to have caused the issue with gnucash’s Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI. When I changed the locale from “C.UTF-8” to “en_US.UTF-8”, the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI worked as expected.
>
>Note: I needed to log-out and log back-in for the change in locale setting to take effect.
>
>...............................................................................
>
>What I did before my initial post:
>
>1. Experienced the crash in GnuCash version 5.5
>2. Downloaded an AppImage of GnuCash version 5.16
>3. Confirmed the AppImage of GnuCash version 5.16 also crash when trying to use the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>4. Downloaded the source code for gnucash version 5.16 and created a debug binary version of gnucash 5.16
>5. I did some trouble shooting and found a potential solution for the crash I experienced
>6. Modified the source code (i.e., I added the potential solution) and recreated the binary.
>7. The modified version did not crash when I used the “Mortgage & Loan Repayment” GUI
>8. Made my initial post on this mailing list with my potential solution and instructions on how to reproduce the crash result I experienced.
>
>...............................................................................
>
> Please let me know if there is any additional information I can provide. 
>
>Respectfully,
>
>gaurdian
>
>
>
>    On Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 10:45:05 PM EDT, Tommy Trussell <tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:  
> 
> On Sat, Aug 1, 2026 at 7:38 PM guardian via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>I experienced a crash (segmentation fault) while using the 
>Scheduled Transactions --> Mortgage & Loan Repayment tool.
>
>
>Greetings -- I noticed nobody responded, at least not to the list. Maybe because you didn't say which version of GnuCash you're running, nor how you installed it. 
>I looked up Linux Mint 22.1 and it appears to be based on Ubuntu 22.04 "Noble Numbat," so its LTS repository froze with the version available in early 2022, GnuCash version 5.5. 
>The current version of GnuCash is 5.16, released June 28, 2026.  
>You could uninstall the old version, then install the current GnuCash version using Flatpak. Flathub says you already have Flatpak in Linux Mint, so here's a link showing GnuCash in Flathub:
>https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnucash.GnuCash
>It seemed like you might be interested in some of the technical details, so I should point out you can also download and build GnuCash yourself:
>https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Building_On_Linux
>NOTE 1: If you're already running the latest flatpak version, please respond to the list to let folks know that is the version segfaulting for you.
>NOTE 2: If you are running the older .deb (from Ubuntu) GnuCash and you switch to Flatpak, your saved reports and preferences may not make the transition. They aren't gone, just in a different directory. You can make them available in the new location. For example, I added symlinks on my system so the saved reports and preferences point to the same directories no matter whether I'm using the .deb or Flatpak version. Or you could just copy the existing configuration files to the new Flatpak locations. 
>https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations
> 
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