Heaps of StdErr messages with beta 2

[fe...@jsw.gen.nz]

I am running PolarBar on an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS box. I was originally
using it on OS/2 for a great many years, and migrated to Ubuntu last
year when my old OS/2 box died. I have OS/2 (ArcaOs now) running
again in a virtual machine on the Ubuntu box, but my old PolarBar
setup would not run with the newer Java version there, so it was
easier to move it to Ubuntu. So I was running PolarBar 1.25e on Java
8, until I installed 1.27 beta 2 to try it out. Using 1.25e there
were a number of bugs, but it did mostly work well enough to be
usable. I am afraid 1.27 beta 2 is not usable yet. I am unable to
create new emails or replies yet without meeting problems that make
that unusable. Hence the reason I am sending this email using my
Agent program on my Windows 7 box.

Before I even look at the real bugs, I first have a problem that makes
it difficult to see the log messages about the real problems. I am
getting heaps of StdErr messages that seem to happen pretty much on
every keystroke. So I thought it would be best to tackle that problem
first. I am hoping that there is just something wrong with my Java
environment that is causing it. To install 1.27 beta 2, I uninstalled
all my old Java setup and installed AdoptOpenJava JDK 11.04 from its
repository, along with Gluon JavaFX 11.02. Polarbar starts up (rather
faster than 1.25e did), and I can read emails, although there are some
bugs affecting that also. But just starting up PolarBar, letting it
download any new emails, and then immediately shutting it down again
creates a 439 kbyte log file filled with mostly the same StdErr
messages, which are also displayed on the console. I have put this
log file on my web server, as I am not sure if this mailing list
allows attachments:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/PolarBar/polarbar-just-start-and-stop.log

The problem StdErr messages are these:

2019-09-30 14:42:56,471 ERROR [StdErr] at
java.desktop/java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1740)
2019-09-30 14:42:56,471 ERROR [StdErr] at
java.desktop/java.awt.Container.validate(Container.java:1657)
2019-09-30 14:42:56,471 ERROR [StdErr] at
java.desktop/sun.awt.X11.XTextAreaPeer.setFont(XTextAreaPeer.java:393)
2019-09-30 14:42:56,472 ERROR [StdErr] at
java.desktop/java.awt.Component.validate(Component.java:2976)

I am suspecting that they are repeated for each email folder I have,
but I have not counted to find out.

Does anyone have any idea how to get rid of them?

[Carl Miller]

Hi Stephen,

The problem seems related to the compose window. I'll need to dig a bit deeper to see what's up, but that's what I'm finding.

Just curious - did you grab the RPM installer or the zip/tar.gz file?

Carl

[Stephen Worthington]

It is Ubuntu, which uses .deb files for its repositories.  So RPMs would not work.  For reference of anyone else installing on Ubuntu, this is what I did:

I downloaded the Polarbar .tar.gz file, and unpacked its contents under /opt.  I removed the packages for the existing Java 8 and 11, and installed AdoptOpenJava from its Ubuntu repository as per the instructions on their install page.  The Gluon JavaFX was downloaded and unpacked under /opt also.  Then had to find where the environment variables were being set which turned out to be in /etc/profile.d/java.sh.  I renamed that to adoptopenjdk.sh so that it would not get uninstalled by any future purge of the old Java packages, and changed its JAVA_HOME to point to /usr/lib/jvm/adoptopenjdk-11-hotspot-amd64.  I added the "export JAVAFX_HOME=/opt/javafx-sdk-11.0.2" in the same file - maybe it really should have its own /etc/profile.d file.  Then I rebooted to get the new environment settings.  When I ran /opt/PolarbarMailer/polarbar I discovered that the script does not work unless you are in the /opt/PolarbarMailer directory.  But when I ran it from there it started up nicely.

[Carl Miller]

I'm able to see the problem you're experiencing on CentOS as well, which is good as it's all setup for me to test on. 

I was able to get 1.26 running on CentOS and didn't see the problem so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what changed between the older version and the new to resolve.

Carl

[Carl Miller]

Just a quick update - I've identified "where" the problem is happening, "solving" it is still to be done...but finding the problem sometimes is 1/2 the battle, at least for this one it has been...

Carl

On Monday, September 30, 2019 at 11:43:45 PM UTC-4, Stephen Worthington wrote:

[Carl Miller]

The problem stems from a bug in the XTextAreaPeer class, which is part of the standard Java distribution for Linux in general. Others are reporting the same issue with Java 10, 11 and I've verified it still happens on 13. Not sure why they're not fixing this particular issue but it involves setting the font for things when it doesn't want you to. Quite frustrating.

So I've worked-around the issue with some mixed results. The mixed results are basically some inconsistencies in font sizing on some dialogs. Not all, but some. And I guess that depends on your current settings, mine are custom which is why I noticed it. Features like Compose work fine now, along with being able to submit issues and other screens that have text area fields on them.

You can try out these fixes by grabbing the CI build found on this page: https://www.polarbar.net/pbmdaily2.html, the actual file to download if you want the tar.gz is: https://www.polarbar.net/PolarbarMailerDev.tar.gz

I'm going to continue to look into correcting font sizing without causing the stack overflow, but it may take a bit more work as a number of things have to be addressed. What is available for download appears as stable as the rest of beta 2, probably with a couple minor fixes in it...

Carl

[Stephen Worthington]

** Reply to message from Carl Miller <carlp...@gmail.com> on Thu, 3
Oct 2019 21:47:53 -0700 (PDT)

> The problem stems from a bug in the XTextAreaPeer class, which is part of
> the standard Java distribution for Linux in general. Others are reporting
> the same issue with Java 10, 11 and I've verified it still happens on 13.
> Not sure why they're not fixing this particular issue but it involves
> setting the font for things when it doesn't want you to. Quite frustrating.
>
> So I've worked-around the issue with some mixed results. The mixed results
> are basically some inconsistencies in font sizing on some dialogs. Not all,
> but some. And I guess that depends on your current settings, mine are
> custom which is why I noticed it. Features like Compose work fine now,
> along with being able to submit issues and other screens that have text
> area fields on them.
>
> You can try out these fixes by grabbing the CI build found on this page:
> https://www.polarbar.net/pbmdaily2.html, the actual file to download if you
> want the tar.gz is: https://www.polarbar.net/PolarbarMailerDev.tar.gz
>
> I'm going to continue to look into correcting font sizing without causing
> the stack overflow, but it may take a bit more work as a number of things
> have to be addressed. What is available for download appears as stable as
> the rest of beta 2, probably with a couple minor fixes in it...
>
> Carl

The new build is much better, thank you. It is usable as I can
actually send emails now! I have not seen any font problems yet, but I
think I am just running with the default settings. I presume now that
I can send emails, it is best to use Help > Support to file bug reports.

--
Stephen Worthington

[Carl Miller]

Glad to hear it's working for you. 

Yes, please - Help/Support is much easier to manage.

I've been fixing all the areas that would present font/color issues so it won't be an issue moving forwards.

Carl

On Friday, October 4, 2019 at 9:49:20 PM UTC-4, Stephen Worthington wrote:

** Reply to message from Carl Miller on Thu, 3