Comment 22 for bug 1854588

I take back what I said in my previous comment. This does still affect 23.04, at least with Ubuntu MATE and Chrome. It all depends on how the processes are parented, which changes based on how you launch Chrome.

If I launch Chrome from the MATE menu, it gets parented to "systemd --user" and this problem doesn't occur. If I launch Chrome by clicking its icon in mate-panel, it gets parented to mate-panel instead, which follows a parenting chain of mate-session -> lightdm -> init. This difference also affects how gdebi ends up being parented when Chrome launches it from its downloads. gdebi ends up parented to init if I try to open a Chrome download from Chrome after I've launched Chrome from the panel, and this problem occurs.

The same can be said about the "setsid gdebi-gtk package.deb" command. If I start MATE Terminal from the MATE menu and run that command, it works fine. If I start MATE Terminal from mate-panel and run the same command, it immediately exits and I get the "Refusing to render service to dead parents." message instead.

I suspect this difference explains why some people haven't been able to reproduce this problem but others have. I will point out that Firefox, regardless of how it's launched, seems to not be affected anymore. gdebi always ends up parented by systemd when Firefox launches it.

Clearly there is still value in fixing this in gdebi. I'll look into addressing Julian's feedback and resubmitting the fix.