Ubuntu
libsdl2 package

D-Bus bug in 18.04 i386 SDL: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed

Bug #1775067 reported by Stuart Langridge on 2018-06-04

This bug affects 6 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	libsdl2 (Ubuntu)	Confirmed	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

There seems to be a bug when running i386 games using SDL on amd64 Ubuntu 18.04. https://www.gog.com/forum/xenonauts/ubuntu_1804_lts_bionic_beaver_dbus_error_solution suggests installing the 16.04 version of SDL instead as a workaround.

The error seems to be as follows:

./Xenonauts/start.sh
Running Xenonauts
dbus[9584]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace

ltrace-ing the executable ends with these lines:

SDL_SetHint(0x8a33717, 0x8a41397, 0xffaedcc8, 0x82590d0) = 1
SDL_GetNumVideoDisplays(0x8a33717, 0x8a41397, 0xffaedcc8, 0x82590d0) = 0
SDL_Init(32, 0x8a41397, 0xffaedcc8, 0x82590d0dbus[10001]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace
<no return ...>
--- SIGABRT (Aborted) ---
+++ killed by SIGABRT +++

This happens every time, so I can replicate it and provide more information if required.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 2.0.8+dfsg1-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-22.24-generic 4.15.17
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: MATE
Date: Mon Jun 4 21:02:40 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-07 (1519 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
PackageArchitecture: i386
SourcePackage: libsdl2
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-04-28 (37 days ago)

See original description

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Stuart Langridge (sil) wrote on 2018-06-04:

Dependencies.txt Edit (2.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfoMinimal.txt Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcEnviron.txt Edit (132 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

description:

updated

Revision history for this message

Joshua (joshuam545) wrote on 2018-06-07:

Hey i think im having the same problem not sure.

Running Steam on ubuntu 18.04 64-bit
STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
Pins up-to-date!
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1527879669)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1527879669)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1527879669)
Gtk-Message: 10:50:09.513: Failed to load module "gail"
Gtk-Message: 10:50:09.513: Failed to load module "atk-bridge"
dbus[3752]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace
crash_20180607105007_1.dmp[3761]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/crash_20180607105007_1.dmp
/home/josh/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 876: 3752 Aborted (core dumped) $STEAM_DEBUGGER "$STEAMROOT/$STEAMEXEPATH" "$@"
crash_20180607105007_1.dmp[3761]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = yes
crash_20180607105007_1.dmp[3761]: response: CrashID=bp-f1f0cb19-e547-4075-b5aa-ebdec2180607
crash_20180607105007_1.dmp[3761]: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20180607105007_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-f1f0cb19-e547-4075-b5aa-ebdec2180607''

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2018-06-17:

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in libsdl2 (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

krzys_h (krzys-hal) wrote on 2018-06-17:

One of our users just reported having exactly the same problem. The conditions and error are the same, SDL2 and Ubuntu 18.04 32-bit. See https://github.com/colobot/colobot/issues/1178

Revision history for this message

Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco) wrote on 2018-06-27:

Can you please try with libsdl2 in -proposed pocket? and update https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1772471 if you still have this issue

Revision history for this message

Stian Skjelstad (mywave) wrote on 2018-09-21:

This still happens with
libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 2.0.8+dfsg1-1ubuntu1.18.04.1

My host is a i686, Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

(testing to compile and run OpenDune. SDL 1.2 seems to work fine)

Revision history for this message

Alexandria O'Leary (alxsdf) wrote on 2018-10-29:

I too am having this problem with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on an amd64 system.

I have discovered at least two workarounds (from here: https://github.com/trezor/trezor-core/issues/173). I have only tested the first one, which I can confirm works.

Workaround 1) DBUS_FATAL_WARNINGS=0 ./<appthatcrashes>

Workaround 2) unset XMODIFIERS && ./appthatcrashes

Revision history for this message

Petrisor Parvu (parvupv) wrote on 2019-11-22:

I too found this bug with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on Nvidia Jetson TX2 system.
Running ffplay :

ffplay /dev/video0

produces:

dbus[9467]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace
Aborted (core dumped)

Workaround 1) from above solved the problem

Revision history for this message

drew.woods (drew-woods) wrote on 2020-12-23:

This is also an issue on Jetson Nano Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS system.

Building https://github.com/dhewm/dhewm3 results in:

dbus[6038]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

Workarounds include recompiling the SDL2 package see https://github.com/dhewm/dhewm3/issues/231 and https://github.com/dhewm/dhewm3/issues/335#issuecomment-750332678