I have been running Boinc on my Ubuntu 7.10 for months with no problems, all of a sudden - apparently after a regular system reboot - when I click on the Boinc icon nothing happens, no Boinc is run. Trying to run it from a terminal window (command: /usr/bin/boincmgr) I get the following lines:

marco@marco-linux:~$ /usr/bin/boincmgr
Skin Manager: Failed to parse static line color. Using default.
Skin Manager: Application name was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Failed to load application logo. Using default.
Skin Manager: Company name was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Company web site was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Project name was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Default tab was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Exit message was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Failed to load attach to project wizard bitmap logo. Using default.
Skin Manager: Attach to project wizard title was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Failed to load attach to project wizard bitmap logo. Using default.
Skin Manager: Attach to project wizard title was not defined. Using default.
Skin Manager: Failed to load 'a' icon. Using default.
The program 'boincmgr' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)'.
(Details: serial 505 error_code 11 request_code 148 minor_code 5)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

What does it mean? How can I fix this?
Already tried to reboot the system after the problem but nothing changed.

Thank you for any help.

Marco

Did this happen after a system update by any chance?

I saw this in my feed reader yesterday. I'm running Fedora now, but I keep tabs on *buntu stuff as well.

USN-571-2: X.org regression
from Ubuntu - news, usn by KeesCook
Description:
=========================================================== Ubuntu Security Notice USN-571-2 January 19, 2008 xorg-server regression https://launchpad.net/bugs/183969 =========================================================== A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 7.04 Ubuntu 7.10 This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu. The problem can be corrected by upgrading your system to the following package versions: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: xserver-xorg-core 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10.10 Ubuntu 6.10: xserver-xorg-core 1:1.1.1-0ubuntu12.5 Ubuntu 7.04: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.2.0-3ubuntu8.3 Ubuntu 7.10: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu8.3 After a standard system upgrade you need to restart your session to effect the necessary changes. Details follow: USN-571-1 fixed vulnerabilities in X.org. The upstream fixes were incomplete, and under certain situations, applications using the MIT-SHM extension (e.g. Java, wxWidgets) would crash with BadAlloc X errors. This update fixes the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience. Original advisory details: Multiple overflows were discovered in the XFree86-Misc, XInput-Misc, TOG-CUP, EVI, and MIT-SHM extensions which did not correctly validate function arguments. An authenticated attacker could send specially crafted requests and gain root privileges. (CVE-2007-5760, CVE-2007-6427, CVE-2007-6428, CVE-2007-6429) It was discovered that the X.org server did not use user privileges when attempting to open security policy files. Local attackers could exploit this to probe for files in directories they would not normally be able to access. (CVE-2007-5958) It was discovered that the PCF font handling code did not correctly validate the size of fonts. An authenticated attacker could load a specially crafted font and gain additional privileges. (CVE-2008-0006)

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Kathryn :o)

[quote]Did this happen after a system update by any chance?[unquote]


Kathryn,
thank you for your reply.
I've seen the x-server-xorg-core update in the update notification area but I did not install it as yet.
My last system update was a couple of days earlier than the first occurrence of the problem, so it doesn't appear to be related to a system update...

However, since the above mentioned update must be installed, I will do so and let you know...

Thanks.

Marco

Kathryn,
done!
Installed the update, worked out fine, everything back to normality...
Boinc works as usual.

Thanks a lot!

Marco