dbus: Unprivileged MacPorts: dbus running but acts like it is not.

[citibob@…]

Problem: cannot launch gnome-terminal (or anything gnome). This is because dbus is not working properly. I know in general about having to run launchctl on the plists. And I've gotten it working in the past.

BUT... this time, I've installed MacPorts as a non-privileged user. See: wiki:InstallingMacPorts#source_unprivileged?

Most ports I install just as "port install the-port". But I had to do "sudo port install dbus", no surprise. I also started the system dbus daemon, as specified in "port notes dbus:"

> sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist

> ls -l /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist

lrwxr-xr-x  1 myuser  NDC\Domain Users  80 Nov 27 00:41 /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist -> /Users/myuser/macports/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist

I also started the client-side dbus. Problem is, I get exactly the same behavior whether or not the client side is started. see log below. HELP please!

> launchctl stop org.freedesktop.dbus-session> ps auxxx | grep dbus
messagebus        90   0.0  0.0  2435384    844   ??  Ss    2Dec13   0:00.00 /Users/myuser/macports/bin/dbus-daemon --system --nofork
myuser       71161   0.0  0.0  2434892    652 s004  R+   10:09AM   0:00.00 grep dbus
> gnome-terminal
Dynamic session lookup supported but failed: launchd did not provide a socket path, verify that org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist is loaded!
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Session D-Bus not running. Try running `launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist'.
> launchctl start org.freedesktop.dbus-session
> ps auxxx | grep dbus
messagebus        90   0.0  0.0  2435384    844   ??  Ss    2Dec13   0:00.00 /Users/myuser/macports/bin/dbus-daemon --system --nofork
myuser       71168   0.0  0.0  2434892    652 s004  R+   10:10AM   0:00.00 grep dbus
myuser       71166   0.0  0.0  2446844    968   ??  S    10:10AM   0:00.00 /Users/myuser/macports/bin/dbus-daemon --nofork --session
> gnome-terminal
Dynamic session lookup supported but failed: launchd did not provide a socket path, verify that org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist is loaded!
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Session D-Bus not running. Try running `launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist'.


> uname -a
Darwin <machinename> 11.4.2 Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
<MacOS 10.7.5>
> port list dbus
dbus                           @1.6.12         devel/dbus
> port -v
MacPorts 2.2.1

[citibob@…]

After working with it some more, I came to:

1. This is NOT the way to install dbus as an unprivileged user. If you've installed MacPorts as unprivileged, you should NEVER say "sudo port install ..." later on. The right way is to use the +no_root+no_startupitem variant when installing dbus.

(Q: what is difference between +no_startupitem and -startupitem?)

2. After installing dbus, you should reboot, if there were previous root dbus versions installed on the machine.

I recommend closing this ticket.

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Replying to citibob@…:

(Q: what is difference between +no_startupitem and -startupitem?)

What version of the dbus port did you install? The current version does not have a no_startupitem variant.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

Since the reporter recommended closing the ticket in comment:2, closing.