Re: Incorrect Emacs UI on foreign distro (Ubuntu)

[Chris Marusich]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Hello,
>
> Chris Marusich <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> I've installed Emacs using Guix on a foreign distro (Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS,
>> to be precise).  When I start it from GNOME terminal via the following
>> command:
>>
>>   emacs
>>
>> it looks weird (see attached file "emacs-incorrect-ui.png") and lots of
>> warnings are printed to STDERR (see attached file
>> "emacs-incorrect-ui.log").  Please note that the output of "which emacs"
>> is:
>>
>>   /home/marusich/.guix-profile/bin/emacs
>>
>> which demonstrates that I am invoking the emacs installed via Guix.
>>
>> However, when I start Emacs via the following command:
>>
>>   env -u XDG_DATA_DIRS emacs
>>
>> it looks correct (see attached file "emacs-correct-ui.png") and fewer
>> warnings are printed to STDERR (see attached file
>> "emacs-correct-ui.log").
>
> This looks like an instance of <https://bugs.gnu.org/26202>, no?
>
> Ludo’.

Bug 26202 "is due to foreign distributions using some Xsession.d scripts
that do tests to check if that variable is empty, and if it does exist,
then they do nothing."  This is different.  Here, the PRESENCE of the
"/usr/share" entry in XDG_DATA_DIRS is causing a problem.

By simply removing the "/usr/share" entry from XDG_DATA_DIRS, the
problem goes away.  I know this because running the following command
works [1]:

  env 
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
 emacs

but running the following command results in the problem behavior:

  env 
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
 emacs

It would be nice if emacs looked good out of the box even on foreign
distros!  As it stands, I have to make my own wrapper program or
.desktop file to work around this.

[1] Note that the first command is redundant in my case, since
XDG_DATA_DIRS is already set to that value.

-- 
Chris

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