nomacs completely frozen on old AMD

[imschmeg]

On one of my machines (an old AMD Phenom tower), nomacs starts up and completely freezes - the GUI starts up, but no part of the GUI works, not even the window close widget. The menus won't display. I have to command line kill it. On the other machine (Intel laptop), it works without a problem. I was able to test both the 3.12 and 3.14 versions - because of the MIT repo outage, I still had the 3.12 version on the AMD. That didn't work, so changed the repo to Salt Lake, upgraded to 3.14, and that didn't work either (identical symptoms). I don't need nomacs on that AMD, so this is not a big deal - I uninstalled it and will use ImageMagick there. I am noting this problem in case someone else has the same problem, and there is a need to debug it. I'm willing to re-install nomacs for that purpose.

Here's the AMD tower info (where nomacs freezes):

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System:    Host: mx Kernel: 5.3.0-8.2-liquorix-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: audit=0 BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.0-8.2-liquorix-amd64 
           root=UUID=a8afe5e7-f6d6-4eef-b752-9d2833928ff3 ro audit=0 quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.1_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M4A78LT-M v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0802 date: 08/24/2010 
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10 
           family: 10 (16) model-id: A (10) stepping: N/A microcode: 10000DC L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm bogomips: 33751 
           Speed: 1011 MHz min/max: 800/2800 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 804 2: 955 
           3: 804 4: 804 5: 804 6: 908 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD RS780L [Radeon 3000] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: radeon v: kernel 
           bus ID: 01:05.0 chip ID: 1002:9616 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RS780 (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.3.0-8.2-liquorix-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK M4A785TD driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
           Device-2: AMD RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon 3000/3100 / HD 3200/3300] vendor: ASUSTeK 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:05.1 chip ID: 1002:960f 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-8.2-liquorix-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: ASUSTeK M4A785TD driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 514.70 GiB (27.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: HD204UI size: 1.82 TiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> 
           rev: 0001 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Generic model: USB CF Reader size: 3.74 GiB 
           block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 1.01 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 625.00 GiB size: 614.19 GiB (98.27%) used: 8.08 GiB (1.3%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda11 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 16.54 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/dm-0 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 0.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/ buster-updates non-free contrib main
           2: deb http://debian.csail.mit.edu/debian/ buster non-free contrib main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 237 Uptime: 4h 42m Memory: 15.39 GiB used: 1.43 GiB (9.3%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: N/A runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[i_ri]

Hello imschmeg and Everyone
nomacs has some "first use" encounters.
it pops up a Select Language box. Are you seeing the Select Language box?
Change of theme might allow the dialogue to appear. hit and miss.

When dismissed it creates a minimal file. the next opening of nomacs will populate this minimal file fully.

and should allow interface with nomacs file menu. Go to nomacs preferences General to set Language (when it works.)

I wonder if this file is interjected if the nomacs then can operate?

The created file is /home/username/.config/nomacs/ImageLounge.conf

minimal contents of /ImageLounge.conf in /.config/nomacs folder is

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[General]
firstTime=false

[AppSettings]
firstTime.nomacs.3=false

[JayM]

imschmeg, why are you using the Liquorix 5.3 kernel?

[imschmeg]

@i_ri,

You may be correct. I did not see the Select Language box, but it might have been buried under other windows. It should have been on top of the nomacs window, but was not. I will check when I get the chance.

@JayM,

That AMD tower had severe problems with suspend/resume. Recall this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=104&t=55615
The solution at that time was the 5.3 liquorix kernel. Do you think I should try an even more recent kernel?

[JayM]

I would have suggested the 4.9.212 kernel but on rereading that other thread I see that that breaks UFW for you.

I think you've already hit on the work-around: use a different image viewer than Nomacs like you're doing. Maybe someone else will have something to suggest later re: testing Nomacs on it again though.

[i_ri]

Hello imschmeg and Everyone
You are on the right track to unfreeze nomacs by getting beyond the Language dialogue.
press Enter.
Launch nomacs and even if not seen, the Enter key is the next action to dismiss the Language dialogue. (It is accepting whatever language it has in its sights.) maybe that will make work easy. I had a case where the Enter press was not pointed at the dismiss, so this may not work in every case.
find the dialogue box? or press Enter? or create the file?

[JayM]

Maybe its configuration file got corrupted or something. Try renaming or deleting ~/.config/nomacs and see if it then does what I_ri's talking about, prompting you to choose a language.

[i_ri]

delete existing is a good read JayM.

[imschmeg]

I reinstalled nomacs on the problematic machine, which has two screens. On launching it, the main GUI appeared on one screen and the Select Language dialog appeared on the other. I don't know if this is the reason why I did not see the Select Language dialog previously, but it seems likely. IMHO, if a dialog that prevents the app from working until answered doesn't appear close to the main GUI, that's not a good design. It may happen because I keep the primary screen on the right. The nomacs GUI started on the primary screen, but the Select Language dialog appeared in the top left of the secondary screen - implying coordinates close to (0, 0).