HOWTO: how to fix problem with lyx 1.5.3 crashing with Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS
I have been having regular crashes with lyx under my Hardy Heron install.
The problems range from lyx crashing when I try to edit a table, through to crashing when trying to read a file it had just saved. The error messages are usually:
lyx: SIGSEGV signal caught Sorry, you have found a bug in LyX. Please read the bug-reporting instructions in Help->Introduction and send us a bug report, if necessary.
Reading the lyx mailing list, it appears that this been narrowed down to problems with the qt libraries, specifically the 4.4.0 versions. These are not installed by default on Hardy, but are if you have the backports repository enabled (my reading of the posts suggests that the 4.4.0 libraries come from Debian unstable). Micha (michf@post.tau.ac.il) on the list explained that by downgrading from 4.4 to 4.3.4 he was able to get lyx working again.
This is my list of instructions for how I did this downgrade.
1 - Fix the repositories to get rid of the backports one:
using synaptic, I
- unchecked the box for backports in the Settings/Repositories menu.
- ran a reload in synaptic, Then
- closed down synaptic.
Rest will be done from command line as root
2 - Remove the affected packages.
at a terminal, as root, I ran:
apt-get remove libqt4-core libqt4-gui libqtgui4 libqt4-svg libqtcore4 libqt4-network libqt4-script libqt4-dbus libqt4-opengl libqt4-designer libqt4-core libqt4-xml libqt4-test libqt4-assistant
which came back with:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic unison adept-installer
libkbluetooth0 adept-updater adept kaffeine kwin-style-crystal
libboost-signals1.34.1 lyx-common atlas3-base skype-common
libboost-filesystem1.34.1 adept-notifier
inux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic
linux-headers-2.6.24-16
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED
apport-qt hwdb-client-kde jockey-kde kdebluetooth kubuntu-desktop
language-selector-qt libqt4-assistant libqt4-core libqt4-dbus
libqt4-designer libqt4-gui libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script
libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqtcore4 libqtgui4 lyx python-qt4
python-qt4-dbus skype software-properties-kde speedcrunch
system-config-printer-kde
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 26 to remove and 28 not upgraded.
After this operation, 75.6MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
At this stage I copied the list of packages being removed so that I could reinstall the ones I needed later.
then I said ‘y’ to the prompt and it removed all the various packages.
3 - now reinstall the necessary packages.
apt-get install libqt4-core libqt4-sql libqt4-gui libqt4-qt3support
these all installed OK so now time to reinstall the programs which were deleted last time.
first of all I tried lyx on its own:
apt-get install lyx
which worked ok.
plus these other programs:
apt-get install apport-qt hwdb-client-kde jockey-kde kdebluetooth
kubuntu-desktop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer
required:
linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic unison atlas3-base skype-common
linux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic linux-headers-2.6.24-16
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
language-selector-qt python-qt4 python-qt4-dbus software-properties-kde
speedcrunch system-config-printer-kde ttf-unfonts-core
Suggested packages:
python-qt4-dbg
The following NEW packages will be installed
apport-qt hwdb-client-kde jockey-kde kdebluetooth kubuntu-desktop
language-selector-qt python-qt4 python-qt4-dbus software-properties-kde
speedcrunch system-config-printer-kde ttf-unfonts-core
0 upgraded, 12 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded.
Need to get 13.6MB/13.7MB of archives.
After this operation, 40.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
I said ‘y’ and they all went on OK.
When I fired up lyx, it opened the files it crashed on previously with no problems, and I could edit the tables which also caused it to crash previously, so it looks like everything is now sorted. I accept that there may be some programs from backports hanging around which may cause problems, but I’ll deal with them one by one as they crop up.
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