[Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

-thc · 2025-10-24 08:18:08

Starting with the upgrade gdk-pixbuf2-2.44.1-4 from September the 23rd the start of putty suddenly takes around 2 seconds (from nearly instantaneous before) for no apparent reason. I downgraded gdk-pixbuf2 and checked every update since - without any change.

This morning I was greeted with an ugly desktop missing tons of icons and "Preferences > Themes" not working. The file ".xsession-errors" clearly points to gdk-pixbuf2 - so I finally had to upgrade - which I did.

In the end I manually installed the old gdk-pixbuf2-2.44.1-3 library under "/opt/puttylib", wrote a small script that sets "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" to that directory before running putty and created an alternative desktop application file titled "PuTTY (old gdk-pixbuf2 library)" that points to this script and works like it should.

Last edited by -thc (2025-10-24 15:14:17)

seth · 2025-10-24 08:36:27

the old gdk-pixbuf2-2.44.1-3

is the glycin-free…
=> https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin ?

-thc · 2025-10-24 10:50:29

That works - thanks, Seth.

WTF is the meaning of "glycin-free" in this context? Surly not the amino acid (german spelling)?

seth · 2025-10-24 12:57:42

Oh, you missed the show?

glycin is https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/glycin/ - I guess the name is a pun o the AA.
It became the pixbuf backend and loads images through bubblewrapped child processes
Because next to the bonkers concept it also was pretty buggy, it got temporarily deactivated w/ 2.44.1-3 and reactivated after the worst bugs (notably see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=308456 ) got fixed but it systematically breaks any hardening in the invoking process - why it would lead to a slow-down of PuTTY idk (either the sheer overhead or access failures? Make sure your logind integration isn't broken. Do you have any shell output or straces?)

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin basically just disables the build-time config for the backend as 2.44.1-3 did.

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

-thc · 2025-10-24 15:13:51

That sounds wild. I missed most of it.

Unfortunately not long after the initial positive change the ugly icons (and after a logoff/logon) the whole mess returned. Somehow my greeter and Desktop want that new sh*t. Oh well - the initially mentioned workaround works.

putty (new library) creates no shell output.

putty (old library) creates

putty:335693): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:05:30.439: Could not load a pixbuf from /org/gtk/libgtk/theme/Adwaita/assets/bullet-symbolic.svg.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.

An strace of putty shows 2202 (new library) to 0 (old library) operations on "/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.XXXXXX" (734 files with 3 operations each).

seth · 2025-10-24 15:38:06

What greeter and desktop?
I can see where you might be running into linker issues by keeping old versions but not w/ a local build.
There's https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 9#p2269139 and there was a bug in the pixbuf BMP loader, but that's supposed to be fixed w/ https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/ … fa36dddab4

/tmp is a(n unencrypted) tmpfs?

Edit: seems even more prevalent, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2269246

Last edited by seth (2025-10-24 15:41:27)

-thc · 2025-10-24 16:18:37

LightDM and Cinnamon. With the old gdk-pixbuf2 library their icons look exactly like https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2269246. As soon as gdk-pixbuf2 is the most recent version the icons "return to normal".

Since the old gdk-pixbuf2 library is used by putty alone I will notice when I run into problems there.

Yes, "/tmp" in unencrypted.

seth · 2025-10-24 18:49:14

See updates in https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=309741

sudo /usr/bin/env PKGSYSTEM_ENABLE_FSYNC=0 /usr/bin/update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
sudo /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders --update-cache
sudo /usr/bin/glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
command ls -d1 /usr/share/icons/*/ | sudo /usr/share/libalpm/scripts/gtk-update-icon-cache

Last edited by seth (2025-10-24 20:54:59)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-10-24 08:18:08

[Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#2 2025-10-24 08:36:27

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#3 2025-10-24 10:50:29

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#4 2025-10-24 12:57:42

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#5 2025-10-24 15:13:51

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#6 2025-10-24 15:38:06

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#7 2025-10-24 16:18:37

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

#8 2025-10-24 18:49:14

Re: [Workaround] PuTTY and gdk-pixbuf2

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