236404 - crash: Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from (NULL) pointer to `GtkObject'

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Joshua Goldberg]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040211 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040211 Firefox/0.8

A number of times within a few hours of browsing, I've seen the warning,
 Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from (NULL) pointer to `GtkObject'

It's unclear if the warning comes up at exactly the same time as the crash
because I don't check the shell for it regularly.  That warning message was
present in my shell once time after a normal exit, as well.

Although my first crash was with a few windows and many tabs open, it has
happened in less demanding circumstances as well (one instance was only a few
pages into a browsing session.)

I would normally wait until I had more idea how to reproduce before filing, but
I thought the warning message could be of use (and I didn't find mention of a
Gtk warning in a search of bugzilla)


Reproducible: Sometimes
Steps to Reproduce:
Happens over the course of browsing.  unclear if particular steps are causing it.

Actual Results:  
crash and/or invalid cast warning.

Comment 1

[Joshua Goldberg]

A different Gtk warning came up that I thought I should mention (here?)

 Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from `GtkSuperWin' to `GtkWidget'

It may or may not be relevant that I was opening and closing a lot of tabs.  (30
opened and closed within a minute or so, opening many via -remote in rapid
succession.)  I didn't see when exactly the warnings were output to the xterm.

Comment 2

[Robin Monks]

Is bug 226906 or bug 255656 similar?  Is this still around in firefox 0.9.x?

Comment 3

[Joshua Goldberg]

This bug is still around in mozilla 0.9.3 for solaris.

On exit just now, my first time trying 0.9.3, mozilla gave the error message
below.  I haven't used it long enough to see if I get similar warnings during
general usage like I did on 0.8, but I'm assuming it's the same situation.

  Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from (NULL) pointer to `GtkObject'
  Segmentation Fault

Comment 4

[Joshua Goldberg]

In addition to the error I just mentioned getting (perhaps every time) on normal
quits, I just got a crash (with the same Gtk error message).  I was closing one
browser window with some tabs open in the other.


I should mention that there is a possibility that the Gtk issue was not the
reason for today's crash.  (It may have had to do with Xanim which had earlier
failed to play a movie, although the crash did not happen for a while after
trying to play the movie--only when closing the window.)

Comment 5

[Joshua Goldberg]

he problem wasn't Xanim.  Just crashed again now, never having looked at
anything but web pages (half.com in multiple tabs.)  

(Happened on a mouse-click this time.  I think I was selecting a tab, but I
don't 100% remember.).

Comment 6

[Joshua Goldberg]

Another crash, (same error msg) this time switching between two tabs
with Ctrl-page up.  

...then while writing this message (very soon after restarting firefox),
yet *another* crash, not doing anything with tabs.

(Firefox 0.9.3 on Solaris)

Comment 7

[Joshua Goldberg]

I still have this bug in the preview release.  It's very frustrating.  If
there's any other information I can give to help find this bug, please let me know.

  Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from (NULL) pointer to `GtkObject'
  Segmentation Fault

Comment 8

[Joshua Goldberg]

I'm trying out 1.0.6 (firefox1.0.6-sparc-sun-solaris2.8-gtk2) and haven't run
into a crash yet (Running about half an hour.  I certainly would have seen a
crash by now with the old version.)  In a week or so, my sun will be replaced
with a linux machine, so I won't be able to do more testing.  I'll post if I run
into a crash before then.


Just curious, any ideas what change might have fixed it?

Comment 9

[Andreas Lange]

>A different Gtk warning came up that I thought I should mention (here?)
>
> Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from `GtkSuperWin' to `GtkWidget'

Bug 224427. Harmless noise.

> I'm trying out 1.0.6 (firefox1.0.6-sparc-sun-solaris2.8-gtk2) and haven't run
> into a crash yet (Running about half an hour.  I certainly would have seen a
> crash by now with the old version.)  In a week or so, my sun will be replaced
> with a linux machine, so I won't be able to do more testing.  I'll post if I
> run into a crash before then.
> 
> Just curious, any ideas what change might have fixed it?

In general, the 1.7-branch has always been much more stable than the 1.6 you
first filed this bug with. If I remember correctly there were some noticable
crash-fixes in the first few point releases as well.

Also, a GTK2-build would not emit those GTK1 warnings.

This bug has not seen any action for over a year, does not contain any useful
bug info (steps to reproduce, URL, crash trace etc) and the reporter does not
even use the platform in question any more. Closing as WFM. If someone can
reproduce this on a current build / FF1.5, feel free to reopen.