Odd AT-SPI Messages

A curiosity encountered during my updating from Slackware 14.1 to 14.2 were some odd warning messages in .xsession-errors. The warnings looked like this:

    WARNING: AT-SPI: Could not obtain desktop path or name
    WARNING: atk-bridge: GetRegisteredEvents returned message with unknown signature
    WARNING: atk-bridge: get_device_events_reply: unknown signature

Browsing source code I learned the unknown signature message was related to dbus.

I encountered the messages with each system I updated to 14.2. Then the warnings would disappear. Eventually I traced the problem to /etc/at-spi2/accessibility.conf. The file was not being updated to the 14.2 version. I had been eliminating the warnings by reinstalling the package, not realizing I had found the cure. Because there was a several week period between updating each system, I forgot that I was updating the package.

There is no need to reinstall the package. Just update the accessibility.conf file from the package. Or in my case, copy the file from another system that is already updated.

Posted: March 28, 2017 Category: Usability Tagged: Slackware

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