I am running Lenny. The system is connected to the Internet via a Linksys BEFSR81router and a cable modem. My desktop is Gnome.
If the Internet is inaccessible - e.g. if the Ethernet cable is disconnected from the computer, or the cable modem power is disconnected, or if there are problems on the provider network - many GUI programs take a long time (about 60 seconds) to launch. To be specific, I have an icon for gedit on a panel on my desktop. Normally if I click on it the program is launched within about 2 seconds. If the Internet is inaccessible, and I click on it, nothing whatsoever appears on the screen for 60 seconds, then the gedit window appears. Once the program is launched it works fine. This happens every time certain programs are launched, until the Internet becomes accessible again. Not all programs are affected. For example, from the "Graphics" section of my start menu, GImageView, Gimp, GPicView, Inkscape, and XSane are NOT affected. Xpdf is not affected. When an affected program is launched, and the Internet is accessible, there is activity on the cable modem (lights flash) before the program window first appears. When an unaffected program is launched, this does not happen in most cases. I have checked the router logs. There is no sign of activity in the logs correlated to program launches. However the logs appear to show only TCP and UDP transfers. They do not appear to show e.g. DNS lookups, and they may not show mere connections if no transfer occurs. It appears that ALL programs that use the Qt application framework are affected. I am basing that on the distinctive "look" of Qt windows. It appears that MOST OR ALL programs designed to work specifically with Gnome are affected. (Often these are identified by the phrase "for Gnome" in their Help-About windows.) The programs that are not affected appear to be older GTK+ programs. I don't clearly understand the gnome-vfs system, but it seems as if the affected programs are perhaps initializing a high-level file system which tries to make some contact with the Internet, perhaps with a DNS server, and has a 60 second timeout on that access. I've looked at Gnome and gnome-vfs2.0 config files but I don't immediately see anything relevant. I do not and have never used any kind of Internet networking with this system other than the usual FTP, SFTP, and web browser clients. I've Googled "Linux program launch hangs when Internet disconnected" and similar phrases, with no relevant results. Any advice would be gratefully accepted. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4de8ab8f.9050...@hushmail.com
