Emacs segfaults on some font sizes on some devices about emacs-android

[JayDugger]

I also have this bug on a Samsung; Galaxy Note running Cyanogen Mod 9.

[zielmicha]

I think it happens on all devices.

[leahneukirchen]

It seems to crash here with any font size... I tried 3 of them.

HTC Desire Z A7272
Android 2.3.3, HTC Sense 2.1, Kernel 2.6.35.10-g53a84f9, Buildnumber 2.42.405.4

[JayDugger]

I tried all available font sizes with and without UTF-8 enabled. I got the segmentation fault every single time.

[vapniks]

I get a segfault after the terminal starts, before emacs has even started.
Phone = Motorola Droid 2 global
Android version = 2.3.4 (rooted)
Build = 4.5.1_57_D2GA-59
Kernel = 2.6.32.9-g177d714
System = 4.5.629.A956.Verizon.en.US

[red0ck33g]

segfault right after install, in the install, I think when it was starting emacs up for the first time. (I think just like above user (vapniks). Attempt run emacs again from the same terminal and got the segfault again.

Tablet = Asus Infinity TF700
AndroidVersion = 4.0.3
Build Number = IML74K.WW_epad-9.4.5.26-20120720
Kernel = 2.6.39.4

[aperomsik]

@red0ck33g did you try other font sizes? Start from the smallest one, if that works try the next one up just in case it works too.

[dgutov]

On Google Nexus 7, Android 4.1.0 (stock firmware), segfaults with both Normal and Small font sizes.
Haven't tried with bigger ones.

[jerryw]

Can I ask when to release a bug fixing version on Google Play?

[zielmicha]

I don't know. First I would have to fix this bug.

[bryanlarsen]

On Nexus 7, the smallest font and the 10pt fonts work.

[smtindall]

I also have a Nexus 7. Here is a (somewhat kludgey) work-around:

• Set the terminal emulator to a font size that works (10pt is the biggest on my Nexus 7)
• start emacs
• Set the terminal emulator to a larger font size WITHOUT exiting emacs IE 14pt
• emacs should hopefully still be running, but look kind of weird because the frame size mismatches the terminal size
• issue the following command (experiment with height & width to find what works on your screen)
  M-x eval-expression RET (set-frame-size (selected-frame) 80 24) RET
• this should reset emacs' frame-size to something that fits within your device.
• by doing this I end up with a fully functional emacs with a larger font size that would otherwise crash during start-up.
  • Note that this is not a permanent solution and must be repeated each time you exit & restart emacs.
  • also note that I have not tested this on anything other than my Nexus 7 so YMMV

[mcandre]

Setting the font size to 7px works on my Samsung Galaxy S III.

Manually adding the -nw flag works, but any attempt to modify the scripts to automatically pass this flag will fail, as emacs overwrites the scripts on every run. :(

Please fix this!

[zielmicha]

Adding -nw doesn't help, at least in my case.
You can create script /sdcard/emacs/emacsrc, which will be executed before Emacs start. (with something like exec emacs -nw)

[AchromatReader]

Workaround for segfault error (tested on HTC Evo 3D with Android 4.0.3):
Step 1: As soon as you get the Segmentation Fault message, change Terminal's font size to 8 or 9 or 10 pt
(Menu button, Preferences, Font Size)
Step 2: cd src
(should be identical to cd /data/data/com.zielm.emacs/src)
Step 3: ./bootstrap-emacs

If Emacs loads successfully you may want to deactivate Emacs's menu bar:
M-x menu-bar-mode
or evaluate the elisp term (menu-bar-mode -1)

[mcandre]

@AchromatReader Does disabling the menu bar prevent future segmentation faults? Can the font size be increased after inserting (menu-bar-mode -1) at the top of ~/.emacs?

[AchromatReader]

Does disabling the menu bar prevent future segmentation faults?

No. This was just a suggestion.

Can the font size be increased after inserting (menu-bar-mode -1)

Yes, it can be increased or decreased. However, even after pressing cntl-L the screen is not set up satisfactorily. You still have to set one of the display size variables (I cant' remember which one it is).

I've just done a few more tests with several font size settings. It seems that the font size has no effect or only an inconsistent effect on segfault errors. The real difference between segfault error and no error is this:

cd /data/data/com.zielm.emacs ./src/bootstrap-emacs

----> this causes a segfault error. This is effectively what the script file /data/data/com.zielm.emacs/emacs does.


cd /data/data/com.zielm.emacs/src ./bootstrap-emacs

----> Emacs starts without any errors.

[mcandre]

@AchromatReader On my phone, font size plays a critical role in causing or preventing segfaults.

Hmm, seems like some portions of emacs are using current working directory-relative paths instead of emacs binary-relative paths.