1593285 : Problem with gedit on max-display

Created: 2026-04-17T08:20:42Z - current status: new

Here is the anonymized and summarized report:

Summary of Issue

A user is experiencing problems when trying to open text files in Thunar (XFCE file manager) via FastX on the Maxwell cluster. Specifically: - Double-clicking or using "Open with Text Editor" in Thunar fails to launch gedit. - If gedit is manually opened first via the applications menu, files open normally. - Error logs (journalctl -f) indicate a D-Bus issue, with gedit failing to start due to a display connection error (cannot open display:).

Possible Cause

The error messages (cannot open display, D-Bus failures) strongly suggest a conflict between conda and the system’s D-Bus installation. This is a known issue on Maxwell when conda is loaded in the user’s environment (e.g., via .bashrc), as conda provides its own incompatible D-Bus version, breaking desktop environment functionality (including Thunar and gedit).

Suggested Solution

  1. Check for conda interference:
  2. Verify if conda is loaded in the login environment (e.g., via .bashrc or .bash_profile).

  3. If conda is active, disable its auto-activation by running: bash conda config --set auto_activate_base false This adds auto_activate_base: false to ~/.condarc.

  4. Alternative: Remove conda from the login environment entirely (e.g., comment out module load conda in .bashrc).

  5. Test after changes:

  6. Log out and log back in to FastX, then retry opening files in Thunar.

References