JMX, SNMP, Java, etc...

Since I switched from the good old Mozilla to Firefox + Thunderbird, I was seeing some warnings like FT_Get_BDF_Property: referenced symbol not found on my console. Today I decided I had enough, and wanted it fixed. A quick google search revealed that putting /opt/csw/lib in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH might fix it. It did. This was fortunate because I was trying to set up a VNC config, and somehow, firefox would fail to open in VNC because of that symbol not found. It worked outside VNC, but not inside. But the real trouble actually started when I happily added /opt/csw/lib in LD_LIBRARY_PATH in my .profile.

Apparently my Gnome version was using a different version of these libs. When starting my gnome-session in VNC I had noticed that some of my customizations didn't work as usual - for instance, gnome couldn't find the clock applet anymore. Strange, but for what I had to do - I didn't need the clock. Later however, I decided it was better to make sure that my regular gnome session - outside VNC - still worked with my new experimental LD_LIBRARY_PATH. So I logged out and tried to log in again. And arghhh!!! Enfer et damnation! My worst fears became true! I was logged out of my workstation, and I couldn't start the gnome desktop session anymore!

So I sneaked back in with the crude console command-line login, and reverted my .profile to its previous state. But this wasn't enough! After fighting around a bit I finally understood that there was something wrong with a file called /etc/gconf/2/path. Since I had nothing to lose, I hacked the file. I was then able to log in, but only if I put /opt/csw/bin in my PATH.
Well, I was back in, but most of my sessions customization had stopped working.

This was nasty.

I was quite at a loss, when I decided trying to unset my LD_LIBRARY_PATH completely, and wonder! This finally worked! ... relief, relief, relief ...

Now everything is back in order and I only use /opt/csw/lib to start firefox:

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/csw/lib; firefox

Next time I'll mind the keys ;-)