OK, I got to the bottom of this (mostly). It has to do with $IFS. If $IFS has an empty value instead of its default (`<space><tab><newline>' per the bash manpage) then eval behaves incorrectly, as observed here. You can try it with a quick shell script:
``` STARTUP="/usr/bin/echo foo" IFS= exec $STARTUP ``` result: ``` x.sh: line 4: /usr/bin/echo foo: No such file or directory ``` It turns out I messed up resetting IFS in my `.profile`, in a way that was robust to further usage of the shell, but _not_ to saving and restoring IFS. In particular, I used `unset IFS`, and when $IFS isn't set the shell uses its default. However, ``` local OLDIFS="$IFS" ... IFS="$OLDIFS" ``` then sets $IFS to the empty string, which doesn't work. It turns out, the Xsession scripts don't use IFS _unless_ im-config is installed. So, this was an own-goal, which is why only I've run into it -- but a difficult one to track down! This bug can be closed. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to im-config in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1879352 Title: /usr/bin/im-launch i3 fails Status in i3-wm package in Ubuntu: Expired Status in im-config package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Trying to run i3 in Focal Fossa, login fails. The screen goes black briefly, then returns to the login screen. I expect this is reproducible by just installing `i3`, selecting it on the settings in the login screen, and logging in. I see the following in the log: ``` May 18 11:32:21 hopper /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[4733]: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99x11-common_start: line 5: /usr/bin/im-launch i3: No such file or directory ``` Editing that file to just run `/usr/bin/im-launch i3` works fine. Is this some kind of shell quoting issue, where it's trying to execve that full string? I believe this is in the `x11-common` package: ``` hopper ~ $ dpkg -S /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99x11-common_start x11-common: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99x11-common_start ``` but Launchpad complains that such a thing does not exist. Perhaps I misunderstand "package". To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/i3-wm/+bug/1879352/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
