Why does meld take such a long time to start on a remote machine

linuxmeldperformancepython

I use a machine remotely on which several people have remote access. One of them messed around with the Python versions, installed a newer version maybe, not exactly sure. Assume I have no access to him. Now, the main pythonic thing I'm using on that machine is running meld – a python utility for diff'ing and merging files.

For a while, meld wasn't running at all. Then that other user fixed/changed things again, and meld now works. However – it's taking > 20 seconds to start (!)

After startup, meld is quite responsive, so it's not networking issues AFAICT.

How can I determine what causes this startup delay?

Notes:

  • I'm not an expert in Python.
  • The Linux distribution is SLES 15.
  • I can become root if necessary.

Best Answer

I experience this very slow start of meld on a headless Debian 11 server accessed through SSH with -X forwarding enabled.

The problem seems to be described in this bug report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/meld/-/issues/484

Not sure if your problem is the same, but the suggested solution or workaround seems to work for me. Before using Meld, start

dbus-launch --exit-with-session /bin/bash
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