"symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2: undefined symbol: g_type_class_adjust_private_offset"

Question

Just upgraded my dev system from Debian Wheezy to Debian Jessie, by the straight-forward method of changing sources.list and apt-get upgrade/dist-upgrade. Now I'm seeing failures when I try to log in to xdm, and errors coming back from apt-get. This is .xsession-errors

Xsession: X session started for rosuav at Friday 22 May  02:23:12 AEST 2015
localuser:rosuav being added to access control list
GLib-GIO-Message: Using the 'memory' GSettings backend.  Your settings will not be saved or shared with other applications.
/usr/bin/x-session-manager: X server already running on display :0
xfce4-session: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2: undefined symbol: g_type_class_adjust_private_offset

And when I run some apt-get commands, I get back this:

Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ...

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: gtype.c:2722: You forgot to call g_type_init()

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: gtype.c:2722: You forgot to call g_type_init()

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_type_interface_add_prerequisite: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_INTERFACE (interface_type)' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `result != 0' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_type_add_interface_static: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_INSTANTIATABLE (instance_type)' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: gtype.c:2722: You forgot to call g_type_init()

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_type_interface_add_prerequisite: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_INTERFACE (interface_type)' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `result != 0' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_type_add_interface_static: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_INSTANTIATABLE (instance_type)' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `result != 0' failed

(gdbus call:10631): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_new: assertion `G_TYPE_IS_OBJECT (object_type)' failed
**
GLib-GIO:ERROR:gdbusconnection.c:6764:get_uninitialized_connection: assertion failed: (ret != NULL)
Aborted

It seems to happen only after "Processing triggers for ...", but which packages' triggers are processed varies. It may be that it's processing triggers for something else and doesn't get to say so.

Poking around with Google has brought up a few things that look similar, but haven't helped, often because they don't have answers.

In case it's significant, I've been having GRUB trouble on this system since the upgrade, and have to manually set some parameters and reinvoke the boot process (from the grub-rescue prompt). I may have to simply buy myself a new hard drive, install fresh, and transfer everything over... but I'd really rather not have to do that, largely because of the geek's preference for actually knowing what's going on :)

EDIT: Per request, here's ldd /usr/bin/xfce4-session:

linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd85bdc000)
libxfsm-4.6.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfsm-4.6.so.0 (0x00007f1bbb036000)
libSM.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libSM.so.6 (0x00007f1bbae2e000)
libICE.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libICE.so.6 (0x00007f1bbac10000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6 (0x00007f1bba8cd000)
libxfce4ui-1.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfce4ui-1.so.0 (0x00007f1bba6ba000)
libxfce4util.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfce4util.so.6 (0x00007f1bba4aa000)
libgmodule-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bba2a7000)
libwnck-1.so.22 => /usr/lib/libwnck-1.so.22 (0x00007f1bba066000)
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb9a17000)
libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb9761000)
libatk-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libatk-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb953a000)
libcairo.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcairo.so.2 (0x00007f1bb9224000)
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb9002000)
libpango-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpango-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb8db4000)
libpolkit-gobject-1.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpolkit-gobject-1.so.0 (0x00007f1bb8b97000)
libgio-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb884f000)
libxfconf-0.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2 (0x00007f1bb863b000)
libdbus-glib-1.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-glib-1.so.2 (0x00007f1bb8413000)
libdbus-1.so.3 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdbus-1.so.3 (0x00007f1bb81cb000)
libgobject-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb7f81000)
libglib-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb7c64000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f1bb7963000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f1bb7746000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f1bb739c000)
libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb718f000)
libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb6f79000)
libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x00007f1bb6d3b000)
libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so.6 (0x00007f1bb6a90000)
libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f1bb688a000)
libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007f1bb6668000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f1bb6464000)
libstartup-notification-1.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstartup-notification-1.so.0 (0x00007f1bb6259000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f1bb6051000)
libXRes.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXRes.so.1 (0x00007f1bb5e4d000)
libXcomposite.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXcomposite.so.1 (0x00007f1bb5c4a000)
libXdamage.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXdamage.so.1 (0x00007f1bb5a46000)
libXfixes.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXfixes.so.3 (0x00007f1bb5840000)
libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrender.so.1 (0x00007f1bb5636000)
libXinerama.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXinerama.so.1 (0x00007f1bb5432000)
libXi.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXi.so.6 (0x00007f1bb5222000)
libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXrandr.so.2 (0x00007f1bb5018000)
libXcursor.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXcursor.so.1 (0x00007f1bb4e0c000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXext.so.6 (0x00007f1bb4bfa000)
libpixman-1.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpixman-1.so.0 (0x00007f1bb494c000)
libpng12.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.so.0 (0x00007f1bb4725000)
libxcb-shm.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb-shm.so.0 (0x00007f1bb4521000)
libxcb-render.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb-render.so.0 (0x00007f1bb4316000)
libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f1bb40fb000)
libgthread-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb3ef9000)
libthai.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthai.so.0 (0x00007f1bb3cf0000)
libsystemd.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 (0x00007f1bb3acc000)
libffi.so.5 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffi.so.5 (0x00007f1bb38be000)
libselinux.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1 (0x00007f1bb3699000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007f1bb3482000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f1bbb49a000)
libharfbuzz.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libharfbuzz.so.0 (0x00007f1bb322a000)
libexpat.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexpat.so.1 (0x00007f1bb3001000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXau.so.6 (0x00007f1bb2dfc000)
libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXdmcp.so.6 (0x00007f1bb2bf7000)
libxcb-util.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxcb-util.so.0 (0x00007f1bb29ef000)
libX11-xcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11-xcb.so.1 (0x00007f1bb27ec000)
libdatrie.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdatrie.so.1 (0x00007f1bb25e4000)
liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f1bb23c0000)
libgcrypt.so.20 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcrypt.so.20 (0x00007f1bb20de000)
libpcre.so.3 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.3 (0x00007f1bb1e70000)
libgraphite2.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgraphite2.so.3 (0x00007f1bb1c53000)
libgpg-error.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgpg-error.so.0 (0x00007f1bb1a41000)

And ls -l /lib/*/libglib*:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      23 Nov 13  2014 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0 -> libglib-2.0.so.0.4200.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1207192 Nov 13  2014 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0.4200.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      23 Nov 12  2014 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0 -> libglib-2.0.so.0.4200.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1107040 Nov 12  2014 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0.4200.1

I wasn't aware that I had libglib2.0-0:i386 installed; it appears to be a dependency of wine:i386. Since that's not critical to me, I've tried removing it (sudo apt-get purge libglib2.0-0:i386)... apt-get finishes up by processing triggers for man-db, libgc-bin, libglib2.0-0:amd64, and then boom - the same crash sequence.

Solution

The problem is here:

libgmodule-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bba2a7000)
libgio-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb884f000)
libgobject-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb7f81000)
libglib-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb7c64000)
libgthread-2.0.so.0 => /usr/local/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f1bb3ef9000)

No Debian installation would have those libraries in /usr/local, since it's a Policy violation (since it goes against the FHS specification about directory structure). The package would be rejected. You may have installed something from sources that installed those libraries, and the system prefers /usr/local over /usr/lib since it's the ldconfig preferences.

Remove those libraries (or comment out the /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libc.conf file) to make sure that the linker doesn't try to use them.

Comments

[Stephen Kitt]

"You forgot to call g_type_init() means you still have an old libglib lying around, and that's the one being used (and causing all the problems). Could you edit your question and add the output of ldd /usr/bin/xfce4-session and ls -l /lib/*/libglib*?

[rosuav]

Thanks! Stephen Kitt was the one who pointed me to the solution, so if he posts an answer I'll accept that one instead; otherwise, this is indeed the issue. It must have been something to do with the time I built Wine from source, I think; there were Wine-related libraries in there too.

[Stephen Kitt]

Thanks @rosuav, I don't mind! I'd say pretty much the same as Braiam so there's not much point in duplicating the answer.

[rosuav]

Sure. I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. Thanks Stephen!