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When I run X apps from the command-line (e.g. leafpad; most apps), I receive the following warning on the console:

 ... dbind-WARNING **: ... Couldn't register with accessibility bus: Did
not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did 
not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the 
reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

(line broken to fit the column width.)

Why am I getting this message and what can I do about it? The apps issuing it seem to be working fine.

This appears on Ubuntu 18.04 and Devuan 3.0 Beowulf (~= Debian Buster)

jmlarson
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einpoklum
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1 Answers1

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Put this:

export NO_AT_BRIDGE=1

someplace where it gets run, e.g. in /etc/environment or your ~/.bashrc / ~/.bash_profile.

This workaround is suggested in this wiki page (in German) or here (in English), but I don't really understand why it's needed or what it really does, so caveat emptor.

Olaf Dietsche
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einpoklum
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    Does this just suppress the error or actually solve the problem? I'm having trouble understanding what this does. – algae Jan 06 '21 at 22:09
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    @algae: It doesn't suppress the error. i.e. it's not like redirection to `/dev/null`. But I can't say that I know what's going on. – einpoklum Jan 06 '21 at 23:27
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    Thanks @einpoklum, in the end it didn't help my situation despite having the same warning message. – algae Jan 08 '21 at 00:02
  • This has been happening to me for a long time. Yesterday, I followed your instructions and it worked. Today, I wanted to recreate the error, so I removed the fix and rebooted — but the error no longer happens! I can't imagine why. – Paddy Landau Jan 30 '21 at 13:03
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    @algae: ATK is the GNOME accessibility bus. It's (I think) designed to allow things like screen readers and other accessibility hardware to work. But if you don't have any such devices, communication over the bus doesn't go anywhere and the system displays a message telling you so. The environment variable tells your app to not attempt to use ATK at all. – David C. Feb 28 '22 at 20:54
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    @DavidC.: But why do apps need to be told that? I mean, it should be the typical case for nothing to be happening on that bus, so that even if apps don't find it / don't get a reply on it - that should be considered normal. – einpoklum Feb 28 '22 at 21:11
  • was receiving this error for issue where a gui app (celluloid) would hang open opening/playing files, and this error was displayed on startup of the app. this suggestion fixed the error but not the hanging issue. :) – josh May 12 '22 at 06:25
  • This made the error go away for some applications, but not others? -- what could be the issue there? – BrainSlugs83 Jul 02 '22 at 21:46
  • @BrainSlugs83: That's a good question, and I encourage you to ask it separately, with details on the applications for which this didn't work for you, and of course also the distribution you were using. – einpoklum Jul 02 '22 at 22:26