Help: Getting "Viewer cannot find Zathura window ID" error on MacOS

[lutalli]

Description

I'm still facing the Viewer cannot find Zathura window ID problem when executing the command \lv (or :VimtexView). I'm working on MacOS Monterey 12.4.

I followed this tutorial to setup zathura, but it's basically the same as what this comment summarises, since the tutorial actually refers to it.

Recall that I installed zathura with --HEAD --with-synctex and it is able to open PDF files normally (like $ zathura "xxx.pdf") but not with VimTeX.

Two problems that could be relevant:

Problem with dbus

dbus can get started but not running. After installing dbus using Homebrew

$ brew install dbus

I tried starting it first by the command

$ brew services start dbus

where I got the following error:

Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error
Try re-running the command as root for richer errors.
Error: Failure while executing; `/bin/launchctl bootstrap gui/501 /Users/lutalli/Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist` exited with 5.

Then I checked brew services info dbus, which returned

dbus (org.freedesktop.dbus-session)
Running: ✘
Loaded: ✔
Schedulable: ✘

which meant that it was loaded already. So my guess was that I can't start it when it's already started. To verify this, I stopped dbus:

$ brew services stop dbus
Stopping `dbus`... (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `dbus` (label: org.freedesktop.dbus-session)

and tried starting it again, which succeeded:

$ brew services start dbus
==> Successfully started `dbus` (label: org.freedesktop.dbus-session)

In addition, I also tried restarting it (which is supposed to do the same thing):

$ brew services restart dbus
Stopping `dbus`... (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `dbus` (label: org.freedesktop.dbus-session)
==> Successfully started `dbus` (label: org.freedesktop.dbus-session)

Anyway, it looks like that dbus can be started normally. However, everytime I run brew services info dbus it shows that dbus is not running even though it's loaded:

$ brew services info dbus
dbus (org.freedesktop.dbus-session)
Running: ✘
Loaded: ✔
Schedulable: ✘

I suppose it should be running, as the tutorial suggests:

Rebooting MacOS and restarting the terminal (iTerm2 in my case) didn't work.

I tried the command brew services run dbus but I got a similar error as above:

$ brew services run dbus
Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error
Try re-running the command as root for richer errors.
Error: Failure while executing; `/bin/launchctl bootstrap gui/501 /usr/local/opt/dbus/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist` exited with 5.

This discussion describes a similar case but it didn't mention how to get it running.

I also tried some solutions from the answers to this question on StackOverflow but so far none of them worked for me.

Problem with xdotool

xdotool doesn't work at all. I installed it with Homebrew as well as XQuartz. Although the installation seemed successful, almost none of its functions is working - for example, xdotool search never returns anything and xdotool type does nothing (also notice that no errors nor warnings are returned):

$ xdotool search discord
Defaulting to search window name, class, classname, and role

$ xdotool type "hello"

$

This issue very likely describes the same case. The description is relatively short but the issue has got a couple of thumb-ups so I guess it's a common issue. I haven't found any solution yet.

I assume xdotool is necessary because, as this thread mentioned before, as well as in the tutorial, VimTeX uses xdotool to get the window ID of zathura.

---

Any idea how to solve these?

Steps to reproduce

Minimal test .tex file:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
    Test
\end{document}

Steps to reproduce:

1. nvim minimal.tex
2. \lv or :VimtexView
3. Seeing it shows the error VimTeX: Viewer cannot find Zathura window ID!

Expected behavior

No response

Actual behavior

No response

Do you use a latexmkrc file?

No

VimtexInfo

System info:
  OS: macOS 12.4 (21F79)
  Vim version: NVIM v0.8.1
  Has clientserver: true
  Servername: /var/folders/zx/08zvm7jx3k70j_1_nyt1lc_80000gn/T/nvim.lutalli/Q5PK1q/nvim.30467.0

VimTeX project: textest
  base: textest.tex
  root: /Users/lutalli/Workspace/TeXTest
  tex: /Users/lutalli/Workspace/TeXTest/textest.tex
  main parser: current file verified
  document class: article
  compiler: latexmk
    engine: -pdf
    options:
      -verbose
      -file-line-error
      -synctex=1
      -interaction=nonstopmode
    callback: 1
    continuous: 0
    executable: latexmk
  viewer: Zathura
    xwin id: 0
    cmd_start: zathura  -x "/usr/local/Cellar/neovim/0.8.1/bin/nvim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 1:1:'/Users/lutalli/Workspace/TeXTest/textest.tex' 'textest.pdf'&
  qf method: LaTeX logfile

[lervag]

First, thanks for a thorough and good issue description!

Now, just to be clear: I don't use Macs and I require user assistance for properly helping with "advanced" issues affecting Macs. @ejmastnak and @clason (and others) have been very friendly and have often stepped in to help; I hope they may also comment here if they have any useful input or insights.

---

I followed this tutorial to setup zathura, but it's basically the same as what this comment summarises, since the tutorial actually refers to it.

I'm curious: did you notice the warning in the tutorial about Macs with Apple Silicon processors? That is, do you have an Intel processor or an AS processor?

dbus can get started but not running. After installing dbus using Homebrew

This does seem similar to the symptoms reported in #2424 where the Apple Silicon issue was raised first.

Problem with xdotool

xdotool doesn't work at all. I installed it with Homebrew as well as XQuartz. Although the installation seemed successful, almost none of its functions is working - for example, xdotool search never returns anything and xdotool type does nothing

xdotool only works with X windows, which means it will not have any effect unless there are active X windows available. Can you do this:

• Run xdotool search --class zathura. It should likely not output anything (and will return with an exit code not 0).
• Open Zathura in a terminal (e.g. zathura test.pdf&).
• Then again run xdotool search --class zathura. Does it output anything now?

[lutalli]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I did notice the warning that the section is written for Intel Macs and not for Apple Silicon. My Macbook uses an Intel processor so I assume it's the right section for me.

I've tried running xdotool search --class zathura after opening zathura in a terminal (I had to open up a new terminal window to run xdotool since zathura blocked the input) and it returned nothing like when I didn't open zathura.

(zathura not running)
$ xdotool search --class zathura

$ zathura test.pdf

(zathura running)
(new terminal window)
$ xdotool search --class zathura

$

In the issue description I mentioned that none of the features of xdotool is functioning, not only search (for example, key input doesn't work as well). But just now I tested a little more and here's the result:

• Key input through xdotool didn't work in iTerm2 (the major terminal I'm using), but it worked in the XTerm terminal from XQuartz. (Key input isn't relevant to our issue though.)
• Common applications running on my Mac (like Discord, Google Chrome) as well as zathura can't be found by xdotool, neither in iTerm2 nor in XTerm. However, I just noticed that XTerm itself can be detected in both iTerm2 and XTerm:

  $ xdotool search --class xterm
  6291468
  

• It doesn't help to run zathura from Xterm. xdotool still can't find it.
• The same situation holds for xprop. That is, xprop doesn't seem to detect any window but XTerm.

Thus the search command of xdotool is actually not broken. The real problem might be that zathura isn't running as an X window on my Mac, like other usual applications, that's why it can't be caught by xdotool. So I think I should look for a way to run zathura on X server.

[ejmastnak]

I'm afraid I don't have anything useful to offer here; why the instructions in vimtex-faq-zathura-macos/the linked article seem to work in some cases and not others is beyond the scope of my macOS knowledge. Perhaps the non-starting dbus is not an Apple Silicon issue after all.

@lutalli seems to be very thorough about checking all possibilities and previous related issues, so I doubt the problem is something we've already solved, e.g. a missing environment variable in #2391.

In any case, @lutalli, I'm sorry to be spreading unpredictable information about Zathura working with VimTeX on macOS; probably Skim is the most reliable route in this case.

[lutalli]

Hi @ejmastnak, I can guarantee that I have defined the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS variable, as I followed the tutorial on your website. I use fish as shell and in config.fish I added the line

set -x DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS "unix:path=$DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET"

(set -x basically means export)

Output of echo:

$ echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
unix:path=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.SFe0NEmqcf/unix_domain_listener

...; probably Skim is the most reliable route in this case.

Yes, Skim must be a feasible option for MacOS. Yet I would like to try my best to make zathura in use. I'm a fan of its simplicity and Vim style operations, rather than GUI buttons and menus.

---

BAD NEWS (issue irrelevant): This is apparently a tiny problem but it's important to me personally. Just now I realised that the rendering quality of standard TeX PDF documents using zathura (more specifically, pdf-poppler) is a little bit different than other programs like Skim or Preview (default PDF viewer on MacOS). The rendered text is a little bit thinner, which I'm not so satisfied with (I can provide screenshots but that would have nothing to do with this issue). I wish this could be fixed through some configuration.

Anyway, I'm now having multiple problems using zathura, especially with the rendering problem which seems unchangeable. Hence, I'm switching to Skim. But I still hope the problems mentioned in this thread can be solved someday and I'll keep it open for a while.

[lutalli]

I'm not sure if this is relevant but I have also seen issue #744, which is asking how to force zathura to use X11. Without understanding it fully I tried the command $ GDK_BACKEND=x11 zathura but I got the following error:

$ GDK_BACKEND=x11 zathura

(zathura:32498): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:04:02.253: cannot open display: /private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.TSRvBvZs9k/org.xquartz:0

[lervag]

Thanks for pitching in, @ejmastnak; it is useful just knowing that you do not have any better ideas yourself.

And I'm sorry, @lutalli, that I can't be of much more help here. It seems like you are doing a good job investigating on your own, although I'm sorry to see that you are not really finding any good solutions.

I'll allow the issue to stay open for now, but if it ends up open without activity I may close it as unresolved. Please note that I don't mind if you should reopen in that case, as long as you bring new information to the thread.

[lutalli]

@lervag Let's do so. Thanks!

[lervag]

You may be interested in #2639.

I'll close this one as I don't see any way to contribute more here.

[lutalli]

I switched to Arch + Hyprland and I'm using VimTeX with Zathura now. Life is wonderful!